Okidoki! Back on track you're all soooo lucky! ;) I like this chapter and many of you have been wondering how I was going to bring in the Red Death. Well here ya go! XD Enjoy and as always leave a review pretty please!
Also really fast, Guest. You said that I needed to have a disclaimer on top. I generally forget about them, because to me they're not really needed. I wouldn't be writing fanfiction if I owned HTTYD, right? XD I don't mean to be rude, I just really see a point. :) With that being said on with the story!
"Alright bud, you and me! We are so out of here." Hiccup called carrying the bag of supplies. "We're taking a little vacation… forever." The boy sighed as he placed the bag down and went to check that he had everything he needed. When the sound of scraping was heard he snapped his head up only to see Astrid sitting there on the rock, sharpening a hunting knife. Startled he took a few steps back and started to stutter, "Uh, Astrid! Astrid, what… what are you doing here?" he finally said trying to sound casual, but failing miserably.
Astrid carelessly dropped the rock she had been using and looked at the boy before jumping down and holding the large knife threateningly at him. "I want to know what's going on." She demanded walking up to him.
"Going on?" Hiccup asked stupidly taking steps back to try and avoid her.
"No one just gets as good as you do or suddenly loses all their dorky-ness overnight." She continued ignoring his comment. "Start talking. Are you training with someone," she suddenly grabbed hold of his riding vest, "It better not involve this."
"Yes, yes I know, this looks really bad, but if you'll-" Hiccup began, but was cut off when a rustling was heard getting both their attentions. Astrid looked over to the sound and Hiccup's heart started to speed up. He knew it was Toothless and he knew he couldn't let her find him. So quickly he ran in front of her as she started making her way towards , "Well you got me!" he lied, walking in front of her trying to stop her from moving and seeing. "I've been making… outfits! I want to be a designer! So now you know." He said taking her hand and placing it on his chest trying desperately to get her attention. "Drag me back, here we go- OW!" he cried as she finally got fed up with him and took his hand and pulled it back behind his head, sending him to the ground. "Why would you do that!?"
"That was for the lies." Astrid told him, glaring down at him before plunging her foot into his stomach causing him further pain. "And that was for everything else." Suddenly there was a loud roar and Astrid snapped her head up to see a large black animal racing right for them. Her eyes widened and her heart sped up as fear gripped her, "Hiccup run! Run!" she yelled about ready to throw her knife at the animal.
"NO!" Hiccup cried getting to his feet, ripping the knife out of her hand, throwing it away and stepping in front of the creature all in one swoop. Astrid fell to the ground absolutely terrified and shocked as Hiccup spoke, "Easy, she's a friend." That seemed to pacify the creature some as it stopped charging, but Hiccup had to hold it back by its head while it growled at Astrid. "You scared him." Hiccup said finally looking at her.
Astrid somehow found her voice and her legs as she stood, "I scared him?" After a mere second she added, "Who is him?"
The creature or dragon as she realized stopped trying to move and sat there, though not happily as Hiccup spoke, "Astrid, Toothless. Toothless, Astrid." 'Toothless' hissed menacingly at her which only hardened her resolve. She ran. Hiccup deadpanned, "Duh, duh, duh. We're dead." He said drily. Toothless however did not care. That girl was gone and he was going back to sleep. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where do you think you're going?"
..::-::..
Astrid ran as fast as she could. She had to get back to the town and tell someone. There was a real dragon and Hiccup had lost his mind. That was relatively her only thought when she was all of a sudden lifted into the air with someone's clawed foot on her shoulder. "Oh! Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!" she yelled before letting out a scream as they went higher until finally Astrid was dropped onto a tree branch way too high off the ground and the dragon with Hiccup on its back landed on top of the tree bending it badly. All rational thinking and reality went out the window the moment she saw that dragon so the only thing she had left was her anger and plenty of it. "Hiccup!" she snapped as she dangled for her life on that very strong tree. "Get me down from here!"
"You have to give me a chance to explain." Hiccup said pleadingly.
"I am not listening to anything you have to say!" She yelled back trying to get onto the actual tree.
"Then I won't speak." Hiccup went on undeterred. "Just let me show you." Astrid ignored him. "Please Astrid." He asked again. Realizing there was no other way; she sighed and pulled herself up onto the branch. When she went to get on the dragon it growled at her in warning, but when it didn't do anything else and Hiccup wasn't acting on it, she grabbed the saddle. Hiccup smiled at her and offered her a hand up, but she just pushed it away before getting on.
She moved back away from him as far as she could and refused to even touch him, "Now get me down." She commanded.
Hiccup leaned over and gently tapped the dragon's head, "Toothless, down. Gently." Toothless opened his wing span and gently started to float into the air. "See?" Hiccup said with a smile looking back at her, "Nothing to be afraid of." Not a second later Toothless shot into the air so fast it knocked them both back. Astrid started screaming, knowing her life was coming to an end while Hiccup tried a more diplomatic solution. "Toothless! What is wrong with you?! Bad dragon!" Still screaming Astrid started to slip off the saddle so she desperately grabbed onto Hiccup using her arms and her legs. They finally leveled out and Hiccup smiled nervously at the slightly hyperventilating woman behind him. "He's uh… he's not usually like this-" Toothless closed his wings and leaned forward. "Oh no." He knew what that meant. Astrid let out another scream as the dragon dived then weaved in and out of the forest sometimes making the branches scratch their faces. "Toothless what are you doing!? We need her to like us!" Hiccup said desperately. Toothless ignored him and went straight up into the sky again then started spinning. "And now the spinning. Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile." Hiccup continued dryly.
"Okay! Okay!" Astrid cried clinging to Hiccup with her eyes shut tight. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Just get me off this thing!" Toothless looked back at her slightly and getting what he wanted, he opened his wings and stopped their fall at once. Astrid let out one last squeak as they were jerked to a halt.
Finally flying gently, Hiccup risked a look back at Astrid who was still holding onto him tightly, and directed Toothless upward. Sensing the change in the way they were flying Astrid slowly opened her eyes. She gently untangled her legs from Hiccup and looked around in awe as they flew through the clouds. It was amazing. They were in the clouds and as they continued to fly Astrid plucked enough courage to remove one of her hands from Hiccup's shoulder and put it into the cloud above them. The sensation was wonderful! She really didn't feel anything, but how cold it was and water was slowly collecting on her hand, but she couldn't stop. She smiled and lifted both her hands into the cloud as Toothless led them father into the sky.
He took them up above the cloud bank where it was dark because of the setting sun. Above them Astrid and Hiccup saw billions of stars and a few shooting stars where normally they wouldn't be able to because of the smog of the city. They stayed in the sky for a long time and by the time they reached the city, the sun had long since set. Astrid looked on as her breath caught in her throat. It was beautiful! Toothless smiled back at her as he saw her smile and she couldn't help the feeling of happy contentment swell in her. Subconsciously she wrapped her arms around Hiccup and hugged him as she placed her head on his shoulder and smiled.
Hiccup on the other hand noticed right away and couldn't help his own smile and how his heart started to flutter. Flying over the city Toothless took them again over the woods and further away. They all enjoyed the feeling of freedom and the evening summer air as they continued to fly into the night.
"Alright, I admit it. This is pretty cool." Astrid finally said, "It's amazing… He's amazing." She added with a loving pat on Toothless' side. "So… what now?" She continued. "Hiccup, you aren't seriously planning on keeping this dragon are you? Besides other problems with that, your father is the general."
Hiccup sighed, "Don't remind me." Suddenly Toothless veered sharply to the left taking the teens with him. "Toothless what's happening?" Hiccup asked quickly. The dragon ignored him and kept flying.
"Hiccup?" Astrid asked nervously. "What's going on?"
"I'm not sure, Toothless is scared of something?" He answered.
"Of what?"
Hiccup ignored her as his surroundings started to look familiar. "Wait a minute." He said softly.
"What?" Astrid asked as they flew past a large fence.
"I recognize this place." Hiccup answered, "This is a military base. Base 32. It's the base my father works at."
"What a minute," Astrid began, "How do you know where a military base is. Don't they normally like push you into the back of a black SUV and blind fold you?"
Hiccup chuckled, "That's only in the movies… They have to have your permission before they blind fold you." He added softly making Astrid look at him sharply. "Anyway, I've been here before because I work here occasionally." Toothless then took that moment to find a large tree near the forest line of the fence.
"Oh." Astrid said simply then spoke once more as something occurred to her, "Hiccup, if this is a military base then… where is everyone? Aren't there supposed to be guards or something?"
Hiccup nodded, "Yeah, now that you mention it, where are all the sentries?" Suddenly there was a loud explosion and Hiccup, Astrid and Toothless watched in shock and horror as a giant monster came out of the ground.
"What is that?" Astrid breathed, eyes widening in fear.
"SHOOT IT! SHOOT IT!" Men cried as shoots of bullets rang in the air.
"I guess we know where the sentries are." Hiccup said to himself as the thing kept getting bigger and escaping from the base. The soldiers were doing their best, but the monster was just too big and it finally cleared the now destroyed base and was… coming straight for them. "Okay bud, we gotta get out of here." Hiccup said leaning down towards Toothless. The monster's head snapped towards them and it narrowed its small eyes then opened its mouth. "Now!" Hiccup cried and Toothless jumped into the air just as fire, real fire, was shot at them.
Finally far enough away from the thing Astrid spoke, "That explains Toothless." She said hugging Hiccup both for safety and comfort. "Either the government made them or found them and were doing experiments on them."
"That might explain why that thing was so big." Hiccup agreed, "Something they gave him might not have agreed with him."
"We have to tell your dad, or the police." Astrid continued.
"Astrid we can't." Hiccup told her, "They'll kill Toothless if they find out about him. We… we have to think this through, carefully."
"Hiccup," Astrid began appalled, "We just saw a giant monster escape from a military base that they couldn't contain and it was headed straight for the city and you want to keep it a secret?! To protect your pet dragon? Are you serious!?"
"Yes."
Astrid's eyes widened when she heard that. She couldn't see his face, but his command made it very clear that he was serious. Slightly taken aback she simply said, "Okay."
The ride home was silent and pleasant and when they finally got back, Hiccup landed Toothless in Astrid's backyard as gently and quietly as he could before looking behind his shoulder. Astrid was resting against his back sound asleep and he couldn't help the caring smile that came when he saw her. She had fallen asleep on the way back despite what she had said, but he knew better. So telling Toothless to stay still as quietly as he could, he kept a hand on Astrid's shoulder so she didn't fall off as he slipped off then gently took her off the dragon.
Astrid's eyes fluttered open as she felt arms gently holding her up as her feet were placed on the ground. She unconsciously placed her hands on Hiccup's chest to steady herself as she was still tired. "Sorry to wake you." he said quietly.
Astrid looked up at him still half asleep. 'He's got really pretty eyes.' She thought then blinked into wakefulness. 'Where did that come from and… when have I ever had to look up at Hiccup?'
"We're back." Hiccup continued, still holding her just in case.
"Oh." Astrid breathed still waking up, then rubbed her eyes of sleep and looked around. "We're… in my backyard." She said simply.
Hiccup shrugged, "You looked so tired I just couldn't wake you."
"Oh." She said again, but that was it. Instead she just stood there holding one of her arms subconsciously for comfort thinking hard.
Hiccup was about to say something when he noticed her somewhat scared look. "Astrid, what's wrong?" he asked taking a step towards her.
Astrid looked up at him, not sure what to think. She was feeling things she had never felt before; venerable, unsure, scared. She found it strange that she was looking towards Hiccup for comfort… again. "Hiccup… what are we going to do?"
"I don't know." He said knowing what she was talking about. Then he looked at her. Seeing her face fill with fear was strange to him. Astrid never showed fear and seeing this new side of her made Hiccup want to protect her. So he took another step towards her and placed a hand on her arm and offered her a reassuring smile. "Just give me until tomorrow. Hopefully I'll think of something."
Astrid nodded and they fell into a somewhat awkward silence. Desperately wanting to do something Astrid like and to break the silence, she suddenly punched him in the arm. "OW!" Hiccup cried still managing to be quiet. "What was that for?!" he snapped.
"That was for kidnapping me." She said simply. Hiccup, while rubbing his sore arm looked over to his dragon, which was drinking from the pond water, and made a gesture that seemed to say 'that was your fault, so why am I getting into trouble?' The dragon's reply was a snort 'get over it'. Hiccup turned back to Astrid scowling slightly and before she thought better of it, she pushed her bangs out of her face and grabbed his shirt. He cringed thinking she was going to hit him again, but instead she kissed him on the cheek. It was over as soon as it started, but Hiccup was so shocked he didn't even move. Astrid now very shy looked away from him and started to fiddle with her necklace. "That was for… everything else." She said softly before running off to her back door, but not before glancing one last time at him then shutting the door.
Hiccup stared after her for a few minutes, an understanding smile washing over his face before Toothless walked up to him and looked at him. "What are you looking at?" he asked suddenly defensive. Toothless shook his head then looked over at the closed door. Hiccup then sighed, "Come on, bud. Let's go home." Toothless nodded and lowered himself to the ground. As Hiccup got on he glanced over to the Hofferson's pond and sighed, "And now we owe Astrid a new pond complete with fish." He then grimaced, "I can't believe you ate goldfish!" Toothless just burped.
