The Sacrifice

By TheFlyingPiggy

A/N: Thanks all for the reviews! Also thanks for those who talked to me abotu Astrid :) I'm considering toning her down when I go back through the story and tie up loose ends or make better descriptions or etc... I'm not sure though This chapter though she definetely is NOT toned down - even the slightest Astrid fans beware.

Chapter Seven: Astrid and Einarr

Hiccup was looking from between Astrid and Toothless and back again. He wasn't aware of it but his mouth dropped open from shock. He didn't even have the opportunity to introduce Einarr to her and she was already forcing her way to the punch? Admittedly, that was very much Astrid's way but there are still these things called 'manners' in Berk believe it or not, and she just blew past them all.

And was she purposely lifting her breasts like that?

Hiccup shook his head, mouth still open. He would expect this from Ruffnut, but Astrid? And weren't her and Snoutlout going out? After Astrid broke up with him, she hooked up with the other viking pretty quickly. Speaking of the other viking...

"Einarr? What type of name is 'Einarr'?" Snoutlout sneered. He was at first just interested in meeting the new man, but in under two minutes of noticing the stranger, it seemed as though his girlfriend was already infatuated with him. Einarr turned to glare at him and answered.

"A good one."

Everyone waited for more of an explanation but Einarr didn't go any farther. Hiccup started to sweat lightly from nervousness.

"Er...I was just um...going to show Einarr around the village here, let him meet some people and find out where everything is. Um...bye!" Hiccup, after saying that, grabbed Toothless by the crook of his elbow and started to drag him away from the other teens. His hand was like a vice grip and Toothless actually winced from the pain, but didn't say anything.

Meanwhile, the other teens just looked on bemused. In all honesty, Hiccup acting all jumpy and nervous wasn't really strange. He was like that all the time. The twins shrugged, Fishlegs started whistling and the three parted ways, going onto do whatever it was they were going to do before Hiccup and Einarr came out of the chief's home.

Snoutlout and Astrid though, stayed put.

"Who does he think he is?" Snoutlout huffed, crossing his arms. He looked to his girlfriend, seeing her watch Hiccup and Einarr go further into the village. "Astrid, babe, let's go to the lake like we were planning and-" He said, reminding her of their earlier plans. He was getting excited for them and started grinning. Any jealousy (not that he was jealous) that he felt leaving at the thought of him and Astrid getting some alone time. He didn't understand how some people could actually wait for marriage. The girl interrupted him though.

"No, I don't think I will." She said, "Go entertain yourself." She said offhandedly. Waving at him as the followed Hiccup and Einarr into the market. She didn't notice the glare that Snoutlout was giving her, her to busy thinking about Hiccup's behavior.

While the others might have seen it as normal, she knew better. He only acted like that when he was hiding something. He did it when he found Toothless, he did it when he had a surprise for her, he did it when he felt he had to lie...That boy was hiding something, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

She stopped walking when one of her thoughts came back to her. He did it when he found Toothless...where IS Toothless?

Not knowing about Astrid's thoughts, the other two walked further into the market. Hiccup pointing things out that Toothless already knew about but seeing them from his new perspective was interesting, and Hiccup was also pointing out the letters, making sure that nobody heard him. Since Toothless had a hold of everything else, he figured learning to read would be the next step. What he didn't know was that Toothless was completely ignoring him. There were dragons milling around him, staring at him confused and cocking their heads. He saw that they were starting to come closer, and that more were coming into the center of the village where he and Hiccup were and crowding it, causing several of the shopkeepers to yell at them, but they paid no mind, just staring at Toothless. Finally, a Monstrous Nightmare came up, and Toothless recognized her immediately.

"Toothless?" Fireworm asked hesitantly. All the other dragons behind her watched. Toothless froze unsure of what to do. Hiccup had not told him what to do with the other dragons.

Finally, Hiccup began to notice that he didn't have Toothless' attention, and turned, ready to scold him, when he noticed the crowd of dragons forming and the disgruntled shopkeepers complaining about how much room the dragon's were taking up.

"Heh heh heh... Hiccup said, scratching the back of his neck, looking from Toothless, to the dragons, and back again. "Well, looks like you guys noticed we have a new face in town!" He said, waving his arms sporadically at Toothless, making him look like he was having a localized seizure. "This is Einarr...and don't worry about him guys! My dad is already keeping a close eye on him!" Hiccup said, his voice beginning to squeak. He said the last part moreso for the people who were beginning to notice Einarr instead of the dragons. Finally, Hiccup brought his arms down and looked to the ground, biting his lip, then looking back to the Monstrous Nightmare. "How about I check your saddle later, Fireworm?" He said. The other dragon nodded its head slightly and the other dragons began to disperse. Hiccup was apparently going to tell Fireworm what was going on and news would spread to them fast enough. Hiccup let out a deep breath once all the dragons were going their own ways before he turned back to Toothless.

"That was close." He said simply. "Let's...go to the clearing. I feel like taking a break from the village." Toothless nodded his head eagerly. He wanted to get out of here.

As the other two were leaving the village, Astrid was keeping a close eye on them.

"Why did all the dragons look at Einarr like that?" She whispered to herself. She saw that Hiccup and Einarr were already leaving the village and she wondered for a moment if she should follow him or not, when Gobber came up to her.

"Oy! Astrid! Come 'ere a sec!" He shouted at her, waving his artificial limb from the shop. When she walked over, she saw that he was holding something she didn't recognize in the hand that he still had. She figured it was a work in progress. She looked the older man in the eye.

"Yes Gobber?" She asked, crossing her arms again, but this time without lifting anything.

"I was wondern' if you could get Hiccup for me. I want to show him somethin'." She wanted to say no to his request, she wasn't an errand girl. That sort of job...well, that sort of job belonged to Hiccup. She was about to talk him into making someone else do it, when she realized that if Hiccup came up here, then that would make him leave Einarr's side. She smiled up at Gobber, making him nervous.

"Sure thing."

She turned around in the direction she saw the two headed, and sucked in a breath, she didn't see them anymore! But she shook her head. Chances were they were going to the clearing. Hiccup always felt the most comfortable there, and it would make sense that he would take his new...friend... there with him.

She started running towards it and when she made it, she wanted to pump her fist when she realized she was right. Hiccup was just to predictable. It was another reason that they never would have worked out. She needed spontaneity in her life. She watched as the two of them sat at the water's edge and Hiccup was throwing his head back laughing at something Einarr said. She rolled her eyes at Hiccup's obvious display of trying to get someone to like him by over flattering the other person.

Honestly Hiccup... She thought to herself. She shook her head, and entered the clearing.

When Hiccup and Toothless reached the clearing, sometime before Astrid, they both sat by the water's edge, both silent.

"Did...Did the dragon's recognize you?" Hiccup asked. Toothless nodded.

"I probably smell the same." He said simply. He was playing with the sleeves on his shirt. He heard Hiccup let out a breath.

"You don't think that there's a way for the dragons to blow your cover, do you?" Hiccup asked. Toothless shrugged, not seeming worried.

"Probably not. When it comes to people who understand dragons, you are probably the only one that would pick up on something like that." Toothless said, looking at him. He leaned back, propping his upper body up with his arms. "Hiccup?"

"Yeah?"

"Do I seem different to you? Besides the obvious." He asked, looking up at the sky. He didn't want to see Hiccup answer this question. He didn't know why but this question was going around his head for a while and it wouldn't leave. It was making his nervous. He heard Hiccup snort though, and he looked at the boy who was grinning at him like he was an idiot.

"Hardly. You're still the same sarcastic jerk you always were." Hiccup said, throwing his head back and laughing when Toothless sat up and pushed him harshly, trying to make him go into the lake.

"How did you know I was sarcastic? You couldn't even hear me talk!" Though Toothless knew that Hiccup was telling the truth. It still amazed him just how much they understood each other, even without words.

They both immediately stopped what they were doing when they heard someone enter the clearing. When Hiccup saw that it was Astrid, he cursed under his breath. Toothless smirked at this, hearing his little human do something so out of character for him (unless he was in the forge, then cursing was quite a common trait for Hiccup). He looked back to the girl though and glared at her, moving closer to Hiccup.

"As-Astrid! Hey! Astrid! Um, what are you doing here?" Hiccup asked. Toothless rolled his eyes. That wasn't suspicious at all.

"I came to get you. Gobber needs you in the forge." She said. Hiccup blinked at her for a moment, then looked back at Toothless, then back to Astrid.

"Erm... okay. Tell him I'll be there in a second, I just have to get T-Einarr back to my house and then I'll-"

"Don't worry about Einarr." Astrid interrupted him, waving her hand as if to ward off any of his other words. "I can lead him back."

Hiccup swallowed and looked back at Toothless. Toothless was still glaring at Astrid though, not trusting her, even though he didn't really have a reason why. Except for that whole, trying to kill him, hurting Hiccup, leaving Hiccup... actually, Toothless decided he had plenty of reasons for not trusting her.

Meanwhile in Hiccup's head he was wondering what he was going to do. If he told Astrid not to worry about it, she'd think that that was suspicious...and it kind of was. He also knew that she wouldn't get off their backs if she didn't get to speak to Einarr alone.

"Erm...okay," He said. Toothless snapped his head back to look at him, "but just make sure that you get him back to my house as quickly as possible, okay? My dad will want him to be there if I'm not with him so...yeah." He finished lamely. He heard her huff, but she nodded and he let out a breath. "See ya in a bit, bud." He whispered, "and be careful." He added as an afterthought as he stood up and wiped the dirt and grass from his pants, leaving Astrid alone with Toothless.

Toothless was starting to feel nervous as the girl walked closer to him and sat down beside him. She smiled up at him, one he recognized from when she and Hiccup were dating, and his guard went up.

"Hi Einarr. I'm Astrid." She said, repeating what she said earlier.

"I know." Einarr said simply. "You've already said this." Astrid nodded at him.

"Yes, but you and Hiccup took off so suddenly that I didn't really get the opportunity to say much else."

Einarr didn't want her to say much else.

"That's...fine." He was trying to find some reason to get away from the girl when, "How about you lead me to Hiccup's home?" He was happy when he thought of this, but it died quickly when Astrid shrugged.

"I'm sure that we'll be able to get there soon enough. Hiccup's slow and depending on how long he takes in the shop, he won't notice if you're back a little later than he would like."

Einarr glared at her, but she didn't notice.

"So..." She said suspiciously, "Why are you here?" She asked. "I find it strange that the chief would have a guest in his home and leave Hiccup to be the one escorting him around. Where are you from?"

Einarr's mind suddenly blanked. What was my story again? He thought. It came to him then, making him lose some tension. He didn't know that Astrid had saw him tense up, and then calm back down. She looked at him, watching his face closely to see if she could catch him in a lie. She really wanted him to be safe and not a spy or something. There weren't many other vikings in the village and if she could, she wanted to grab this new addition to Berk (if that is what he was) before any of the other females could. She could already tell that he was different and she admired that.

"I'm from...another tribe. Pretty far away from here." He said. Astrid wanted to hit him. Why didn't he speak more? Why did he always have such tiny answers? She knew he talked more to Hiccup.

"And?" She asked. "Why are you here?"

"Because... I heard about the dragons. That they lived here in peace, with the humans. I wanted to see for myself." Einarr had to admit, when Hiccup came up with this story earlier, it sounded pretty flimsy, but when he said it out loud himself, it actually sounded pretty good and believable. Even Astrid was nodding with it.

"I can see that. But where are you from exactly?" She scooted a little closer to him and Einarr wondered what he should do. He scooted a little bit away from her, hoping that she wouldn't notice. She did, but didn't do anything further.

"Another tribe, pretty far off." He shook his hand in a random direction. "I heard rumors that this is where it all started. My people haven't accepted dragons, and I was curious to see if the rumors from neighboring tribes were true." He then realized a reason why he and Hiccup would have been spending so much time together. "Hiccup...fascinates me. He did this." He finished. He really hoped that she didn't ask anymore questions.

"What is your village, or home or whatever, called?"

Damn.

"You wouldn't have heard of it..." He was stalling for time, trying to come up with something but drawing blanks. This type of stuff was Hiccup's forte, not his.

"So? That doesn't mean I don't want to know. You came to this island, hoping to see something new because you were curious, you should appreciate that trait in others." He turned to her after she said this and saw that she was grinning at him, teasing him.

"Erm...yes. I guess I shouldn't."
"So...?"

"So what?"
"What is your village called?"
"Oh, that." He racked his brain for something, but then not really coming up with anything original, he just used the last part of his breed's name. "Fury."

Astrid looked confused at the name. "Fury? Why in Odin's name would someone call their home 'Fury'?"

Einarr knew he wasn't being reasonable, especially since Fury wasn't his home, or even a real place as far as he knew, but she didn't need to insult it like that. And so what if he named it after Night Fury? He was just happy that he left out the 'Night' in the name.

"Do you have a problem with the name?" He asked. Astrid shrugged, and grinned at him again. She tried to scoot closer and this time she succeeded. He didn't realize how close he was sitting to a boulder, but now it was painfully obvious since he was about an inch away from it, and Astrid was very close on the other. He didn't want to cause her any alarm. Hiccup and Stoic were both adamant about staying low and 'hiding' as much as possible, and angering Astrid, a girl known for spreading news (not gossip, but when she was angry, she was spouting whatever was wrong at the top of her lungs) would not be the best way to do that.

"Why don't you tell me why it was named that?" She asked. Her voice was sweet. Not fake sweet, but the sweet he used to hear her use when she talked to Hiccup a few years ago, and sometimes her parents. It was the voice she used whenever she wasn't trying to act tough. It was making Einarr nervous.

"Umm..." He said. He really needed to find a way out of this situation. Why did you leave me here Hiccup? He growled in his mind. He could really use his friend right about now.

A/N: Just to let you know, in case you didn't notice, I'm typing Toothless when he's around Hiccup or Stoic, but Einarr when he's around everyone else. Also, review and tell me if the story is making sense to you so far – I know what the story is, but I want to know if I'm explaining it well enough that everyone else is getting it.