Astrid was uncomfortable. I mean flying leagues Above the sea on a Nightfury, strapped to a smelly pirate was already pretty damn awkward. Or at least she thought it was a nightfury. She'd never seen one this wonderfully close. It held incredible majesty and speed. And it was so peacefull.. at least when it looked her in the eyes, before. But that was probably just because the boy was there. The boy was so strange…
And scrawny…
It wouldn't take much to strangle him right here, but that would send him crashing down into the ocean. Or maybe it would piss off the peaceful dragon and it would eat her.
okay, simple. Don't strangle the boy… until we reach land. He's so incredibly ...thin. He was long and he was probably a little younger than her but therewas something a little bit unnatural to his frailty. His baby fat still hung about him but there were places where the bone showed through the skion just a little too… obviously.
Speaking of obvious, what the hell is that?
"Is that a wall?"
Hiccup looks back at her, confused. Then looks back at the sight before them. "Oh yeah… I guess it does kind of look like a wall, huh? No. it's just steam."
A questioning and squeamish retort, "Just steam? JUST steam?"
But the pirate gave no answer, urging Toothless onward to an even higher speed. Astrid thought for an irrational moment that they would crash in the fog. but they slipped through, leaving vapor spiraling behind them.
Astrid buried her face in Hiccups back as they weaved through the fog. Her arms tightened around hiccups waist so much that she could grasp her own elbows in front of him. Wondering if this was her way of trying to kill him again he asked, "What's wrong?"
She didn't say anything but also didn't let go of him. The grip was forcing him to sit up straighter on the dragon and this upright position could only slow them down. At this point, they needed to be going a mile a minute.
Twisting around, Hiccup sees Astrid as he did in Berk. Blonde hair, ice blue eyes, and heart shaped face. Beautiful, her emotions intense and open but incredibly scared.
"How can you fly in this fog? It's like flying blind."
"Well,"said Hiccup, surprised that he had to address an actual concern instead of a death threat, "It might look scary if you focus on the fog… But really it's not. There are a bunch of landmarks.
"Yeah, rocks and cliffs that just come out of no where."
Hiccup considered spitting out facts and statistics, or brushing off her fear as groundless, but what came out was an abrupt, "What's your name?"
Lifting her head to look at him, she hesitated. "…Hofferson, Astrid Hofferson."
"Astrid Hofferson, meet Toothless." Hiccup pets the mass of scales beneath him, affectionately. "I trust Toothless with my life. And he's saved your life once before…You don't have to trust me. But you can trust him."
Looking down at the dragon, she saw through thinning mist that below the dragon a patch of ocean has become visible, and against the bright blue ahead was a dark smear. Focusing back on the Onyx scales she tentatively mimicked Hiccup's motion. "Nice, Toothless?"
The dragon's purr sounded like a drum from beneath them both, startling her. But she recognized it for what it is and smiling set about to petting, studying the texture with her fingers. Looking past the dragons body and directly downward Astrid asked, "Is that another of your pirate ships?"
Hiccup looked down and drew Toothless to an abrupt stop. Astrid bumping lightly into his back and Toothless flapping with greater emphasis to stay steady. Hiccup was intent. Hawkish in his focus and expression, Hiccup did nothing but focus until he felt Astrid's arms snake around him again. This time for communications sake rather than necessity. "It's my uncle Alvin's…"
Astrid nodded like, Okaaay? Until something clicked in her mind and her frown pulled back into repulsion, "Your Uncle is Alvin? As in Alvin the Treacherous?!"
Hiccup snorted, "his title name is as accurate as mine. The most treacherous thing about him is his breath." Astrid was still trying to figure out what the first comment had meant and was about to ask the Pirate what he was called-
When Hiccup leaned over toothless's ears and said with venom, "Come friend, let's drop by"
They declined sharply, an almost dive. Spiraling downward at increasing speed.
"WAIT! NO! they'll see us!", Astrid hissed, hating how high her voice had sounded.
"That's the point. I wanna see the look in his eyes when he figures out who's caught him." Like a true pirate fixated on gold he was already calculating, reaching for the choking wire, coiled within his pocket. They were only 20 yards above the ship, now, "Please don't! Look, theres just you, me, and the dragon. You can't take on an entire crew!"
His teeth out in a snarl, Hiccup shrugged of her placating arms from his shoulders. "We're not taking him on. Were just gonna send a little- greeting."
But all his rage and bravado left him when Astrid's teeth sank into his vest to muffle a scream, her arms crossing over his chest, and her nails locked into the dirty fabric of his tunic. Flashing through his mind, the ancient drawings of wars past with families crippled with fear. He pulled upward. Inwardly arguing and berating himself all the way, Hiccup realigned themselves toward home. Urging toothless forward, the winds and speed enforced the silence. And Hiccup cursed her, cursed himself- still picturing the destruction he could have wrought, his righteous causes, and the waste of an opportunity.
It was as they began to slow and the island was beginning to reveal itself on the horizon that all these dark thoughts fell from his mind like coins down a well. Astrid Hofferson had kissed his cheek, her tears blown cold incidentally being wiped away by his tangled hair. A voice ragged from screaming sighed, "Thank you."
Hiccup was struck dumb. But the wheels resumed turning when he felt her rest her chin on his shoulder, arms a relaxed belt around his waist. "I-... you were right."
To make a move or to Not make a move. A most tantalizing question.
