I slept in the forge that night, being awakened by the sound of one of the roosters crying out at dawn. I opened my eyes slowly, suddenly jolting up as I saw Ruffnut standing over me confidently.
"Hey, partner..." she said smugly, before getting down to my level and patting my head. "I heard about last night... but, you know, I did tell you this was gonna happen..."
I nodded slowly, and Ruffnut said "well, just leave it to me... be at Astrid's house when she's feeding Stormfly, okay?"
It was nearly sunset as I sat near Astrid's house, right where Ruffnut had told me to be. I glanced up at the Great Hall, seeing several Vikings already being up there to prepare for Stoick's memorial. I could see Astrid was feeding Stormfly, just like Ruffnut said, and she'd discarded her hood and skirt, just wearing her red shirt and black leggings with her boots. She had her betrothal necklace on, and as Stormfly ate, she was frantically trying not to get dirty.
She was trying to be presentable, but she was better than that. She was stunning, and I almost forgot about my animosity before she was done she turned around and noticed me. "Hey Toothless..."
I remained silent, almost ignoring her. She sighed, both out of sadness and annoyance, before walking over to me and sitting next to me. "Toothless, if this is about last night, then I'm really..."
"Astrid..." a voice suddenly said to interrupt her, prompting us both to look up. "Oh... hi Ruff... what's up?"
"I got some bad news..." Ruffnut said, trying to sound upset. "Eret and I broke up..."
"What?! Aw, Ruff, I'm so sor..." Astrid said, before raising an eyebrow. "Wait... you guys were actually dating?"
Ruffnut was clearly pissed off by this comment, but regained her composure as she said "but... it's okay. I've moved on. In fact, I'm already in love with someone else..."
"Oh, great..." Astrid said, smugly grinning as she said "so who's the unlucky guy? Snotlout?"
Ruffnut shook her head, surprising Astrid a little. "Fishlegs?"
Ruffnut shook her head again, prompting Astrid to take a little time to think. "Ooh! It's Throk, isn't it?"
"Ha ha... no..." Ruffnut said teasingly. Astrid said "well, come on, Ruff. The only other guy I can think of is your brother and we both know that ain't gonna fly..."
"But, also... I may or may not have ruined your surprise..." Ruffnut said, trying to sound innocent. Astrid went wide-eyed, but surprisingly wasn't mad, saying "oh.. you told Valka about me and Hiccup..."
"Yep..." Ruffnut answered, clearly building up a bombshell to drop. Astrid quickly shot up excitedly, saying "and... what was her reaction?"
"Well... shehatesthethoughtofit..."
"What?"
"She-doesn't-approve..."
"Ruff, I can't understand when you mumbl..."
"She doesn't approve of you and Hiccup being together!" Ruffnut said, prompting Astrid to nearly collapse as she gasped in shock. I thought I was going to have to catch her, but she managed to balance herself again, hyperventilating as she clutched her necklace tight.
"But... but I thought sh... she liked me, I... I thought that... that miserable... feral... dragon-breeding... OLD HAG!"
She grabbed her axe from next to Stormfly's pen and threw it aggressively with an ear-piercing "RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHH!"
I lowered my head a little and Ruffnut took a few steps back as Astrid stood there frozen for a few moments, her face boiling red with rage with her fists clenched. It took about a minute for her to keep breathing again as she loosened her hands again and her skin returned to it's usual colour.
"How dare she do this to me! How dare she!" Astrid stamped her foot on the ground. "Abandons Hiccup for 20 damn years to be some dragon-screwing hermit and thinks she can just come back and be all... ooh, all is forgiven and Mommy knows best, Hiccup. She decides how you live your life and who you live it with even though she was never there to even see it until now. Ugh! I hate her! I HATE HER!"
She was mad. Simple as that.
"You know what... screw it... I'm not letting her take Hiccup without a fight..." Astrid said, her cheery personality suddenly coming back. "I'm gonna go talk to Valka right now..."
"What?! But Valka said tha..."
"Come on, Ruff, don't be a pessimist!" Astrid scoffed. Ruffnut said "but... but what if she still says no?"
"We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard... besides... she's not Drago Bludvist... she can be reasoned with..."
Ruffnut scowled as Astrid said "I'll just change her mind. Easy as that..." snapping her fingers casually to try and visualise her point. She picked up her axe and slung it over her shoulder, petting my head affectionately as she began to walk towards the Haddock house.
"Astrid, I don't think you'll be able to do that..." Ruffnut said slyly, a surprising amount of menace in her tone. I was even more surprised when she grabbed the shovel that was next to Stormfly's pen once Astrid had turned her back.
Astrid scoffed arrogantly, turning back to face Ruffnut and saying "well... why not?..." WHACK!
She groaned and her eyes rolled back as she closed them and collapsed like a ragdoll onto the ground, stunned to the point where she was nearly unconscious. Ruffnut threw the shovel on the ground, allowing me to see the dents that Astrid's face had made in the metal, before bending down to Astrid's level. After slapping Astrid's face lightly several times to no reaction, she giggled excitedly, pulling Astrid to her feet as she turned back to me and said "alright, Toothless. Help me lock her up..."
Lock her up?! As in, lock and key, lock her up? It was at this moment that I began to come to the sense that this had gone and was still going too far.
"Come on! Hurry!" Ruffnut snapped again, but I was too distracted and stunned by all that had just happened to acknowledge her. "Toothless?... Toothless!"
I still stood still, my eyes fixed on Astrid's body, before glancing up to see Ruffnut boiling with fury and stress. She was angry, at me.
"Ugh! Come on, you stupid dragon!" she shrieked through gritted teeth. She raised her hand aggressively as my eyes went wide. She was going to HIT me! No, she couldn't! Hiccup would never do that, and neither would Astrid! Too shocked to defend myself and too confused to stop her, I quickly cowered back to await the blow.
It didn't come, and I opened my eyes to see Ruffnut staring at me in confusion. She stayed like this for a few seconds, before glancing up to see her still raised hand.
"Oh... oh my Gods!" she was even more shocked than I was, quickly putting her hand down and turning back to me. "I... I-I-I'm... Toothless, I'm so sorry... I'd... I would never... oh, Gods, I am so..."
I straightened up a bit and relaxed, glad that she had refused to give in to her thoughtless rage. After about ten seconds of this self-loathed babbling, she took a deep breath and exhaled, getting down to me level and saying in a calm tone "Toothless, I am so sorry. I would never hurt you, or hit you, whatever. Who would I be to treat my soon-to-be dragon in-law like that...?"
Dragon in-law? I was far more shocked by this than I was about her near-assault. I remained wide-eyed, slowly following Ruffnut as she dragged Astrid's limp body by the leg, down a hill toward the dragon stables. She found an empty pen at the end of the stable. It had a metal door and was made for solitary confinement. "Perfect..."
She opened the door and left Astrid on the ground in there. My eyes remained fixed on the scene as she bent down to Astrid's level again. "Ooh, I'll need that..." she muttered quickly, swiping the betrothal necklace off of Astrid's neck and putting it on her own neck.
"R... Ru... Ruff...?"
"Oh, uh... hey, Astrid..." Ruffnut said, slowly walking backwards out of the pen. I noticed Astrid struggling to open her eyes as she latched onto the wall to pull herself up. "Why did you... why did you hit me with a shovel...?"
"Um... yeah, it's... it's uh... it's complicated, okay?"
Astrid felt her chest, her eyes widening a bit as she noticed something missing. "Wait, where's my, uh... my..."
She went silent as her eyes suddenly sharpened, becoming a deathly glare as she looked down at Ruffnut's neck. "Ruff... why is my necklace there?!"
"Like I said... complicated..." Ruffnut said weakly. Astrid's energy suddenly rushed back to her as she clenched her fists and realised what was happening. "Why you slimy little piece of..."
BANG! Ruffnut quickly slammed the metal door shut and locked it tight. Less than a second passed before we heard the furious BANG! BANG! CLANG! BANG! CLANG! BANG! of Astrid's fists from the other side. "RUFFNUT! OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!"
Ruffnut slowly sneaked to the door, trying to sound comforting as she said "Astrid, I didn't know how else to tell you... Valka was pretty insistent you weren't right for Hiccup..."
"THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, NOW OPEN THIS DOOR!"
"I can't..."
"AND WHY NOT?!"
"Well, funny world we live in... it turns out that I'm in love with your... or should I say, my... boyfriend now... sorry, Astrid..."
"RUFF! IF YOU LAY SO MUCH AS A FINGER ON HICCUP, I AM GONNA KICK YOUR ASS!"
"Aw, come on Astrid... I want you to be maid of honour... otherwise, I'll have to invite Cami..."
"IF YOU HAD ANY HONOUR, YOU'D OPEN THIS DOOR SO I COULD KICK YOUR ASS!"
"Yeah, nice try, sweetie..." Ruffnut said smugly. "Valka doesn't want you together and even Toothless doesn't... face it, Astrid. You guys just weren't meant to be..."
"Y'know, Ruff... when I get outta here, you're actually gonna be lucky..." Astrid snarled viciously, a sarcastic tone in her voice. "Most people only have two boots, but you're gonna have an extra one... RIGHT UP YOUR C..."
Ruffnut placed her fingers in her ears to avoid hearing the rest of Astrid's rant, turning to me with a wink as she slowly walked out of the stable. Before she closed the main stable door, I turned back to the cell Astrid was in as she continued shrieking like an animal. I turned back to Ruffnut, who gave a beckoning gesture. I reluctantly followed, allowing her to shut the door as Astrid's noise was now cut off.
"Don't feel guilty, big guy..." Ruffnut said, suddenly speaking in a warm tone as she rubbed the back of my head. "This is best for everyone... or at least, for me, you and Hiccup... right?"
I remained silent, prompting Ruffnut to scoff as she said "ah, don't worry... you'll get over it..." as she quickly shot off to her house to get dressed for the memorial. Was I really going to let this happen? This shouldn't have been anything more than petty jealousy, and now I was helping Ruffnut to steal Hiccup for herself. I was so confused. I didn't know what to do...
I just had to get away from this stable and the girl trapped inside it before this tearing conflict ate me alive.
