Chapter 9: Romantic flight
Today, the exam to determine who will fight against Remilia was between me and Astrid. Our opponent is Ran once again. The entire village is watching us. This time, the arena is covered by wooden barriers. Astrid rolls behind the one I'm hiding on.
"Stay out of my way! I'm winning this thing" she says with a mad glare. She runs towards another barrier, closer to the girl, who's looking for us. I peek over the barrier, and see Stoick observing me. I just fake a smile. Now, I have two options; one, let Astrid kill Ran and then let her fight against Flandre's sister. Yes, exactly. At the cove, I told Flandre about the last fight, and she told me Remilia is her sister. That's where the second option comes out; use that grass to calm down Ran, then win the honor of fighting Remilia, and finally show the whole village that we don't have to fight girls. The perfect plan. The only thing is that now I'll have to make it work.
POV – Astrid
I roll behind the closest barrier to the girl. "This time, this time for sure!" I say to myself. I leap over the barrier with a battle cry, my axe lifted up. Then, I stop abruptly when I see Ran out cold with Hiccup next to her. No… this can't- Blinded my anger, my arms swing the axe all over. "No! Son of a half-troll- rat eating- munch bucket!-"
POV – Hiccup
Suddenly, I change my plan. Just out of fear, not only because of Astrid, but because it came to my mind that I didn't think about what would be Stoick's reaction. "So… later-" as I'm about to leave, Gobber yanks me back with his hook and drags me back to my spot, next to Astrid.
"Not so fast"
"I'm kinda late for-"
"What? Late for what, exactly?" Astrid shouts in anger.
"Alright, quiet down!" Gobber says. "The elder has decided"
Gobber points with his hook at Astrid. For everyone's surprise and for my sudden horror, the elder shakes her head in denial. Gobber points at me with the good hand. The elder signals at me, smiling and nodding.
I hear Astrid's breathing becoming louder. Before I can say a word, though, the village yells in excitement. "You've done it! You get to fight Remilia!" Gobber shouts. Fishlegs hoists me up, along with the other teens following me.
"That's my boy!" I hear Stoick shout.
"Oh, yeah, yes. I am so-"
"Leaving" I tell Flandre even if I don't know in which part of the cove she is. "Let's pack up! Looks like you and me are taking a little vacation. Forever"
A sharp noise awakens my curiosity. When I look up, I see Astrid sharpening her axe with a small rock, sitting on a boulder right in front of me. Shocked, I back up.
"What the- Uh, what are you doing here…?"
"I want to know what's going on" Astrid says calmly, lifting up the stone and looking at it. Then, she throws it off and comes down the rock.
"No one just gets as good as you do. Specially you. Start talking!" I try to explain something to her, but I just mumble things. "Are you training with someone?"
"Um, training…?"
"It better not involve this" she says as she grabs my harness and slightly lifts it up.
"I know, this looks really bad, but you see. This is, um…" A tree breaking in the distance cuts me off and makes Astrid start to advance deeper in the cove. I have to think of something. Now.
"You're right! You're right! I'm through the lies. I've been making… outfits!" I grab her arm and put it in the harness. "So… you got me. Drag me back, it's time everyone knew-" Astrid twists my arm around, pushing me to the ground. "Why would you do that?" I say.
"That's for the lies. And this…" she lets the butt of her axe fall on my belly. "…for everything else" suddenly, another sound, louder than the other one, scares Astrid.
"Oh, man…" I mutter. Flandre, who's on the other side of the cove, spotted Astrid.
"Get down!" Astrid screams. "Run! Run!" she lifts up her axe when Flandre comes out from behind a rock.
"No!" I shout, pushing Astrid out of the way before Flandre could reach out for her. I turn around.
"No, it's ok, it's ok. She's a friend" this momentarily calms down Flandre. "You just scared her" I explain to Astrid.
"I scared her?" Then,she suddenly stops. "Who… is her?"
"Astrid, Flandre. Flandre… Astrid"
Flandre gives a grunt to Astrid, showing her fangs. Astrid shakes her head, and runs towards the village.
"Dat-da-dah, we're dead" I groan. I hear Flandre going away. "Woah woah woah woah, where do you think you're going?"
POV – Astrid
I hurry through the woods. I can't believe what Hiccup just did. He's gonna have a good one, because I'm going to tell the whole village about this. I jump off a big log, when I feel myself being lifted up from the ground.
"Oh great Odin's ghost. Oh this is it" Said this, I just scream like I never did before. Hiccup and that girl fly towards a tall tree, on which I am dropped. Hiccup and his 'friend' land on the top, making the tree bend.
"Hiccup!" I shout. "Get me down from here!"
"You have to give me a chance to explain!"
"I am not listening to anything you have to say!"
"Then I won't speak! Just let me show you… Please, Astrid"
I just want to get down from this tree. I'm not going to let Hiccup keep that girl as a secret to everyone. I pull myself up to the branch and walk closer to Hiccup. The girl doesn't seem to have the same idea.
"Don't touch me" she hisses, making me slightly back up.
"Now get me down" I say, looking at the far ground.
"Flandre, down. Gently" Hiccup says. Flandre spreads her wings, whose catch a soft wind and her crystal-like things swing along with it. I grab the rope that attaches Hiccup to the girl. "See? Nothing to be afraid of" he assures me.
POV – Flandre
'Nothing to be afraid of'? Good one Hiccup. A smirk grows in my face. Using the tree as a springboard, I shot myself up to the sky as fast as I can. Maybe Hiccup is attached to me, but that Astrid is not, thing that makes this so much funnier. I hear her scream in panic. "Flandre, what is wrong with you?" Hiccup yells at me.
I stop my sudden and dangerous flight. "She's not… heh, usually like this" Hiccup assures Astrid, who's holding to the rope next to me. Sure… I retract my good wing, making us fall upside-down. I smash to the water. Then once again. At the third time Hiccup tries to stop me. "Flandre what are you doing we need her to like us!" he says, trying to convince me. But I won't stop; not till Astrid says sorry for what she did to him.
I shoot up to the sky again. When we are beyond the clouds, I start spinning around.
"And now the spinning" Hiccup says frustrated as Astrid continues to scream. "Thanks for nothing, you useless vampire"
After this, I give up on flying and start to free-fall. Then…
"Ok, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Just get me off of this thing!" Astrid cries. Despite the fact she called me a 'thing', she said sorry, and that's all I wanted to hear. Seconds before reaching the sea, I immediately spread up my wings, making us soar peacefully.
POV – Astrid
I don't dare to open my eyes for such sudden stop. But a soft wind in my face makes me, and what I see is just beautiful. We are now flying under the pink colored clouds. Flandre flies closer to them. In curiosity, I touch them with my hand while the other holds me to the rope. I always imagined the clouds to be warm and silky. Instead, they're cold and wet, like if they were made of rain drops.
We keep flying, now having clouds all around us. It feels so magical, it's something no Viking ever experienced. And it's all thanks to… Hiccup.
Flandre begins to slowly fly through the clouds, revealing a darker sky. It's then when I see something I've never seen before; colorful rainbow-alike lights dancing in the sky, mostly green and blue. Both me and Hiccup stare in awe at it. Even as I'm hanging with one hand to a rope, it's still astonishing and beautiful. I had no idea these girls could be befriended and that they could do these things for you. Surfacing from the clouds, I see a whole view of Berk at night. I open my mouth in surprise. From this point, Berk looks so beautiful. Instead of a lot of houses, it looks like a big rock covered with lots of lights. Flandre looks at me and smiles.
POV – Hiccup
I feel so relieved right now. I thought this was going to be a disaster, but… This was so much better than what I had planned to do at first. Which was just take off Astrid from the tree.
"Alright, I admit it. This is pretty cool. It's… amazing. She's amazing" Astrid says.
