They eventually remembered a forest that stayed a bit green for all the year with needle trees, and they told the little white human thing about it.
She didn't understand when they kept telling her about it, about how it was a forest with its own good things, and many other dragons for her to meet close by besides.
Even one of their own brood lived near there, and dragons always respect their mothers, even if they didn't want the little white human there. Which was probably not going to be any problem, since they had their own Riders already. There were quite a few other humans on one side of the island.
At that, the little white human thing didn't seem to want to hear of it. Humans hunt my animals, she said, and tear through my forest. I never-I almost never want to meet them.
Which didn't make sense; wasn't she a human too?
No more than you are a Dark One, she snapped back and vanished. When they headed out for a hunt, they saw her on the shore tossing stones and staring moodily into the water.
She asked about the forest the next day, though, and the one after that. She sounded sad and sick.
They told her about it easily, about the tree-covered hills and mist and hidden lakes and small valleys beneath the branches.
After the next storm, they told her, they could fly there. Their wings weren't that bad.
Where is it?
To the southeast, they thought.
There was a very long period of quiet.
Yes, she finally said. I'll go. Even with the humans. Then: I think there's something waiting for me there.
/-/-/-/
Hiccup didn't show up to the next Book of Dragons session, so Astrid volunteered to hike through the snowy village to get him. What she found in the house was unexpected.
The first floor was entirely empty, which was normal, but in Hiccup's room…the owner of it was sprawled out over the bed, snoring slightly. Toothless, laying between the bed and the furs the outsiders (also asleep) were using for a bed, quietly chuffed a greeting before shutting his eyes. A good bit of the floor was covered in papers, and those papers were covered in drawings. It was too dim to see what they were, so instead she tiptoed between them to Hiccup.
Or she started to. A flicker of light reflecting from near Brendan's hand made her turn and edge a bit closer. She bent down and picked the whatever-it-was up.
It was a crystal, perfectly round. Taking a closer look, she was startled to find that she could see the whorls in her skin on her fingers through it. And bending down again let her see the drawings closer and somehow better, as if it glowed from the inside.
She ended up kneeling instead of bending to see them better. They were just charcoal sketches, but it was like they were real; leaves with real veins, wolves with strands of fur, people with robes edged with beautifully patterned knots.
She didn't know how long she looked at them, but eventually she stilled, hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.
Aidan was awake, purple eyes on the crystal in her hand. He looked terrified.
"I'm not going to steal it."
He flinched at the sound of her voice.
Astrid brought her hand out flat, the crystal laying on her palm. Struck with the thought of dragon taming, she made herself seem smaller and kept her eyes from staring directly into his. She lifted her other hand and made it flat as well, showing that she held nothing dangerous.
Very slowly, he extended his hand. His fingertips met her palm for a heartbeat, enough that she could feel they were cold. Then he was back into the furs, shifting back closer to the corner. A white cat suddenly came from around Brendan's still-sleeping form and began to nuzzle him.
She looked at him properly, and she realized he hontesly looked pathetic, hair matted, dressed up in a too-big wool grey cloak and buried under furs, still shivering slightly with the chill.
Hiccup took them in simply because he was kind and they needed help to not die. They really needed help to not die. It was like his story of how a downed dragon was a dead dragon, and he gave Toothless back the sky.
Astrid wasn't always the nicest, she knew, but she found herself understanding Hiccup's protectiveness. The cold, their size, their fear worked against them.
She thought of Brendan's sudden tears the session before. "It's alright," she found herself saying. Because it was, or it was going to be. They-and it was definitely they now-had tamed dragons, they could fix whatever was wrong or die trying. Not that she thought they'd actually die, but that was how serious she was.
She carefully edged closer to him, stopping when he looked uncomfortable. She put her back against the wall several feet away from him and brushed her hair back from in front of her eye. "I'll keep watch," she said quietly. "Sleep." Hiccup told her all the words that he was teaching them, and he knew at least the last one.
It felt like ages, but the old man settled down. The fearful gleam of his eyes vanished as they closed. His breath evened.
Finally. She breathed a sigh of relief.
"Astrid?" Hiccup's sleepy voice suddenly sounded. "'S that you?"
"Yes," she whispered back, "and crap. I think you missed the Dragon Book session. And so did I."
"Gah." Hiccup half sat up. "Sorry, Astrid. We were up late..." His hands gestured vaguely at the drawings littering the floor.
"Yeah, it's okay. I was just looking at them."
Hiccup hummed an affirmative, eyes slipping halfway shut. Astrid sighed and pushed herself up, then clambered over him to the other side of the bed.
She tugged half the blanket over herself, ignoring his exhausted stammering, and closed her eyes too. It was a cold morning, perfect for sleeping in.