Ch. 10: Friendship

Nightfall came and I sat there waiting for my fan club to go to sleep. Eventually they did with the exception of Hiccup, since he was on guard duty. I took out the night vision binoculars and gazed down on Cato's club. I zoomed in and checked all their eyes to see if any of them were faking. There was no sign of them faking their sleep. Obviously they were unaware of Hiccup's track record.

I then set my sights on Hiccup. It took all I had in me to keep myself from jumping down onto him and breaking his head open with my axe. He seemed to be fairly good at guard duty, didn't relax or doze off. He just sat there looking around, waiting for something. He turned his gaze right at me. He had a smirk on his face. I couldn't believe it, he was actually rubbing this in my face.

Why when I get my hands on him I'll...did he just wink at me?

I sat there confused for a few more minutes. He went back to looking around their camp. Then he took something out of his pocket. It looked like a small book. He took out a pen or something and started writing. He took out a pocket knife and opened up a scissors attachment. He then slowly cut the page he had been writing on. He then picked up a rock and wrapped the paper around it. He took some string and tied it around the paper. Then he threw it at me. Great first he lies, then he smirks and confusingly winks, now he's throwing paper covered rocks at me.

He had surprising good aim, but I caught it midair. I considered throwing it back at him. As I thought about this I noticed him gesturing for me to open the paper. I remembered he had written something on it. I unwrapped the paper from the rock, hoping this wasn't another insult to my current position. I got one of the matches from my pack and lit it so I could read. I read the paper and was confused, it said.

Astrid, I know you probably hate me by now, and I don't blame you. I kind of hate myself for what I did. Now's you're chance, you can come down and we can get away. Hurry, I spent most of my watch making sure the rest were asleep. Please give me a chance to explain.

I considered this note he'd sent me. I looked back down at him. Now his face held a look of pleading. Like he wanted me to do what he said.

"Yeah right, climb down and wander off so you can backstab me again, literally this time." I thought. But something was bothering me. That nagging feeling I had felt earlier when I first saw him with Cato in the woods was back. And this time it was stronger, I could feel it telling me to trust him. I looked back at his pleading face, and gave him another chance.

I climbed down slowly, axe at the ready in case this was a trap. He was waiting for me, sitting where he had been. As I touched the ground and turned towards him, he put the spear they had, foolishly, given him down without a noise and put his hands up in a typical "I surrender" way. We both looked around at the sleeping tributes. None of them were stirring. Satisfied Hiccup then put his hands down and gestured into the woods, away from Cato and his club.

We walked further into the forest until the light from the fire no longer illuminated our way. Hiccup then shuffled through his vest until he pulled out a flashlight.

So that's why he had all those pockets.

He then led me further in. Oddly enough, the further we went in, the more I trusted him. Once the tributes were out of sight, he stopped and slowly turned to me.

"Now Astrid. I know you're mad, oof." I pinned him against a tree before he could go further. Needless to say, I was livid. I tried my hardest not to shout and wake the others.

"Mad? Mad!? You told me that you said "no" to Cato's offer, said that you love me, and then you go and try to help Cato kill me! Believe me Hiccup, we are FAR past mad!" I told him in a VERY harsh whisper.

"I-I don't recall saying I love you." He stuttered.

"Well you did. You lied to me when you said that you made my headband, and the note that came with the headband said that whoever sent it loved me."

"Look, we'll talk about that later, but the only reason I joined Cato's club was to protect you."

"Protect me? How does helping them hunt me down protect me? Unless..." I just remembered, he had led them in the wrong direction. "You knew I was there? You sent them on the wrong trail on purpose."

"Yes."

Everything inside me was jumping for joy. I had never felt so happy in my life. Everything told me to just kiss him.

"Look, Astrid. We can talk more later, but now we have to go. Narsca may wake up for her watch soon, she tends to be good at that, and then they'll realize I've helped you get away."

I couldn't lose him. Not now. He was right, they'd know it was him. We had to get some distance between us. It would be harder for them to track us in the dark.

"Alright, we'll split up. Make it twice as hard for them. Meet me back at the pond I was camped out at in two days. You'll probably find me."

"Alright...Ow!" He put his hand over the spot I had hit him on his shoulder and started rubbing it.

"That's for joining Cato's club."

I then quickly pulled him in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"That's for everything else."

I then ran off before he could reply. I soon thought I heard more footsteps behind me, only going in a different direction. I ran through the cool night and after a few hours running I parked myself in a tree and slept till dawn.

When the sun rose I rose with it. I got down from the tree and started walking. I needed to find water. My supply was almost depleted, save the third bottle I had picked up off the dead tribute. I realized that there weren't any deaths yesterday, of course, most of the surviving tributes were waiting to kill me. I saw the clearing up ahead and immediately crouched down. I found an area of bushes that could completely hide me if I stayed down. I looked through the bushes and saw the cave, and right next to it a pile of supplies, Cato, and his club. They had apparently gathered everything and formed it into one big pile near the cave. Clever I had to admit. The clearing made it easy to spot anyone who dared come close enough. I sat there and waited for a while, I remembered my bearings so tomorrow I would make my way for the pond. Right now however, I wanted to observe Cato's camp and find any weaknesses that could be exploited.

They had apparently seen something, they all looked in one direction and got up. I saw it, smoke. Someone had started a fire and now Cato's club where heading for it. The only person they left behind was the one who wasn't with them before. The boy from three. He must have been put in charge of guarding the supplies.

The group had been gone for a while and the guard was now walking around the pile. I got an idea. When the boy was on the other side of the pile I crept out and slowly made my way towards the pile. I slowly encircled the pile as I made my way towards it to block his view of me. When I was close enough I grabbed a sack of apples and a filled water jug. The jug was easily holding a gallon of water. I had to put my axe in between my back and my backpack so I could carry both of them. Then after circling the pile a little more I made a dash for the cave. I went around the cave and headed for the woods, hoping the cave would block his view of my escape.

The sun was setting as I reached the tree line. I hid in some more bushes. My plan was to hide right under Cato's nose. I was hoping the other tributes would be to scared of Cato to get this close. Cato's club came through the trees on the opposite side of the clearing. They looked pleased, which means they got their prey. I suddenly felt scared and hoped it wasn't Hiccup. No, Hiccup may be accident prone, but he's smart enough to know not to light a fire when the sun was still high in the sky.

When it got dark the anthem started playing and I looked up to see the faces. It was the boy from nine and the boy from eleven. The sky went dark, Hiccup was still alive. Reassured I leaned back and fell asleep. I was too relieved to worry about Cato and crew being right next door.

Why was I so worried about Hiccup's safety? Then I realized this was somehow also connected to how hurt I felt when I had seen him with Cato. I cared about him. I cared about my father and he went out to fight dragons all the time, but I was never as worried about him as I was about Hiccup. Was it because Hiccup was the weakest of us? Was it because he was more likely to get killed? I fell asleep asking myself these questions and others similar to them.

Suddenly, I was awoken. Not by someone stabbing me or choking me to death, but by a shriek. A shriek I was all too familiar with. The sound that came from the only dragon in the world that gave me nightmares.

"Nightfury."

I took out my binoculars and looked at Cato's club. They were all looking around in bewilderment and confusion. Berk was the only island that had Nightfuries. I recognized it immediately, but they would have no clue as to what it was they were hearing.

The shriek got louder. Time seemed to slow down as it stopped. Then it went back to normal as a bright blue ball of light appeared and shot towards the pile of supplies. The fireball hit the pile and it turned into a large explosion of blue and orange fire. The tributes where knocked back due to their close proximity to the supplies. I on the other hand just ran away. I was not going to wait for it to come back.

After I was sure I was safe in a patch of dense trees I stopped and bent over to catch my breath. I was never so scared in all my life. I was only yards away from a Nightfury attack. I could only imagine how scared the other tributes were. Although I was scared, just imagining Cato's face made me start laughing. After a minute I brought myself back to more important things. Like, what was a Nightfury doing here? How did it get here? Usually variables in the Games were controlled by the Gamemakers, but how did the Gamemakers get their hands on a Nightfury. None of the Vikings on Berk have even seen a Nightfury, let alone capture one.

Now I knew I had to stay in the forest. It'd be easy for it to pick me off in an open area. I sat down and went back to sleep.

When I woke up I got up and tried to regain my bearings. I thought and remembered where I was when the Nightfury attacked and relatively which direction I ran away in. I had positioned myself to run in the same direction I had ran in my first day here. I was glad I had remembered to grab the water and apples, this was going to be a long day.

After I came back across the fake trail I had left I went in the direction I knew led to the stream, which in turn would lead me to the lake. After several more hours of walking I recognized the lake in the distance. I took several steps when suddenly.

"Look out!" I was suddenly tackled to the ground. After a few seconds of wrestling I found myself on top, axe in hand, and staring down at Hiccup. He turned his face of shock into a one of his goofy smiles.

"Hiccup!? What are you doing?" I yelled at him. Why did he tackle me? I could have killed him.

"Saving your life. See." He pointed to the spot I had just been standing in and there in the ground, was an arrow. I got off him and gave him a helping hand up.

"Now start explaining."

"I was expecting you would be here earlier, and I thought I might have been followed. So I started setting up booby traps. The one you almost stepped on I made myself."

I looked up and saw a small bow made from a tree branch in the branches above pointing strait down. There were several other strings attached but I had no idea what they did. I looked around and spotted a few more in the trees around the pond.

"You made all these? And they work?" I was honestly impressed.

Inventing, so that's what he did during his private training session. Having supplies gave you an advantage, but knowing ways to turn those supplies into deadly weapons was even better. Of course the fact they were his inventions, and they actually worked was even more impressive. His previous inventing attempts usually ended up destroying something.

"Well, yeah. You sound surprised?"

"Well its just, usually you make something and it destroys half the village."

"Fair enough."

He then led me through his traps to the spot I had originally made camp. We sat down and filled my water bottles with the water I had grabbed and drank from them. I then shared some of the apples with him as I set my stuff up in the tree.

"Where did you get these?" He asked.

"Cato's supply cache. Before the Nightfury blew it up that is."

"*cough* You were there?" He coughed as he choked on his water. "I-I heard it last night, but you were actually there?"

"Yeah, and honestly. It was the most terrifying moment of my life."

"He he, I thought you weren't scared of anything."

"Hmph." I gave him a slight smile in the corner of my mouth. "So, how about that talk you wanted to have?"

"Oh, y-yeah, um...You probably want to know why I was with Cato?"

"All I know is that you wanted to protect me, but I got a feeling it's more than that."

"Well, when Cato approached me with his offer, I was going to say No. Then I thought about it and realized he wanted me to get to you. I thought maybe I could turn his plan against him. I also realized that I got no chance out there on my own." He leaned close and whispered in my ear, "I also told you I have a plan so we can both get out of here. And I needed to survive long enough for my friend to get here and to find you."

I knew the Gamemakers didn't want anyone leaving on their own terms. If he had a plan, he knew he had to keep it a secret. So I leaned back and whispered as well.

"Who's your friend?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

He certainly wasn't giving any hints. No one back on Berk was his friend, except me now, but he was talking about someone else. Whoever it was must have the ability to get us out of here. My first thought was the king. No, that definitely can't be it, he'd never even met the king.

There was just one more thing I had to know. "Did you really make me this headband."

I looked into his eyes, they were emerald green and shone in the sunlight. "Yes." I could see in his eyes that he was telling the truth. I smiled and blushed a little bit. I leaned my head against his shoulder.

We sat in silence as the sun went down. We boiled the water and then stored it. It was colder than usual as I set up the sleeping bag at the base of a tree. Hiccup reassured me he had set up enough traps to keep us safe, and after seeing his handiwork, I believed him. I got in the sleeping bag and looked at him. He sat next to me shivering, it hurt me to see him like that.

"Come on get in." I said. He just looked at me dumbfounded.

"S-s-seriously?" his stuttering had increased due to the cold.

"Yeah, I can't let a friend sit in the cold and freeze to death." I gestured him in. He got in, I wasn't sure if he was shaking because he was cold or because he was nervous. I turned so my back was to him. I wasn't afraid of him trying anything, he knew me well enough to know that if he tried anything he'd be dead in seconds. But I could still feel his breath on my neck.

"Astrid," he whispered in my ear.

"What?"

"If my plans going to work, we're going to have to ditch our trackers."

I only now remembered that we had those. He was right, if we wanted a clean getaway we were going to have to lose the trackers so they couldn't follow us.

"What do you have planned?" I rolled over so I was facing him.

He pulled out his pocket knife and his flashlight and rolled up his sleeve. He turned on the light and shined it on his arm. I could see the raised piece of skin were the tracker was. He then handed me the knife. I reached out into my backpack and grabbed the first aid kit. I took out some rubbing alcohol and used it to disinfect the blade. I then readied the rubbing alcohol to clean the wound. I could see him brace himself for the pain. I put the point a little above the ridge and lightly pressed in. A few drops of blood came out. More blood oozed out as I slowly cut over the ridge. I sensed him tense as I cut. I put the knife down and then put my fingers into the cut and pulled out the tracker. He sighed as I pulled the tracker out. It was shaped like a pill and was just as big. Thankfully it was lodged between the muscle and the skin. I took out some bandages and gently wrapped it around the cut in his arm.

I then gave him the knife so he could do the same to me. He hesitated before taking it. He used the alcohol to wash away the blood that was on the blade and to disinfect it again. I gave him the arm that had the tracker in it. He gently took it and lightly pressed the blade in. I took in a deep breath, this was not the first time I had been cut. I had been through worse pain. He carefully made the cut and pulled out the tracker. He took out some more bandages and wrapped them around my arm, being gentle as he did so.

The way he cared for my arm even though the cut wasn't that bad, made me feel weird inside. That feeling only doubled as I gazed into his emerald green eyes. He looked at me and we held our gaze for a few moments. I remembered our situation and snapped out of the trance I was in. I then took my tracker and put it in between my skirt and pants on my hip. Hiccup then took his and put it in one of his pockets. We didn't want them to know we'd ditched the trackers yet.

We heard the anthem play and looked up to see the deaths of the day. The faces of the girl from one, the boy and girl from three, and the girl from four shone over our heads in the night sky. They disappeared leaving us staring at the stars.

I then turned off the flashlight and rolled over. I could feel him still staring at me. I then heard him roll over and go to sleep. I then remembered something. I punched him on the shoulder again, the one that hadn't been cut into.

"Ow!" He rolled over. "What was that for?"

"That's for tackling me."

I then gave him a quick kiss him on the lips. "That's for everything else." I then rolled over and went to sleep.

So that's it for now. Remember to feel free to review and/or comment. They really do help even if it's just a "good job".