Merry merry Christmas everyone! Happy Hanukkah! Have a great holiday!
isawalicaARROW and TheNightFury: Thank you! :)
BrawlerGamer: Yes, this is going to be a big obstacle in Astrid's way.
I slipped on a dark jacket, one that Jane said would block the wind. Dressed in a black blouse and grey pants, it was the most casual thing I could find to go out to the "shooting range". I didn't know what we'd be shooting, but it had rained the night before, so I wanted to be comfortable for walking in the mud.
I laced up my ragged boots and braided my hair and head out the door. Passing Hiccup on the second floor, who was designing a new type of pillar from what I could see. He was sitting on the ground, leaning against a wall and using a lamp light to sketch in his book.
"Where're ya going?" he asked, not looking up from his work. I was glad I was able to find someone in this castle whom I was able to be so casual with.
"The shooting range. I have a date." I wiggled my eyebrows with a smirk, causing him to laugh a little.
He set his notebook down for a moment and looked at me with his amused, green eyes. "Well, I'll be praying for you," Hiccup said. "Forewarning, Eret sucks at archery."
"I'll keep that in mind."
We bid good-bye to each other, and I walked downstairs. So it was archery. To be honest, I was kind of hoping that they had a shooting range with guns. I hadn't shot many guns before, and I knew that there were lots of weapons used for security here. But I had shot a bow once or twice before, so I was fine with that, too.
A chilly gust of wind bit my cheeks as I walked outside. Burying my face in my scarf, I tread down the slick hill, careful not to slip. It felt good to have my feet in my familiar boots again, rather than sparkly, cramped heels and itchy sandals.
I saw Eret down the hill, in an opening surrounded by trees with a stretch ending in colored targets. The heir was wearing a simple short-sleeved shirt and flexing his muscles, pointing his bow at the target. He was so obviously trying to show off his strength to me, and rather than impressive, I found it quite amusing at how hard he was trying. And there was no way that he wasn't cold out here in this breeze, he was trying to act tough and was failing miserably.
"Ah, Lady Astrid Hofferson!" Eret greeted warmly. "I'm so pleased you could join me." He released the arrow, and it landed far from the center of the target, but at least on the target. That surpassed my expectations for his skills, but I still had yet to see more.
I remembered that in order for me to succeed here and carry through with my plan, I would have to play nice with the prince and act along with his expectations. I needed to act this part for him to like me because I needed him to keep me in the castle as long as he could. So I treated him with a winning smile as I picked up the other bow that was laying on the ground next to him.
I notched an arrow, and drew it, feeling the string's resistance. I was lucky that my hand was healing quickly, or else the action would have been terribly painful. I probably wasn't even supposed to be using it as much as I was, but I felt fine and didn't really care. Aiming it quite loosely for a warm-up shot, I released and the arrow planted in the ring around the center circle. Pleased at my first shot, and being just a warm-up, I beamed as I saw mine so close to the center. Archery was never my forte, but I was still able to muster up some skill for it.
"Beginner's luck," Eret said in a joking tone. I knew he wasn't joking, though, he wanted to believe that he was better for me. The look in his eyes held no comedy. Those eyes…
It looked as if one of the contacts were slipping out of place a bit. The green circles of the contact didn't line up with his natural iris. I could see that brown eyes looked much more natural on him and suited his features better. I was going to put him to the test.
"I really like your eyes," I said, the corners of my mouth twitching upward as I readied another arrow. "The color is very unique."
Eret's eyebrow raised for a second, and he brought his hand up, lightly touching the eye where the contact was off. "Really?" He looked genuinely surprised that I had said that.
"Yes, I can tell you get them from your father," I continued, as I raised the bow and arrow up to aim. It was completely false that Eret's eyes looked like the king's. Stoick had dark green, almost a hazel eye color. These contacts were a synthetic green, that didn't go well over brown, and didn't look natural. I aimed and hit the center target. I didn't hit dead center, but it was still in the small circle in which Eret would dream of shooting.
Eret bit his lip. "Yeah, he's a great guy, my dad."
This made me wonder if he was talking about Stoick or his real dad. Was his real father still a sailor? No matter how awful Eret was, I hoped his family still wasn't poor. Giving up a child would be devastating, I hoped they were generously taken care of by the royals.
"What's it like being an only child?" I asked. "I have three siblings, so I never got peace and quiet." I was really going to dig deep here. His adoptive brother wasn't really recognized as a royal. As I learned from flipping through several newspapers, the media's most popular theory on Hiccup's origins was that he came from a noble family who died, and Stoick was the godfather. Smart, I supposed, to cover it up. It made me think how Eret felt about all of this.
The heir gave a deep chuckle, his clutch on his bow loose. "Well, I'm surrounded by so many people every day, it's as if I have siblings." No mention of Hiccup, his "adopted" brother. It was a smooth dodge from my question, and he loaded his bow again. When he shot, he completely missed the target and buried the arrow in the trunk of a tree. Squirrels and birds fled away from the sight when the arrow struck.
Eret cleared his throat. "Shall we try a different activity?" he said. "The sun will be setting soon, it's always a nice view atop the hill on horseback."
Playing my character skillfully, I set my bow down and delicately took his hand, wanting to do anything but hold his hand. These meaty paws were nothing compared to Hiccup's thin, calloused fingers. They were sweaty and dirty and made me want to soak in a bath. But I had to keep acting my part.
He lead me to the stables, where rows of stalls held magnificent animals. Well-groomed stallions, donkeys, and mules were herded into the stalls, with plenty of food, a clean-swept floor, and fresh water in a large trough. Even these animals were living in royalty.
Once or twice a year, if I had a day of work off, I would help out Gustav on the farm where he worked. The animals lived in a run-down barn, where the wood was splintering and rotted. It smelled of mold from the water it had soaked in from every rain for the past decades, and spiders would always fall onto your head as you were walking by. The horses back home had some hay and unfiltered water, which really showed me that everyone here seemed to be treated like royalty.
Eret opened a stall that had a gold-engraved plaque over the door, which read ERETSON. Was that really the name of his horse? How self-centered can one man possibly be? I selected a small and friendly-looking horse named Sneaky. Maybe another time I would come back and try to ride a fiercer horse, but I still had a winning role to play.
On our horses, we trotted out of the stables and up the decently-sized hill. It got colder and windier, but I didn't mind. The slick grass was a bit of a problem, though. Sneaky's hooves kept sliding, and a swarm of nervous bugs were flittering around in my stomach. I was fine with climbing a slippery hill, but on top of an animal was a different story. Being crushed by a falling horse was not how I wanted to go.
I wasn't an expert on riding horses, but I unhooked myself from the saddle just in case. It might have seemed weird, and I should have tied the saddle tighter to myself, but if Sneaky was going down, I was not going to go down with her.
Eret was rambling on as he did so often for several minutes on the slow trek up. I wished it would take faster. I wanted to get away from the prince. I didn't want to ride down this slippery hill in the dark, either. But I had to suck it up. A little pain was nothing compared to the joy that I would feel in the outcome.
The buff prince was right about one thing: the view was quite spectacular. The setting sun cast mild pink and orange hues to glow on the silhouettes of the city. Planes flew in the distance and skyscrapers loomed over the earth, a view that I had rarely seen before. I found myself hopping off the saddle to take it all in further.
I was so awestruck by the sight, that until I saw the sun's last rays sinking behind the cityscape, I noticed Eret's arm around my shoulders.
I wasn't going to bother with this one. I pushed off his arm and repositioned myself on my saddle, eager to leave. Eret sat on his saddle and lead the way, back down to the castle.
Sneaky was very cautious on the hill. With her short legs and nervous demeanor, it took us a lot longer than Eret and Eretson to descend. I didn't completely mind, for he was ahead multiple meters and was a good distance away from me so that I could enjoy myself that evening.
I bit my lip when it grew harder to see. We were about halfway down, and I didn't know how far ahead exactly Eret was. The increased noises coming from my right side, the woods, made me a bit nervous. I didn't know what was in these woods, and I wasn't intending on finding out.
It seemed like Sneaky wasn't into that, either, because she practically started dancing. Her uneven prancing made me sway harshly, so I gripped the saddle tighter. I didn't want to go rolling down that muddy hill with a horse.
Sneaky let out a neigh, and we started to slide. Tensing up on the saddle, I prepared to jump off. The horse tried to gallop, but she headed sideways toward the woods. When she started to tip, I readied myself and leaped off her saddle, but not before she toppled and my head got hit by her hoof. It wasn't as hard as it could've been, but I was still sent into the trees with my vision going black.
The chirping of birds caused my eyes to open. This definitely was not my room.
Sitting up, I groaned a bit. There was definitely something with this castle and head injuries. Opening my eyes, I came face to face with a huge pair of electric green eyes.
Letting out a yelp and scooting back into a large bush, I was so surprised that I kicked the thing in the face. It snarled, and jumped away from out of my face.
Trying to catch my breath, I sat up, still panting. That couldn't be. The black scales making down to a tail with two differently colored fins, the wings folded on it's back. I rubbed my eyes. It couldn't be.
The dragon looked back, with angry eyes and thin pupils. I was so in disbelief, I couldn't find myself to be afraid of the beast. Berk, at a time many, many years ago, had dragons roam the land, but they had been believed to go extinct way before humans had settled here. Seeing this black dragon made me wonder just how it got here, if anyone knew about it, and how many other dragons could be here. Not just in the country, but in the very woods I was in.
The dragon's throat rumbled, and it latched onto the thick trunk of a nearby tree. Using its long claws, it climbed up and onto a platform I hadn't noticed before. Made out of wood and wrapped around the tree's trunk, I could see that it served as a home for the dragon. But I wondered who could have built this structure. Someone that knew about this dragon.
I stood, but not before noticing how much colder one foot was from the other. I looked at the cold foot and saw my boot was almost completely shredded. Scoffing when I noticed the teeth marks, I knew that this dragon had dragged me to its home. I was very upset, for I had worn those boots for several years. They were one of the only things here in the castle that reminded me of my home, and one of them was ruined.
I was angry at this dragon. It was foolish, and I should've been afraid, but all I felt was fury coursing through my veins. I marched up to the tree and saw the dragon looking down at me. Wondering if there was any way up, I circled the trunk. Someone had to build it, so they had to get up there somehow. What I found was quite different, though.
There was a pile of wooden planks, most likely left over from the build. There was a small box that was next to the wood, and I opened it. It was filled with small tools, like hammers and screwdrivers. But something white caught my eye at the bottom of the box, so I pulled it out.
It was a notebook, with the platform sketched out on it, with notes and multiple scribbles and other designs. What was really surprising, and somewhat frightening, was that I knew this handwriting. I had seen it in another notebook before. I knew what style these sketches were.
This was Hiccup's notebook. Hiccup had built this. Hiccup knew about this dragon.
Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!
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