Hey everyone! Well, here it is! The truth of Astrid's feelings. I don't know if she seems a bit OOC but I know I would react this way. In fact, I have. But here we go. From here, it should speed up in pace.

ENJOY!

With that she ran into the woods. Thankfully the moon was full and gave her some light to see the path to the cove. She ran with all her might, still thinking that Dagur was right behind her, completely ignoring the branches that scratched her body and face.

When she entered the cove, completely out of breath and wide eyed with fear, she saw an empty cove. She couldn't see Dragon anywhere. Or so she thought. Near the edge of the water, a large rock began to move. Then she saw two large green eyes.

"Dragon!" she breathed. "You are here." She then dropped to her knees exhausted. "Thank Thor." She relaxed her hands and two objects thudded to the floor. She was so focused on the grass that she didn't hear Dragon move.

Dragon was surprised to see Astrid that night, especially so late. But when she dropped to her knees and dropped everything, he knew something had happened. He walked over and nuzzled her face.

Astrid looked up and starred into the big, concerned eyes of Dragon. He nuzzled her again wanting to know what happened.

"I'm ok Dragon," Astrid said. Dragon gave her a 'that's a lie' look and Astrid rolled her eyes. "Now, I'm ok." Dragon snorted in approval and sat down expectantly. Astrid sighed seeing that Dragon wouldn't leave her in peace until he knew what happened. "I was attacked in my room."

Dragon growled, narrowed his eyes and barred his teeth. He sniffed her clothes and growled even louder. He expanded his wings with intent to fly off and find the one who attacked her.

"No!" Astrid said stopping Dragon from taking off. His wings compressed, eyes dilated, and teeth retracted as he looked at her. "He's in the middle of Berk. You go there and you'll be out numbered. You'll be killed. Besides, you can't fly. Remember?"

Dragon nuzzled into her shoulder and gurgled. He then ran toward the water and came back with the mug filled with water and presented it to Astrid. She gratefully took it and drank to her heart's content. As Dragon put back the mug, Astrid made herself more comfortable in the middle of the cove.

She sat there and starred at the ground and thought about her mentally scarring experience. She was broken out of her thoughts by Dragon pushing something into the side of her left leg. She looked down and picked up Hiccup's journal.

"How did- I didn't realize I was still holding onto it,"" Astrid said more to herself than anyone else. Dragon gurgled in curiosity at the journal. "I was reading it when Dagur attacked. I didn't know I was still holding onto it."

Dragon sniffed it then narrowed his eyes in confusion. He sniffed Astrid then the journal again and gave Astrid a confused look.

"It's not mine. I don't keep a journal. No, this is someone else's." Once again, Dragon sat on his hind legs waiting for the story. "It belonged to a boy I knew. Hiccup."

Dragon's eyes went wide and he started to rock nervously.

"Do you know who I'm talking about?" Dragon nodded. "Well, unfortunately, he died five years ago at the hands of a dragon. I found it hidden in some logs and I kept it hidden for all these years. I didn't open it until recently."

Dragon stepped closer, eyeing the journal.

"I only really talked to him once and that was because I hit him with my axe. But I found out so much about him in that one experience that I decided to get to know him better but the next day he was dead. When I found his journal, I wanted to read then and there but decided against it because it was his inner thoughts and emotions. I had no right."

Dragon stepped closer.

"I kept it hidden and never opened it. In fact, I forgot about it. It wasn't until Gobber told me a story about him that I became intrigued once again. I battled with myself for a while about reading it but my curiosity won. Besides, Gobber and his dad would have gotten suspicious if I asked too many questions." Astrid scoffed and shook her head. "Why am I telling you this? It's not like you care about what I'm saying right?"

Dragon stepped closer and was now directly in front of Astrid and went for the journal but stopped when he heard a soft sob mixed with another scoff.

"Dragon, he made my axe!" Dragon looked at Astrid. "He made my axe and never said. He thought that I wouldn't touch it if I knew that he made it. Oh gods! I never got to thank him. It's been my trusted friend and ally in battle. It's been through thick and thin. And only because HE made it."

Dragon looked at her sadly and dropped his eyes.

"Did you know he was a genius?" Astrid asked and Dragon shook his head. "Well he was. He wasn't ever strong enough to lift Viking weapons so he invented the crossbow to help him shoot and arrow. It was already invented but he invented it when he was four! He only got better from there. He made my axe, he invented a way to track time! I'm sure he's done more but I haven't read any further yet."

Dragon's eyes were wide with shock.

"He was best friends with his mom and then she di-" Astrid remembered Hiccup's heart wrenching passage and finally broke down. Five years of bottling her emotions, five years of sadness, five years of pain. It all came through at once.

If anyone from the village saw her at this moment, they would have thought her weak and un-Viking but at the moment, she didn't care. She had kept her emotions at bay for too long and the dam broke. When Dragon wrapped his tail and wing around her, she melted into Dragon's body for support.

"I was so horrible to him. I was more concerned about up holding my family name and status that I treated him like a crippled yak because everyone else did. I didn't want to disgrace my family by hanging out with him because apparently that's what would have happened. Looking back, he always tried to talk to me but I ignored him. What if he really needed someone to talk to? I may have hurt him more than I ever would have been."

Dragon gurgled in her hair and petted her with his nose.

"He lost his mom when he turned five. On his birthday! He blames himself for that. He thought that his birthday was a curse that killed his mom. I can relate to him. When my parents died, I blamed myself. I thought if I had done something different, they would be here right now. That pain has never gone away and I was thirteen. I can't imagine how he felt when he was five."

Dragon tightened his encompassing body around Astrid as she continued to spill her emotions out to him.

"I saw the real Hiccup the day before he died. He was selfless, kind, loyal, funny, brave, and open as I read his journal, I see love, sadness, happiness, heart break, doubt, creativity, intelligence, and fear. He was more than I ever thought or ever told he could be. He surprised me in the woods that day and continues to surprise me. I've never met anyone like him and I probably never will."

Dragon placed his head on her back and closed his eyes.

"Gods, I miss him," she whispered.

Astrid continued to sob quietly into Dragon's scaly hide while Dragon continued to comfort herthe best he could. He cooed softly until she calmed down enough to where Dragon feel the tension leave her muscles.

Astrid was at peace. She had released all the tension she had been building up for the past five years. She settled into Dragon's side with no intention of leaving the safety of Dragon's defenses.

"Thank you Dragon," Astrid whispered. "Thank you for listening." With that, Astrid closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Dragon, realizing she wasn't going anywhere, blasted the ground and made a fire to keep his human guest warm. Together, the Night Fury and the Viking slept peacefully entwined together.

Astrid woke in a strange place. She saw green grass, a blue sky, and a tall bed of rock. She suddenly remembered where she was and relaxed a bit into the hide of Dragon. She then stiffened when she felt that they weren't alone. She slowly turned around and saw four other dragons: a Deadly Nadder, Monstrous Nightmare, Gronkle, and a Zippleback.

Oh gods! They're not going to be happy seeing a dragon with a Viking.

She tried to get out of Dragon's entanglement which woke him up. He looked at her confused and she pointed to behind him. He looked and his eyes went wide and quickly got up, careful of Astrid. He began to talk to them in his tongue as Astrid stood by and watched.

Dragon argued with them, or so it seemed to Astrid. The Nightmare was in a complete rage. It tried to charge at Astrid but Dragon tackled him to the ground and growled at him. Meanwhile, the Nadder was in disbelief. It just starred at Astrid then at Dragon and just kept going back and forth. The Zippleback argued with themselves on their thought on the matter while the Gronkle just listened.

Finally, Dragon said something that calmed them Monstrous Nightmare stopped flaming, the Nadder's spikes flattened on its tail, the Zippleback stopped fighting, and the Gronkle sat down. They then all looked at Astrid which made her uncomfortable. Dragon continued to talk and soon the dragon's eyes softened and their rage died down.

Dragon turned to Astrid and bounded behind her and slowly pushed her to them. "Hey! What are you doing? They're going to kill me!"

Dragon pushed her in front of the Deadly Nadder which was looking sideways at her. Her blue scales and yellow horns enchanted Astrid though it did little to calm her nerves. Astrid tried to think of a way to show the Nadder that she could trust her but didn't really know how.

Wait! What about what happened between Dragon and I? I'll try that.

Astrid slowly raised her right arm and extended her hand out to the Nadder but kept a little space between them so that the Nadder could initiate the trust. Surprisingly to Astrid, the Nadder did and Astrid immediately thought of a name for her.

"Stormfly," she whispered. Astrid surprised herself and the sudden naming. She turned to Dragon and asked, "Why couldn't I come up with a name for you?" Dragon just shrugged, in his dragon way.

The moment that Stormfly trusted Astrid, so did the other dragons. They felt safe with her knowing about them and the Nightmare seemed to be forgiving Dragon while the Zippleback heads seemed to be fighting for attention from Astrid.

Astrid though, saw that the sun was beginning the approach the position that indicated she needed to be at breakfast and started to the exit. "I have to go guys. I need to get back or they'll send someone to find me. I'll be back though."

On her way, she picked up Hiccup's journal and her axe and headed back to Berk completely ecstatic about meeting the new dragons. So Dragon isn't the only dragon that trusts Vikings. I wonder if all dragons are like that of if they're just the very few that do that.

"Astrid! Astrid!" Gobber called. She didn't leave a note and was not at the Mead Hall. He began to panic. Once again she was missing with no explanation. He ran down the stairs with intent on getting Stoick when he ran into Astrid. "By the gods Astrid! I thought something had happened again! Where were you?"

"I was in the forest and lost track of time. I'm sorry," Astrid said a little out of breath.

"What made you lose track of time?"

"I was reading."

Gobber's eyes went wide with astonishment. "I didn't know that you liked to read."

"I don't, I just found something that interested me."

"What are you reading?"

Astrid froze. How am I going to lie out of this one? "Um…a journal."Really? Why couldn't you just lie to him?

"A journal? Who's journal? Yours?"

"Yea!" Astrid said too quickly that Gobber narrowed his eyes a little.

"Why?"

"I just wanted to read what I wrote several years ago."

"Well, I didn't know you kept a journal. Is that is right there?"

Astrid scolded herself. "Yes, I keep a journal and yes, it's mine."

"Really?" Gobber said as he crossed his arms. "Cause that looks a lot like the one that used to be attached to Hiccup's arm." Astrid's eyes went wide. "So it isn't yours." Astrid dropped her eyes and slowly shook her head. "Have you been reading it? Is that why you've been asking me all those questions about him?"

"Yes." She looked up and saw Gobber's disapproving look. "I fought with myself to not read it but I really wanted to get to know him."

"Get to know him? Why don't you just ask Stoick or me?"

"Because you would have asked why I was asking you all those questions."

"Well, I'm asking now. Why so interested? He's been dead for five years."

"Almost five years. It'll be five in a month." Gobber gave her a 'really?' look.

"Why read his journal?"

"Because it's the real him. The Hiccup we always saw was clumsy and quiet and always scared. At least that's what people told me and when I saw him, he seemed to solidify those accusations but then I accidently hit him with my axe injuring him and I saw a side that nobody ever sees. The side that he hides for some reason."

"When did you injure him?"

"It was the day before he died."

"Oh. I see."

"He had surprised me over and over again in those few hours we were together. He was funny, brave, kind, sad, scared, happy, intelligent, open minded, and stupid all at once. Did you know he thoughtof me before himself."

Gobber looked at her with confusion on his face. "How did he think of you first?"

"He told me to enter town first. He said he didn't want my reputation hurt because of him."

"Oh."

"He was different. A good different and a bad different. He put way too much on his shoulders. Did you know that he considered his birthday a curse because his mom died on it?"

"No, I didn't but that would explain a lot."

"Or that he invented the crossbow?"

"But it was already invented."

"That's not the point Gobber. The point is that when he was four he invented it so that he could hold a weapon."

Gobber thought about it for a moment then the realization hit him. "You're right. That is pretty impressive. But I always knew he was a genius when it came to that sort of thing."

"He was smart, creative, caring, kind and we shunned him for it! It wasn't right. None of it. We shunned him because he wasn't a Viking! But he was a Viking! More of a Viking than he let on. And he probably paid the price for it."

"What do you mean?"

"Hiccup was the only one who was kind to the witch that was executed five years ago. He set aside the fact that she was the enemy to help her. Because of that and because he was different, she saw our blindness and took the one person that could have led the way. The one person who could've help us. But she wanted us to learn on our own so she took him away. By the look of things, we haven't changed. Whoever would have been our salvation will die because we are too stubborn to learn our lesson. If we just stopped to listen and be more of a-a-a-Hiccup!, then maybe we'd still have our future chief."

Gobber had listened to Astrid's rant and had come to realize something. He slowly smiled and looked at Astrid with a clamed expression.

"What?" Astrid asked when she saw Gobber's strange face.

"I think you just figured out what you're looking for."

"Looking for?"

"In a reason why you have denied all other suitors." With that Gobber turned to head out the door. "I think Stoick would like to see that when you're done. I know it's not right for non-family to read something that personal but because of your reasons I'll ignore it."

Astrid watched as Gobber left. She still was confused at what he said. What I'm looking for? In a Viking? What is he talking about? All I want is someone kind, caring, brave, understanding and …

Then she understood. She gasped in realization. For the past five years she hadn't been looking for anyone because she already found the one she wanted, the one she needed.

"For five years, I've been love with Hiccup!" she whispered to herself.