It was a solid blow to the face that left Hiccup gaping. Astrid could not have been more satisfied watching him choke and cough for air and words. But in the struggle, the shield-maiden swore she heard giggles. Clenching her fist, she snarled while he barely stayed upright.
"Y-You want, you want to challenge me to a Dragon Race!?" He sputtered.
"Do you have a problem with that, Mr. Dragon Whisperer?"
Hiccup's laughter withered to scoffs; she swore she'd punch him for real if she heard him do that again. The crowd atop the boat was far less amused. His Night Fury hissed at her in defense whether of its master or its pride she was unsure. The runaway's mother looked pleased somewhat. As for Hiccup's wife, she clutched the hull of the boat ready to snap the wood in her clutch, a stare of outrage on her face bolstering her spirits.
"I think you're the one who has a problem with that," he walked up to her speaking. "I've ridden on the fastest dragon in the Archipelago for years. You can't even get close to one unless you're looking to tear something out of its chest."
"If you can pull it off, there can't be that much to it."
"It's disturbing how much you sound like Snotlout right now."
"So what? You think you're some tough, dragon-taming hot shot, now's your chance to prove it!" She goaded. "Prove to everyone you're more than just talk!"
"Weren't you listening?" He fired back. "I'm done proving my worth to you people!"
"You're the one not listening! You're only chief of their island because you ran off like a coward instead of facing the responsibility you had here, to us!" She shoved him back, his weak armor a joke. "I'm not giving you the chance this time. You're going to face me, and you're going to lose… badly."
Hiccup slapped her hand away. True to his weak fashion, he yielded with a sigh. "There's no getting through to you, is there?"
"That just sounds like you're running scared." She said. The favor of virtue went to her this time, as she held her silence, crossing her arms. She dared him to make a move and expose his childish whim.
He dragged his hand over his face, a move his father made when he was at his wit's end. He couldn't see how much he resembled him even now. The growl beneath his hand made the resemblance uncanny.
"Fine…"
"WHAT!?" His wife shrieked from the boat.
"Smart move, Hiccup." Astrid stood in victory. "For once."
"Hiccup, you do not have to agree to this!" His wife ran to the top of the gangplank. "We just wanted to give these people food, not play their stupid games. Let's leave now."
"If only it were that simple, Alta." Hiccup said. "Like I said, I know Berk, and they don't take no for an answer."
For once, he'd taste the humiliation and powerlessness of being left with no future where he could walk away with a wayward smile. Astrid and his party watched with mixed emotions as he rose up the gangplank onto the boat. His hand clenched the ship's hull, knuckles white with desperate disgrace. She savored it behind her emotionless face.
"A party will escort you and a group of representatives to Draak in a week. You'll have the rest of the reprieve time to prepare yourself." He drew his arm back to his side. "If you win—"
"You'll come back to Berk, no questions asked. And nobody will ever hear the words 'Draak' or 'Bone Heads' again."
Hiccup's shoulders tensed. "And if I win, you and Berk are out of my life. Forever."
She turned to him in full, the pride of Berk in her stance. "Challenge accepted."
Astrid gave no thought to Hiccup making civil servants of dragons by the weeks end. She and the people of Berk were aghast seeing riders defiling their island. She and her chosen – Stoick, Gobber, the other teens, and their parents – half-expected to be scooped in their claws and dumped into the ocean in treachery. Riding on dragon-back was hardly better.
Landing on the isle of Draak was like being tossed into the slaughterhouse, meat for beasts of scale and skin. The unity and vitality on the island she saw when she first snuck into the village was gone. Every way they looked there were hostile stares from men, women, and children and their pets that sent jolts turning her limbs stiff. Dragons would hiss streams of flame at their feet while the odd child would run up for a cheap shot at their legs. The twins made a contest of who got the harder kick that ended with Ruff using her brother as a meat shield.
Let them lash out, she sneered. The thoughts of heathens were of no interest to her.
Her group was given lodging in the guest houses, while she was led almost on chains by one of Hiccup's new friends to the 'Dragon Training Academy.' Another of his attempts to subvert tradition when it was just another Kill Ring with open fences and polished stone, everything but flowers lining the bars. There was Hiccup's wife and her Timberjack curled by her feet in the center. The two combatants of the dragon chief stared square at one another, formalities forgotten.
"You're really here again…" she muttered.
"Like I want to get stuck in a bonding session with you, either." Astrid twirled her axe from her back and pointed the tip at her nose. "Let's get this over with. Get a dragon, the best one, and make it obey me."
"A girl who knows what she wants." The boy behind her—Ot, they called the fresh stock of a lanky moron—said from behind. "Kinda hot."
"What she needs, Ot," Alta glared, "is to get it through her thick skull that bonding with a dragon doesn't work like that."
"I wouldn't be talking about getting things through my skull, Bone Head."
"Cute."
Astrid snorted, irritated enough from discussion. "Fine then, wondrous dragon master, how does your great chief do it? I'm guessing Hiccup has a bunch of tricks to get these demons to play nice. Typical."
"Wrong on two counts there, Sunshine." Ot flip-kicked a dagger into the air. His Nadder went airborne, whipped its tail and shot a spine knocking the blade away. It stopped an inch from Astrid's foot. "You might want to look and see dragons are smarter than you think. That is, if you do want them to play nice."
"I want them to do what I say. I'm not here to make friends."
"That battle's already lost, in my book." Alta crossed her arms. She didn't know losing and Hoffersons were what any Berk Viking could say didn't mix.
"Watch it, Alta. Don't want her coming for your head again." Ot quipped.
"I don't care. I'm just saying what everyone is thinking." Alta turned to Astrid, swiping the heavy axe away. She looked at her dead in the eye with that sickening defiance she showed everyone. "This race is only happening because of you. But you're not even going to get to the starting line unless you're willing to listen. You're just toting that weapon ready to lob off the head of every dragon I'll try to saddle you in. Look me in the eye and tell me you can do this."
"You think I can't?" She flared up growling.
"That wasn't an answer."
For the first time, the answer wasn't clear cut to her. The life of a warrior was simple or at least meant to be: live for glory, die in glory, choose the path of honor. In all honesty, she wasn't thinking when she'd spoke out to Hiccup, and she'd have sliced out her tongue if she'd known it meant taking orders from a heathen. But her blade lowered with the temperance she was only fighting a different kind of battle, her heart still in the right place. As her uncle and the All-Father were her witnesses she hefted her weapon, confident in part they would forgive her treachery.
Alta breathed turning away. "Ot, bring out the dragon."
Astrid huffed. "You better have gotten me a good one."
"Relax, Sunshine. Hiccup picked out this big old beauty for you." Ot said. "She's stockpiled on enough chicken to beat most of the seasoned riders."
The silhouette of the beast circled the ring surrounded in a coat of wind, tearing the sky she flew. It surged into the arena with a powerful shrill cry. A Deadly Nadder with is spines glistening and wings spread to cloud her surroundings. But Astrid watched the beast close.
Fishlegs preached of the vanity in Nadders, how they took pride in their appearances. Yet this Nadder was long past elegant with cracks and scars staining its dull-colored scales, wings with frayed edges and holes in the membrane. She traced over every scar imagining the blade of her axe running through every spot. And it hit her with the sound of an echoing battle cry, crashes of wood, and a thud of metal hitting a crown of spikes.
"That's… our Nadder!" Astrid cried pointing. "The one from our training! It was in our Kill Ring!"
The Nadder growled with fury bearing its spines, a sign it remembered her as well. Just as she blinked those spines shot out, the shield maiden narrowly rolling out of the way. It charged at her with a stream of fire melting stone in its wake. She back flipped from its path as bits of flame and molten rock seared the flesh in her arms.
Cursing faith in the unfaithful, Astrid grabbed her axe again. A stray shot's force tore it out of her grip, near taking her arm with it. Ot's Nadder was the culprit. "What are you doing!?"
"Rule 1 of Dragon Training, Sunshine. No weapons at first contact."
"How am I supposed to defend myself?" A question asked with the tone Ot might need to defend himself.
"You shouldn't have to." Alta walked up. "The point is to gain the dragon's trust, not its carcass. And you can start by getting its attention."
"You people are crazy! This is just to kill me!"
Her 'chosen' dragon came forward again after bouncing off the wall. If she was expected to 'bond' with this creature that only had killing intent, then she knew where to start. Astrid would insist it was a hug, but it was clearly a leap into the dragon with a grip that could have snapped its neck. What she called 'getting its attention' was holding it down and stomping on its snout hard enough to break its teeth.
She locked it dead in the eye and, against advisory, drew her axe to its eye. "Listen and listen good dragon. I am 'Fearless' Astrid Hofferson. I won't lose to anyone or anything! Certainly not some foul demon like you!"
It glared at her, snapping its jaw. She glared back.
"You will obey me."
The horizon was a sickening kind of beautiful to Hiccup, wrapped in the comfort of his Night Fury with his son in his lap. The sun was bright with beams like a smile that tore at the cheeks and burned the eyes with a blaring happiness. Winds were bone-chilling but balmy for that time of year. And the ocean: its waves never sounded so calming, it never looked so blue… and so small. Small enough that the Hooligans tracked him down when they should have stayed away.
Midgard's beacon of happiness was now just as blank as a shield-splattered painting. Same sight as always, but different.
Hiccup cast his gaze to his son, having wormed his way out of his grip too easily. Another reminder of how weak he was. "Dad?"
Toothless nudged his back, flicking an ear flap to his child. Hiccup put on his best 'dad' face. "Yeah, Alvis?"
"Are… are you…" Alvis was struggling to find words, a concerning trait for a six-year-old Viking child. "Are you gonna leave us and go with those bad people?"
That was why everything suddenly looked different–Hiccup should have known Berk's way of squeezing the life out of everything. But the image no doubt in Alvis's mind was in his now, being towed back in everything but shackles, Astrid shoving him with a triumphant sneer, Snotlout mocking him with every step, Stoick not saying a word. Everything reverting to what it used to be, his years of growing into his own man never happening. He'd be damned if Berk and its childish ranks got what it wanted at his sacrifice once again.
Despite looking at him, his son's whimper let him catch his own terrifying scowl. Hiccup swallowed it and inhaled. He was not stooping to their level again. "What? You think Toothless and your old man stand a chance of losing?"
His child bought it. "No way! You're the best rider here, dad!"
"That's right," he rubbed his boy's thick mop of hair earning a laugh. "Don't you forget it!"
There was no challenge, no threat to his standing in Draak or the state of his family; his son's worries were misplaced. Agreeing to Astrid's ridiculous challenge was pointless.
"Sorry to interrupt."
The three turned to Hairke, still as dignified in old age as he was in his prime, though prime spanned a wide range of life. Arms still solid as tree trunks yet streaks of gray were in his beard, a lifetime of Alta's spirit and the turn of recent events running them through the thick of the braid. Hiccup wondered if he would be getting gray streaks due to the same reasons.
"Alvis, why don't you run along?" He pointed back. "See if anyone needs help with setting up for the race."
"Okay, grandpa." Alvis hopped over Toothless's tail and ran off waving. "See you later."
Hiccup waved back, holding the smile as best he could. His son out of view, the charade could finally end and he slumped rubbing his throbbing cheeks. It still hurt in many ways wearing a fake smile.
His father-by-law pulled him up with a hearty slap on the back. "Coin fer your thoughts?"
"That still stings."
"My coin's worth more than that, lad." Hairke pulled him along the road with Toothless behind him.
There was gray in everything but the Bone Heads clearly tried to put a spark of celebration into such a grim event. They lined the streets with the banners of different dragon faces while Terrors joined the bigger dragons in lighting the sky with glimmering flares. Every family had a wave and a smile to give as their huts were painted in black and red in favor of the predetermined winner around their hall's traditional colors. Their hopes were strong as the windmills turned, bringing a lopsided grin to his face worth the fresh sting.
That just made the returning reality more crushing. "They never stop."
"No, but you can't beat Vikings when it comes to a good party." Hairke chuckled.
"I mean Berk," Hiccup turned with a withered glare. "They won't stop. This race is crazy, everyone knows that. And it's just the tip of the iceberg, who knows what's coming next! Just classic Berk insanity!"
Hairke mulled his words, that old mustache twitching. "Aye, true. The Hooligan lass challenging you to a Dragon Race was a shock to everyone, given the circumstances."
"I don't even understand why they want me to be their chief so badly!" Hiccup flailed in circles. "The laws state you don't even have to be blood to take the chiefdom. The Haddocks and Jorgensons are united by marriage only, so it didn't have to be Snotlout! Why can't they just-"
"Change?"
Hairke stopped him cold with that magic word that everything was revolving around in the times. Hiccup noticed then the old Draak chief was now looking him in the eye. "It would have been change enough you turned them down, given your history. But that brings me to the question on everyone's mind: why did you agree?"
"What? W-What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said, lad. Why did you agree to a race where you had nothing to gain, and everything to lose?"
He'd just asked that question to himself, and even without Hairke's interruption, Hiccup didn't have the answer. The answer should have been simple – it was Astrid who had made the challenge. It might have been the same old feeling that came with their interactions: the mix of butterflies and cold steel in his stomach, something common to most who dealt with her. Either way, Astrid Hofferson had a knack for getting what she wanted. It was only hitting him after the fact that he'd gotten roped into her game.
"Guess I'm not really over things after all."
His lies were just as potent. Hairke quirked a eyebrow – another sign that he hadn't changed. "Before you go beating yourself with opinions, think that this could be a blessing."
"What kind of blessing? It's Berk and they're trying to steal me away!" Hiccup turned to him. "I'd call that the opposite of a blessing!"
"You don't imagine this a sign? Vikings on the back of dragons, your people seeing the light?"
"That's…"
He couldn't bring that lost cause up again, not after one night and six years of cold proof otherwise. Hairke must have been satisfied with silence as he walked away without a word. Toothless, who he had forgotten was behind, nudged his hand and gave a soft warble.
"I don't know, bud." He stroked the Night Fury's head without looking. "Let's just go for a flight."
Toothless never objected to a flight, and this time was no different. But as Hiccup clicked the tail fin and they took over the island, Hiccup caught his father in the plaza. It was too far to make out his face though Hiccup wasn't sure if he could wager a guess.
Astrid tumbled across the arena, still finding the strength to land on her feet. Bangs of hair frayed down her face and sweat was following suit in waterfalls. The Nadder, with its spines bared and flames in its mouth, gave a daring growl almost mocking her for her declaration. Just a beast with the arrogance to spite her when she was at the very least sparing its life. She charged and went for its neck again reigning it in by its crowning spines as it bucked across the arena.
Another attempt that ended with her slammed onto the wall and unsteadily on her feet. She was that close to the axe thrown onto the ground from an earlier tumble, in more ways than one.
"How many times is this?" Ot was asking in the background.
The heathen woman was sipping tea of all things perched on a crate. "Forty, or something. I'm starting to lose count."
"Okay, before we all start falling asleep here," the dagger-twirling nut leapt from his Nadder's curl. "Let's try this from an angle that doesn't end with you splatting on the wall. What say you?"
Between heavy breaths, Astrid lunged for the scruff of his shirt. She near spat in his face. "Unless you two can tell me something that works, you're useless."
"Right, because your method has been so effective."
Astrid whiplashed turning to her. "What was that!?"
"Blueskin, a little help?" Ot's Nadder snapped at the other woman's command and jogged to the center. The other Nadder was ready to fire, but Ot's dragon launched spines that startled her into swallowing her flames. The darker-shaded Nadder chirped bobbing its head, almost talking with the wild one like either of them knew the concept of reason. Something must have gotten through, she couldn't deny, as the other Nadder backed glaring at her all the while.
All she could do was catch her breath gaping. "What?"
"I thought you were here to train a dragon." Hiccup's wife walked up with the fought urge to slap her. Astrid knew, feeling the same. "I told you to listen to me if you wanted even a chance at that, and instead you go trying to twist its neck! Are you being serious here or not?"
"I came here to control a dragon, not make friends with one."
"Too bad, because that's kind of the point. You need to wake up and see they're not the mindless beasts you seem to want to think they are."
"I don't care what they are." Astrid marched up to Hiccup's wife. "I'm here doing something important. It's going to help me put Hiccup's smug butt in its place, on our longboat and far away from this nuthole."
"Oh, so we're back to that? We're all just loonies who've warped your heir to our blasphemous ways!" She took a step back. Astrid was good at sensing the fear in her opponents, hers rightly placed after their last encounter. "What is it about change that scares you so much?"
"I am not afraid of anything!"
"It's just plain old stubbornness then?"
Astrid scoffed and turned away, her axe back in her hand before anything else. "If you're not going to show me your tricks, I'll get this dragon to obey me the old-fashioned way."
"There's something to be said about a woman's determination." Ot sauntered in with that annoying smirk of his again. Astrid was finding less thinks to like about him by the second. He was already set in her mind as a lankier version of Snotlout. "Though not much when it's coupled on less than noble intentions."
"Look who's going back to the same old song and dance now…"
"Hey, don't get testy. I'm just basing it on certain info I got out of his life story, which won the heart of many a Viking around these parts." He leaned in sickeningly close. "You can tote it on the back of bringing a wayward son home all you want and hope fortune favors the just. But if we're talking 'putting his smug butt in its place,' well... That sounds more like a reward for you than Berk."
She didn't know what he was talking about. She was a warrior for Berk, everything she ever did was for Berk. Hiccup's return would be what was best for the island, and if he was reintroduced to humiliation, that would teach him to behave. In that regard she was doing him a favor too. Astrid would have said it as such, but he turned around without the decency of hearing her word.
"But hey, I'm just saying. Whatever you're going to do, and why you're doing it, better make sure you're set." He stroked his Nadder's head. "Might be your last chance."
He was just getting in her head. "I will bring Hiccup back to Berk. So you people better start looking for a new chief."
"Challenge accepted," he stated smirking, less than convinced. "Now why don't you accept yours and get to work with that Nadder. Pro tip, you can start by learning her name."
"Fine. What's her name?"
"Call her Stormfly."
Stormfly… now why would I do that? Could there be some hope for Astrid after all?
Anyway, thank you all for your patience. I wasn't sure if I was going to release this in line with my schedule. Truth be told, I really struggled with this chapter since I was making it all up off the seat of my pants – the story, the dialogue, the emotions, everything. But anyone who saw my note in Dragon's Hero knows the gist: some people are capable of making it up as they go along. I discovered in the course of developing my skills that I am not one of those people.
But that's okay. This is going to be the work where I decide: hey, it's okay to make mistakes and see what you learn from it.
Thanks to everyone for their notes on the last chapter. I'm glad to see how readers were invested with the extra charge of tension I put in. I want to make note of how I pulled that off for my next HTTYD work.
Another thanks for the continuous reviews. One more chapter to go before another break.
As always, review, favorite, follow!
