I'm back!
Hope you guys are all having a good summer so far. Its been tough for me, starting out with my new job and all, but its all starting to smooth out now. As usual, I wish I could have gotten this chapter up earlier, but I didn't so here it is now.
With no more further ados, enjoy the chapter.
"NO!"
That single word was torn from Erik's throat almost against his own volition, shattering the tranquil silence that had come over the crowd. Hundreds of eyes turned towards him at that moment, but he didn't care.
This was not how it was supposed to happen. These people were supposed to be destroying the nest. These people were supposed to be fighting the dragons, even if it meant that they were all to be destroyed. And after, Dragon was supposed to finish of the last remains of the winning side, to claim the ultimate victory.
And he, Erik, was supposed to be the one to destroy the girl whom had once been his sister.
Of course, that plan fell to disaster with the turn that not even Drago had been able to predict. That the original dragon rider was the wife of Stoick the Vast.
In his minds eye, he could see the people of Berk and the dragons united against Drago, of battling side by side, and beating the unstoppable trapper. For , with those forces combined, Drago might indeed be defeated. If the dragons and the Vikings of Berk refused to fight each other, Drago would arrive to find a much larger force to fight then he would be expecting.
Which meant that, if the plan was to work, Erik couldn't allow the two sides to not fight each other.
"Have you forgotten all these dragons have done to you?" Erik shouted, his eyes sweeping over the crowd. Out of the corver of his eye, Erik saw the chief and the dragon riders turn to him, but he didn't care.
If he could win the loyalty of the masses, it wouldn't matter if the chief still loved his wife. For the people of Berk, there was still the matter of the dragons that had plagued them for years.
"That woman" Erik roared, pointing his sword at Valka "has betrayed us. Chief's wife or not, she has sided with the enemy. She deserves to be dealt with like one."
There were mutterings among the crowd, though they sounded less friendly to his cause than Erik might have liked.
And of course, Stoick was less than pleased. The big chief turned to face Erik, his expression darkening with anger.
"Hold your tongue, boy. This doesn't concern you."
"Like hell it doesn't" Erik retorted. He advanced towards Stoick until the two of them were only a couple of feet apart. "This concerns the whole village, Stoick. That woman" Erik gestured to Valka "is with the dragons that attacked our village. She would see every one of us dead if she had the chance."
"That's not true." The woman, Valka, said before Stoick could reply. "These dragons are not the ones who attack Berk. These dragons are peaceful. They would never hurt a human unless they were first attacked."
"Oh really?" Erik rumbled. It was time for him to play the last card. "Then wouldn't hurt a soul? What about kidnapping a child?"
The whole of island went deathly silent.
Valka's face turned white, and her mouth moved as if attempting to form words, but no sound came out. Over her shoulder, Erik saw Astrid, still masked, flinch.
"That right." Erik said, addressing the whole of the crowd. "I think we all remember that sad, sad day, eleven years ago, when my parents lost a daughter, and I lost a sister. We all thought she had been killed in the raid, a tragic result of the war."
Erik paused to let that soak in before continuing.
"But as it turns out, that was not the case. No, my little sister was taken away, not killed. An innocent girl, no more than nine summers old, kidnapped and taken from her family, by those same dragons who raided us."
"So if these are not the dragons who plague our island, then why is Astrid Hofferson standing right there?!" Erik all but shouted as he pointed.
There were gasps from the crowd, as every eye focused on the masked girl. Astrid herself stood there in shock, her whole body rigid, and she suddenly wished she could turn invisible and hide from those hundreds of questioning gazes.
The only person who did not turn to look at Astrid was Stoick. His eyes were on his wife.
"Val." Stoick said, his voice cracking "Is this true?"
Valka started at him for a moment, and then, very slowly she nodded.
"It is true." Valka said, her voice very small.
Erik's looked on with a smug grin. And opened his mouth to continue. But before he could say anything, another voice interrupted.
"Yes, it's true."
It was Astrid's voice.
It took a real force of will for Astrid to keep her voice from shaking, though when she did finally start speaking again, it came out stronger than she felt.
"It was true that when I was a child, I was taken away from my home by a dragon. It is true that I asked to be taken home, and denied. It is true that I was taught to be a dragon rider."
"But" Astrid continued "it is also true that my life was saved by the same dragon that kidnapped me. It is also true that this woman" Astrid gestured towards Valka "protected and loved me as a mother. It is also true that she prevented me from going back for my own safety. It is true that she taught me a better life, a life where I do more good than I ever would have back on Berk. It is also true-"
"Those are not good enough reasons to take a child from their mother!"
Astrid's turned towards the voice, a woman's voice.
It came from the crowd of Vikings, somewhere near the front, and rang out with a sense of confidence and authority that was strangely familiar. The crowd parted as a figure approached, and when they emerged, Astrid saw her.
Slim, tall, and lean, the woman carried herself with the bearings of a true warrior. Not the bravado-filled swagger of an over confident swashbuckler, nor the absolute arrogance of a proud, conquering warlord. No, her stance was not arrogant, but confident, balanced, and cautious. She wore a plain outfit, made of brown, form fitting leather pock-marked with metal studs, as well as iron shoulder pads, wrist guards, and boots.
But the true giveaway was the woman's waist length, golden-blond hair. And the circlet of leather that wound around her head.
After all the return of Erik and her entire village, Astrid could not muster up enough energy to be shocked at her appearance.
For this woman was someone she should have expected to see, though, with her attention focused on Erik, it had not even occurred to her that she might see some others of her family.
For this woman standing before Astrid was Iona Celestia Hofferson, Astrid's, and Erik's, birth mother.
But her face was very different from the face of the woman Astrid had once known.
The creases that crisscrossed over Iona's face were more than just the result of being eleven years older. The weariness in her eyes were much more than the fact that she was moving further and further away from the prime of her youth.
No, these were the signs of a woman who had lost much. A sign of one who had seen much, much grief. The loss of two of her children, one by circumstance, and once by choice.
Of course, now she knew that both were lost by someone's choices.
"Astrid… Is that truly you?"
Astrid heard the desperate pain and longing in her mother's voice, and felt a responding feeling within herself. She opened her mouth to respond, but Erik beat her to it.
"No, mother. That is not your daughter, as she is no longer my sister. You heard her. She has chosen to side with the dragons. The same dragons that killed Father!"
A jolt ran up Astrid's spine, even as the murmuring in the crowd increased.
Father…
But, all in all, there was to many emotions jumbling around in Astrid's mind at that moment for her to properly feel grief. Instead, she mostly felt numb, as if the pressure of so many different feelings had simply dulled her senses.
That, and she had already grieved for those she left behind once before.
"Look at her, mother. LOOK AT HER!" Erik yelled, pointing to Astrid emphatically.
And indeed, Iona locked eyes with her daughter for the first time in over a decade. They both stood speechlessly, staring at each other as everyone else collectively held their breath.
Astrid was the first to move.
She stepped forward, striding slowly towards her mother. She walked by Valka, who opened her mouth to speak as Astrid strode by, but Astrid silenced her with a glance of warning. She walked by Erik, who's smug look was turning to suspicion. She passed Hiccup, who eyed her with a look of concern, but trusted her judgement.
Astrid hoped that trust would not be misplaced.
And then, she was only an arms-length away, ever so suddenly, it seemed. Astrid was a shade shorter than her mother, but aside from that and their attire, they might as well have been mirror images of each other, standing rigidly across from each one another.
Astrid did not miss the fact that her mother's hand had gone to the axe strapped to her back, fingers bare inches from the handle.
"Are you truly my daughter?" Iona asked.
"Yes."
A pause followed. An agonizing silence. And then…
"I grieved for you. We all did" Iona rasped. Though her voice was harsh and dangerously close to cracking, no tears came from her eyes.
"Why did you never come back?"
Astrid closed her eyes, took a deep, deep breath. She knew what her mother was hoping for her to say. But she also knew that she deserved the truth.
"When I was no more than a girl, you once told me something. You told me that we, as Hoffersons, have always been known for looking for a worthy cause, and dedicating our lives to it wholly."
Astrid gestured to the nest behind herself before continuing.
"When I first saw this place, the entire foundation of my world was shaken. I learned that dragons, while they were not like humans, were not the mindless killers that we thought they were. And so I learned from them. I learned their ways, their habits, their secrets."
"When I looked at this place, I saw a different world. Different, but so very similar to our own. They want the same things we do. They want a home where they can live in peace. They want the best for their loved ones, their families. They wish to know joy. And once I realized that, I knew something, beyond any doubt."
"What I knew, is that here, I could find that purpose that would be worth dedicating my life to completely. Something I doubt I could have ever found on Berk. And to do that, I could not live with one foot in each world."
"That, mother, is why I never came back. Unless Berk could change, I could never come back."
The silence that followed was suffocating, so thick was it.
It was a long time before Iona spoke.
"You…you thought we couldn't change?" She said, her voice pitched barley higher than a whisper.
"Yes" Astrid replied "because in three-hundred years, Berk hasn't changed."
Iona's eyes glittered.
Then she stepped forward and threw her arms around Astrid, and only then did she start shaking with sobs.
"To hell with this stupid war. If you think that there was anything I wouldn't have done to have you back, then I must have been a failure as a mother. "
Astrid felt the tears rising in her eyes at her mother's words, even as her mother sobbed into her shoulder. Astrid didn't try to stop those tears from falling, and once they started, they didn't stop. Both women held onto each other, both supporting and needing the support the other provided. For a moment, a brief, beautiful moment, it was just them. Just mother and daughter, as it should be.
"Mom… if that is how you feel, then I am truly sorry. I know we can never go back the way things were, but-"
"Hush, Astrid."
"But… what happened to father-"
"Shhh." Iona whispered soothingly, stroking her daughters hair lovingly "Don't worry about anything right now."
Astrid sniffed.
"Do… do you believe me? About what I said about dragons?"
Iona smiled sadly.
"I know I am willing to listen, for proof of it stands before me. And I will make the village listen, if that is what I have to do to get my daughter back. It is true that I, that we, have lost much to them. But if there is even the slightest chance that we might end this war and avoid losing anyone else, then I will take it."
"Don't worry, Astrid. We will see this through."
Mother and daughter shared another tight, warm embrace, letting their actions speak louder than any words they might have spoken.
So engrossed in their thought were they that they missed the hand signal Erik suddenly gave to some unknown spectator.
Up towards the sky.
They almost didn't see the plummeting shape in time.
Iona, by some stroke of luck, saw the incoming danger, and suddenly threw herself down into the snow, dragging Astrid along with her and shielding her with her body.
Searing, white hot flames erupted above them. Shouts erupted, only to be drowned out by a roar.
A very familiar roar...
Astrid wiggled her way out of her mother's grip and scrambled to her feet.
The ground shook as it landed.
It was covered in shiny plates of steel, running from its snout and all the way down its back to the base of its tail, a suit which fit closely as a second skin. It stood up on two legs, which each sprouted sizable claws that could rend a man in two with hardly an effort, and a long, tail which boasted an array of spikes each as long as Astrid's forearm. Underneath the armor, sky blue scales flashed in the midday sun, highlighted here and there with a splash of vibrant yellow.
It was a deadly nadder. In fact, without the armor, it would have looked a great deal like… no. It couldn't be.
Astrid chocked on her next breath.
There was the scar on one of its wings, precisely where Erik had struck at it more than a week before. And though Astrid couldn't see it, she was sure that, without the armor, she would be able to find another scar on the dragons belly. Where she had struck.
"Stormfly?" Astrid gasped.
In response, Stormfly's spiked tail came whistling down through the air. Astrid dove of the way as the nadder's tail smashed into the ground where she had been standing, spines digging through the snow and gouging at the rough stone beneath. Without missing a beat, Stomfly turned, letting loose another jet of fire that Astrid was barley quick enough to dodge.
"Stormfly wait! It's me!"
But Stormfly gave no indication that she had even heard Astrid's cry. She came on, fire blazing in between her jaws.
Until a certain night fury leapt over Astrid's head and slammed into her dragon.
Toothless and Stormfly went down in a heap, snapping, clawing, biting. Stormfly was the larger, and therefore stronger dragon, and armored as she was, she attacked recklessly, caring not at all for defense. Toothless, in contrast, hit at her as hard as he could while taking as few hits as possible, relying on his greater speed and raw agility to stay one step ahead of his opponent.
But as skilled as Toothless may be, he was out of his element in such closer quarters combat, where as Stormfly, a Sharp Class dragon, would excel. When the two of them finally broke apart, Toothless had definitely been the one how had taken more of a beating. Long, shallow cuts nor decorated his chest, and a pair of blue and yellow spine stuck out at weird angles from his left hind leg.
Stormfly, because of her armor, was barely scratched.
Toothless was ready to continue the fight, but strangely, it was Stormfly who first backed off. Not out of fear or submission, but…
…at a signal from Erik.
"Well, seems like you will get to survive for a a bit longer, sister. No matter. It is probably better this way."
And with that, Erik leapt up onto Stormfly's back, and the two of them shot off into the sky.
"Astrid…Astrid, are you alright?" Hiccup's frantic voice sounded behind her.
"Yes." She replied. She pointed up to where Stormfly and Eirk had vanished "But Stormfly isn't"
"What happened to her. Why is she fighting us?"
"I don't know. I-"
What Astrid was about to say was drwoned out by the sound of a horn, a long, deep blast that shook the air.
"Oh know" Astrid whispered.
Drago had arrived.
Final battle begins next chapter. Hold onto your hats, folks.
Review, follow, and favorite, and as always, have a good one.