Author's Note: This chapter wasn't supposed to be hard to get out on time, given it was already written, but when I looked it over on Saturday, I realized it needed to be revamped… And I had absolutely no time to do that until the following Wednesday (thanks, college exams). Sorry for the delay!
Also, on an unrelated note, I totally forgot to mention this until now. The profile picture for this story is from a very specific moment in Race to the Edge. Can anyone guess what moment that is? (It's related to something that happened early on in this story, so I think it's possible for someone to guess with the right logical leap).
"So, wha' brings you by bright and early?" Gobber asked, looking up from whatever he was doing to the coals under the forge. His face was already streaked with soot, even though it wasn't yet dawn.
"Bright?" Astrid asked, walking around to get a better view. "It's still dark out."
"Don' ye start pickin' at me word choice too," Gobber exclaimed, standing and abandoning the as of yet unlit coals. "I get enough o' that with Fishlegs."
"Sorry, Gobber." Astrid had no desire to annoy the smith, not when he was one of the few people who didn't seem to disapprove of her now.
"Don' worry 'bout it," Gobber replied amiably. "I take it yer not here to chat, anyway."
"Can you look this over?" Astrid asked, holding up her recently reclaimed ax. "It was out in the open for a while, and I don't know what that might have done to it." There were a few spots of mold on the handle, which was what had prompted her to decide that a trip to Gobber was necessary; she knew plenty about keeping weapons in good order, but it was better to get an expert's opinion when it came to damage that might have already been done.
"Right!" Gobber took the ax from her with his good hand and immediately began running the tip of his hook down the handle. "Where'd ya leave it?"
"Does it matter?" She didn't want to admit that it had been hanging from a tree in the middle of the woods.
"Nah, but I'm curious. I half thought you'd thrown it away and not bothered finding it again," Gobber admitted, still staring at the handle and the tip of his hook, which was now digging into one of the small patches of mold Astrid had noticed earlier. "And this proves ye didn' leave it in yer hut, I think."
The back door to the forge swung open, hitting the wall with a loud thud, and Fishlegs stumbled through, almost tripping over a fallen wooden stave. "Whoah!"
"That's what ye get for not cleanin' up like I told ya," Gobber called out, not even looking over at Fishlegs.
"I am one hundred percent sure that wasn't there when I left last night," Fishlegs asserted irritably, picking up the errant piece of wood and returning it to a pile of similar staves in the corner.
"Aye, it wasn't," Gobber agreed amiably. "But ye left some dirty rags on yer bench, and I felt like teachin' ya a lesson. Anythin' left lyin' around in here can be dangerous."
"Especially when its left lying around on purpose!" Fishlegs objected. He hadn't even noticed Astrid yet, he was so worked up. "What if I had fallen into a pile of spears?"
"Come on, give me some credit. I moved those out o' the way first. I don' wanna to lose another apprentice."
An awkward silence descended with those words. Gobber shook his head sadly and went back to looking over Astrid's ax, and Fishlegs busied himself doing something with the parchment neatly stacked on a table near the back of the smithy.
Astrid, for her part, stood there awkwardly, lacking anything to do but wait. In the past she might have dropped the weapon off and come back for it later, but that just didn't seem like a good idea after all that had happened. She wasn't a popular person in the village right now, and if push came to shove she couldn't be unarmed. Better to avoid conflict right now, but if she couldn't manage that she had to be able to win.
The same reasoning was behind why she had come so early, and in the process slipped out of the hut before either of her parents got up. After her belated set of epiphanies the day before, she wasn't sure how to handle them, and until she had a plan for that, avoiding them was best for everyone.
"Astrid," Fishlegs ventured, waving an apron at her. "What are you doing here so early?"
"Getting my ax looked at," Astrid replied. "What about you?"
"We always start early," Fishlegs explained, pulling the apron over his head, his voice muffled but not inaudible. "And there's even more to do now that we're getting another tribe visiting soon."
"Aye, we got repairs to make, every weapon in the village to sharpen, fancy spears to make for 'em as hospitality gifts," Gobber added, sounding annoyed. "Every little thing that could'a waited a few months has gotta be done yesterday."
"Stoick didn't tell us about the visit any sooner than you," Fishlegs continued. "Gobber's not happy about that."
"Aye, ye can bet yer helmet I'm not happy!" Gobber yelled, moving behind the bulk of the forge, Astrid's ax still in his good hand. "I'm an Elder! We're supposed to know when our Chief decides to reach out to a tribe we've not spoken to in a decade!"
"Wait, how did he do it secretly?" Astrid asked. That seemed odd, especially for Stoick, who was not a secretive man.
"Bjorn Cravidson," Fishlegs said knowingly. "He just got back a week ago. Nobody noticed he had been gone, so nobody knows how long he was away. It had to have been him. The trip to their island is-"
"A whole bloody month!" Gobber yelled from behind the forge. "Tha's a month we coulda been using to get everythin' done with time ta spare!"
"Stoick said he sent a messenger back when… Well, you know," Fishlegs said. "He wouldn't tell anyone why, though."
"How do you know all of this?" Astrid asked. "You're not in on his meetings with the Elders, are you?" She wouldn't have expected Fishlegs to eavesdrop, either, but that left no easy explanation for how he seemed to know at least as much as-
"Gobber," Fishlegs said simply, pointing at the man in question, who had just emerged from behind the forge with a small knife prosthetic in the place of his usual hook. "Never let Gobber in on anything that will make him mad if you want it kept a secret. He's been ranting ever since."
"For good reason!" Gobber stomped over to Astrid and set her ax down on the shelf beside her. "It's not damaged. Jus' a spot o' mold on the handle, nothin' serious. Try not ta let it happen again."
"I won't," Astrid promised. "Thanks for looking it over. I didn't know you were busy."
"Eh, blame Stoick. I do." Gobber shrugged his shoulders. "Yer busy too. We'll let ya know when the stuff ya need is done, but it'll be a while."
"As long as you do finish it," Astrid said thankfully. "I'll need it."
"Aye, to impress our visitors. Don' worry, I got some ideas 'bout how to do that," Gobber said with a grin.
"I just need a saddle and tailfin like in his notes," Astrid objected, not liking the mischievous glint in Gobber's eyes. "Nothing more."
"Eh, get goin'," Gobber said, gesturing with his prosthetic. "We've got this."
"Plain," Astrid said, reluctantly heading for the exit. "Discrete. No accessories." They barely had time to make it in the first place; Gobber had better not delay anything to add pointless decoration.
The only response she got was the discordant clang of metal on metal as Gobber hefted a stack of irregular iron scraps.
Astrid walked through the village, navigating by the light of the few lit torches and the stars above. She moved slowly, following the curved paths that in turn followed the lay of the land. She fully intended to go spend the day interacting with the dragon-
No, he had a name, and it was Toothless. She had decided to call him that, and she would stick to that decision.
Whatever his name, she wanted to spend time with him, because they had to work together and she was only now after months of interacting him approaching their interactions with the correct mindset. But she couldn't go out into the forest yet; it was dark out and navigating Berk's wilderness was difficult with light to see by.
So, she wandered, letting her feet take her where they would, following the paths that were most thoroughly lit. It was almost dawn, and while many Berkians would be up, only those with an actual reason to venture out before dawn would be about, and everyone in that category had better things to do than linger. The paths of Berk were empty and quiet.
That would not last forever. Soon, people would begin going about their day, people who would linger, people who would scorn and insult her, just like yesterday.
Unlike yesterday, that wouldn't bother her so much. She would still vastly prefer approval over disapproval, but she didn't care quite so much anymore. Their words could no longer strike at her own worries, because she had resolved those.
But testing that security seemed like a bad idea, so once the sun began to rise she made her way to the edge of the village, crossing the fields and slipping into the woods without running into or overhearing anyone.
She sighed in relief once she was securely within the forbidden borders of Berk's wilderness, and then abruptly frowned. If she wasn't worried on some level, she wouldn't be relieved to be away, but she shouldn't care anymore.
Then again, deciding to do something was one thing, and acting on that decision quite another. She would have to work at not caring, which made perfect sense. Since when had anything ever come easily?
Astrid slowly made her way through the rougher part of Berk, alone aside from the wind and her own thoughts, which were more than sufficient to keep her occupied, if the difficulties of navigating the forest weren't enough on their own.
Then a branch cracked nearby, and she froze, her left arm extended to grab a handy branch, her right hand hovering over the hilt of her new ax. The forest around her had seemed totally empty only moments ago, and from everything she knew of Toothless, he would have either announced his presence more obviously, or never let her know he was around at all.
She turned her head slowly and steadily, moving as little as possible, and scoured the greenery around her for signs of someone else. The last time she had been surprised in these woods, Snotlout had caught her totally unaware. She would not be so easily snuck up on again.
A cold burst of wind rustled through the forest around her, moving her shortened hair and slapping lighter branches against each other, a flood of noise and small movement obscuring anything that might be around.
She took that moment as an opportunity, moving quickly and suddenly, forging her way forward as quietly as possible, crouching low to the ground. She had no idea whether or not there was anyone around, but it hurt nobody to be overly cautious. At worst, she looked like a fool when there was nobody around to see, and she was supposed to stop caring so much about what people thought of her anyway. At best, she would…
At best, she decided, beginning to move in an arc around where she had been, circling low to the ground, keeping an eye on all directions as she went, she was going to sneak up on and surprise whoever was around. She was not great at stealth, but most Vikings were not very observant either, so it wasn't totally unthinkable that she might manage to get behind whoever could be watching.
That would, however, require her to know where they were, which she did not. The wind had died down, returning the forest to its normal mostly-still state, but that didn't help when there seemed to be nothing around to see.
She had heard a branch breaking; that was all she had to go on. That, and the feeling that she might not be alone.
"This is stupid," Astrid admitted to herself, standing upright and looking around one last time. Nobody was there, or they were too well hidden for her to find, or they had been warned off by her brandishing her ax. She wasn't back to her peak physical shape, but she was getting there, and that made her a threat some people might think twice before attacking.
Some people. Who did she think was going to be breaking the Chief's direct orders now, after Snotlout's example? The only person who came to mind was Snotlout himself, and she didn't think he was brave enough to try anything in the forest after the entirely one-sided beating Toothless had given him.
She hefted her ax, tossing it up into the air, slowly and carefully, judging its weight. It didn't fall like she expected, rotating differently, and she had to let it hit the ground in front of her rather than catch it.
That needed work. Her new ax had a different weight and center of balance, and she couldn't trust herself to fight as well as she should be capable of until she adjusted to it.
But that was what today was going to be for, wasn't it? Adjusting, getting used to the new parts of her life. This ax and Toothless.
Astrid continued onward, feeling content. For once, the things that needed to be done didn't bother her at all. How long had it been since she felt good about herself? Not since Hiccup began outperforming her in dragon training, so months. First there had been that, and then the struggle to survive, and then the difficulty of rebuilding herself and working with what she had mistakenly thought of as a recalcitrant animal, and then of course the breakdown all of that stress had eventually caused.
But now she was done trying to take back what was gone, and not having to strive to reclaim something was incredibly freeing. She didn't feel like she was playing catch-up now.
Toothless wasn't around the cove, so Astrid kept going, crossing the island in order to reach his cave. By the time she arrived, sighting the ominous dark opening in rock surrounded by a seemingly insignificant web of dry, old branches littering the ground, she was dreading the walk back. If he wasn't there, if he had gone to the cove or anywhere else on the island, she had just walked a long way for nothing.
"Hello?" Astrid called out, knowing that her voice would be recognized. "Toothless?"
Toothless's green eyes gleamed in the darkness of the cave, reflecting the bright day outside far better than his black scales. Said eyes were wide and cheery, with round black pupils, which did much to dispel the otherwise ominous look, if one knew what emotion that signified.
Then much more than his eyes became visible; he quickly ran out of the cave, stopping just short of her, his paws somehow avoiding the dry branches underfoot, making almost no noise. His eyes narrowed slightly, and he stared at her expectantly.
"I'm not going to just forget yesterday," Astrid ventured, keeping her voice soft and polite. "I know it took long enough to get through to me, but you don't have to do it more than once. I remember." That, she liked to think, had always been one of her good qualities. She almost never needed to be told something twice. Once a decision was made or a lesson learned, there was no relapsing to be had.
He clearly got the message, warbling happily and crossing the remaining distance between them, nudging her enthusiastically.
Astrid took a step back, more to avoid falling over than out of actual unease with him. She definitely wasn't used to anything remotely cheerful from him, but it wasn't an unwelcome change, now that she was in the right mindset to appreciate it and not just see it as a sign that he would obey.
"Good to see you too," she said, patting his forehead, though the gesture felt vaguely condescending. She didn't have anything better; a friendly punch to the shoulder would definitely be taken the wrong way.
It seemed to work, though. He rumbled happily and backed off, shaking his wings out for a moment before folding them back in.
"So…" Astrid said, walking out into the small clearing in front of his cave, accompanied by a cacophony of snapping branches from underfoot.
Toothless favored her with an annoyed grimace, looking at her boots.
"You need to replace them anyway," Astrid asserted, looking down at the dry, old branches. "It's too obvious when every stick on the ground is perfectly dry and ready to snap at the slightest pressure." Talking to him and explaining her thoughts like she was doing might be pointless, given she didn't know how much he was actually getting, but she could do no less. Speaking to him like an animal just wouldn't work, not when she was actively trying to remember that there was a person of some sort behind the decidedly inhuman exterior she could see.
Toothless grumbled loudly and snorted, visibly dismissing the issue. Then he reared on his hind legs and put his front paws on a tree, his claws gripping the thick bark, and leaped up into the canopy above.
Astrid watched in fascination as the lithe dragon leaped from trunk to trunk, keeping low to the ground and thus within sight, moving with no apparent purpose aside from jumping out into the air as often as possible, sometimes flaring his wings though that seemed pointless and dangerous. It looked as if he was trying to fly-
He was trying to fly, or rather trying to capture the feeling. Like so many of his oddities, once she saw the true reason it made perfect sense, no matter how strange it was.
"I hope that's good enough," Astrid murmured, thinking of how long it had been since Toothless was able to actually fly. He was clearly a creature of the sky; it would take a brain-dead moron to not see the longing in his otherwise nonsensical actions.
But when Toothless leaped back down to the ground, he seemed content, quickly walking out of sight. Astrid knew better than to follow without him making it clear she could. She had probably woken him up; dragons and humans were not so different that she could not guess he might be seeking out a good place to relieve himself.
Left without anything to watch or do, Astrid defaulted to what she knew best, training. She took up her ax and aimed at the nearest tree, intending to strike it at where head height would be on the average Viking. It was a simple, easy target, only a dozen paces from where she stood. She should be able to hit exactly where she was aiming. But the center of balance was different…
She threw it anyway, feeling the difference in the weight and the way it left her hand, and noting that it struck higher than intended, lodging itself in the tree a hand's length above where she had meant to hit.
That was… acceptable, actually. It would only take a small adjustment to her aim to compensate for that, and she had nothing but time at the moment.
Nothing but time… She retrieved her ax and returned to her spot, contemplating both her next throw and those words. So many deadlines, but plenty of time. Not really, certainly not when it came to Toothless, given she was not getting back even the small amount of control the village had seen. But she still felt, in spite of all reason, that the many deadlines bearing down on her were light and insubstantial. Either she would meet them or she would not, and either way, life would go on.
She wasn't even sure she wanted to do some of the things that were supposed to be done. She certainly did not want to leave Berk, not if she had a choice in the matter. Demonstrating that Toothless was under her control was as undesirable as it would be untrue. Passing control to Tuffnut was similarly both not doable and not desirable.
But in every case, people aside from her wanted those things to happen. It would be easier, less troublesome, to go along with them, to appease them. But she couldn't do that.
Astrid realized that she had not yet thrown, and rectified that by heaving her ax forward once more, trying to feel the new balance as she threw. This one veered off, let loose at the wrong time, and buried itself in the underbrush to the left side of the tree, but that was fine. She was just feeling for the balance, not actually trying to be perfect.
There was a very deliberate rustling in the undergrowth, and Toothless's head popped out from behind a tree. He looked in her direction warily, as if wondering what the noise of metal on wood had been, and whether she had been responsible for it.
Astrid pointed at her ax, acting without thought. "Bring," she called out.
Toothless favored her with a very deliberate, unamused look, and walked over to her ax. He took the handle in his mouth, hefting it, and proceeded to stare at her.
It was only then, in the face of his obstinate defiance, that she remembered that she could not longer expect obedience. Her face flushed with embarrassment. "Sorry," she called out guiltily. "I forgot." Especially humiliating was that she had forgotten only moments after assuring him that she wouldn't. It wasn't even a habit; there was no way only a few hours of teaching and commanding him had formed any habits. She just hadn't thought.
Toothless tossed his head, not letting go of the ax, and huffed. He seemed to understand and wasn't all that angry with her.
That was good, but it brought to mind another conundrum. "You know," Astrid remarked conversationally, "we're going to have to work something out. The village will need to see something eventually." She didn't think anything less than apparent obedience would be safe. What she now understood, that Toothless was a person, was not something any Viking would be able to understand. It just didn't fit with how they say the world.
"Bring?" Astrid asked hopefully, trying to make the request sound like exactly that, a request that could be heeded or ignored as he pleased.
Toothless tilted his head, staring at her as he considered that. After a long moment he walked over, stopping right in front of her.
"Thank you," Astrid said emphatically, reaching out and taking the small bit of handle between his gums and the blades, and pulling.
Pulling in vain, because he wasn't letting go. His lips curled back in a taunting mockery of a smile as she put more and more strength behind her pull, putting both arms into it.
"Please?" Astrid ventured, realizing that her still recovering arms were never going to match a Night Fury's jaw strength.
That worked; he let go so suddenly she almost fell backward, and would have had she not been half expecting such a trick. "Nice try," she taunted, waving the ax at him.
Lacking anything else to do, she decided to throw it again. Toothless seemed interested in that, or possibly just in her ax. His eyes followed it as she tossed it from hand to hand, and everything about him suggested that he wasn't watching out of fear.
It hit Astrid, in that moment, just how vulnerable he really was. She was armed, and his neck was within reach. Sure, he might be able to leap away before she could strike, but nobody would ever be comfortable in such a position unless they were sure they would not be struck at to begin with.
She threw her ax, not feeling entirely comfortable with her own thoughts on the matter, and watched with a measure of satisfaction as it hit much closer to her original target, embedding itself only a hair too low to count as an accurate throw.
Toothless's head slowly swiveled from the ax in the tree, to Astrid, his eyes wide and mischievous.
Astrid knew that look, though not on a draconic face. It was not quite the look she was used too from the Thorstons, not as malicious or chaotic, but close enough as to be both recognizable and incredibly telling.
"No," Astrid said, knowing it was futile. She shifted on the balls of her feet, feeling the soles of her boots, and tried to subtly prepare for the very short sprint she needed to make. "That's a weapon, not a toy. Get a stick or something."
Toothless bolted, turning tail to her and leaping across the distance between them and the tree in three large bounds. He had the ax out of the tree before she had taken four steps, and shook it, rumbling loudly at her.
Astrid, for her part, couldn't help but crack a smile at his expression. The day before yesterday she would have been furious, but today? Today, she really didn't mind, even if this promised to be an extremely dangerous game of keep away.
"You're on," she promised, taking large, menacing steps toward him. He shied back dramatically, rearing on his hind legs and waving the elongated blades of the ax dramatically, as if to either ward her off or encourage her.
Regardless of which way he meant it, she took it as encouragement and leaped at him, jumping into the air to hopefully snag the bit of handle that was safe to grab. He hopped back, just out of her reach, and warbled in laughter as she hit the ground and stumbled forward.
Then he turned his tail on her, bopped her forehead with the end of his sole fin, and broke into the slowest run she had ever seen from him, something so slow she would have no trouble following. The frequent glances backward on his part implied that was what he wanted.
Astrid wasn't giving up, certainly not before she had even started. She broke into a dead sprint, hoping to catch him unaware. The two of them made their way into the forest, slowing only when necessary, which given the density of Berk's foliage, was almost always.
Astrid slapped her empty, open hand at his taunting tail as he paused to let her catch up, doing her best not to burst out laughing when he waggled the ax at her as encouragement. She knew she would look absolutely ridiculous if there was anyone around to see, and she probably should have felt humiliated by how patronizing Toothless was being, but neither of those things really mattered to her anymore. The former was irrelevant, and the latter was, if anything, penance for how condescending she had been to him all these weeks. It was payback, and she was still Viking enough to appreciate revenge.
Besides, chasing him was a great workout. She had skipped her morning run and weight training, but this was almost as good, and far more entertaining.
Toothless abruptly stopped running, skidding to a halt just shy of a small ridge. Astrid took that as her chance and leaped forward once more, forcing her aching legs to muster one last reserve of strength in an attempt to reach his head and wrest the ax from his jaws before he decided which way to turn.
Toothless actually was caught off guard by her jump, but that was the only part of her hastily-devised plan that worked out. She fell far short of his head, impacting his side and almost immediately falling off, and in the fall she cut her arm on a sharp branch.
Astrid pushed herself back up again immediately, but the disorienting flow of blood from her arm was more than enough reason to give up the chase. It was not some small cut; she was already dizzy, and a stream of blood was running from the crook of her elbow.
"Bad luck," she announced, stemming the flow of blood with her other hand, clamping down on the cut and ignoring the stinging pain. After all she had gone through, this really wasn't that bad, even if it was potentially dangerous if left unchecked.
Toothless's now empty muzzle prodded her arm, and he crooned sadly. His tongue flicked out toward the cut and her now bloody hand, and he looked at her questioningly.
"No, definitely not," Astrid said firmly, scooting away from him. She didn't care what he meant to do or whether he was a person; letting someone lick her wound was just viscerally uncomfortable to think about. She would bear it if necessary, but right now he wasn't pressing the matter.
Toothless watched closely as Astrid tore a strip off of her tunic and tied a rough bandage around her elbow. His eye was almost touching her elbow by the end of the procedure, and he seemed utterly fascinated by what she had done.
"There," Astrid announced, rubbing her hand against the closest tree to rid it of the rusty brown dried blood that covered it. "That'll hold for now." As long as she didn't try to use the arm, she would be fine. Luckily, it was her bad arm, so she was used to not using it.
It would be reckless to continue training or otherwise pushing herself until she could get her arm properly seen to, though. She knew that she should head home.
Actually getting home, on the other hand, was looking to be exactly what she shouldn't be doing. There was no way to passively navigate the forest in any efficient fashion; it was going to take forever to get back with one arm out of commission and forcing her to take things slowly.
"Nothing to do but get started," Astrid decided. She stood and retrieved her ax from where Toothless had dropped it, setting it to hang loosely from her waist, and located the sun through the canopy.
Toothless didn't seem to understand that she was done for the day; he bounced in place alongside her, eyeing the ax she had strapped to her waist as if contemplating how to retrieve it for their next chase.
Astrid decided to nip that idea in the bud before it resulted in her losing her weapon again and being forced to call Toothless back and ruin his fun. "I'm done," she said firmly, pointing to the blood-stained bandage with her free hand. "I have to go back. I'll come tomorrow, okay?" She certainly didn't intend to let this stop her any more than was prudent; the moment she could be sure she wouldn't bleed out at the slightest provocation, she would consider herself back in action.
Toothless whined, eyeing her arm regretfully. His ears drooped sadly.
"No, it's not your fault," Astrid said. "Besides, it's only fun if you get a scar out of it." For once, she was kind of hoping the sentiment was all Toothless got out of that; a Night Fury taking that particular statement literally would be way more than she could handle.
Toothless surprised her by snorting loudly and rolling his eyes, seemingly amused.
"If you understand every word I'm saying, tap your paw five times," Astrid requested hopefully. She was convinced he was a person, but a person who understood everything she said perfectly would be far simpler to work with.
Aside from a long stare, she got nothing in response.
"Worth a try," she asserted. "See you tomorrow." It would be a long, tiring walk back, but at least she had that to look forward to.
Toothless stuck his head under her good arm. She tried to move away, and he moved with her, supporting any weight she put on him.
It only took Astrid a moment to get what he meant by his odd actions. "Thanks," she said gratefully. She didn't need his help, and with most people she would have taken it being offered as an insult, but this felt different. Friendlier, lacking in undertone. He saw weakness, and he propped her up with no questions asked, no favors called in, no favors required in return.
"I think I'm really going to like having a friend," she said happily.
Author's Note: This story might actually go past the original 30 chapters it had in the first draft; In rewriting this particular chapter, I expanded its part of the plot a little bit. Luckily, I have plenty of time to make such expansions and revisions. Expect next chapter next Monday as per normal; there will be no more large delays.
Also, in case anyone is wondering, the motivations and timeline of Stoick sending a message to the other tribe and all of that is intentionally vague; it's not important, but there is a little bit more to be learned about that specific plot point.