"So soon?" Astrid asked, staring at the bundle of leather and metal Gobber was holding out to her. "I didn't even know you were done setting up your forge."

"Lass," Gobber said condescendingly, passing the saddle over, "ye've really got ta get an education in this stuff if yer gonna be relyin' on my craft. It took me longer to unpack me travelin' smithy than it did ta fix yer rig. Ye coulda done it yerself wit' a fire and some knowledge."

"If you're offering to provide that education, I'll take you up on it," Astrid decided, holding the gear under her arm. "You're right, I do need to know."

"Perfect," Gobber said happily. "Jus' as soon as I've got some free time to teach ya. Next week sound good to start?"

Astrid looked around the makeshift workshop, her eyes landing on a huge pile of broken, scorched weapons. "A week? Sure. I'll be here."

"Good. Now, I think Stoick wanted to talk to ye," Gobber said, pointing at the ships now encased in ice by the shore. Stoick was standing nearby, supervising the removal of seemingly endless amounts of firewood. "Good luck, lass."

Astrid nodded, left his makeshift forge, and proceeded to not go to Stoick. She had a friend to outfit first. Toothless was lurking near the base of the collapsed mountain, walking stiffly on three legs as he gingerly explored the rubble.

"Ready to get off the ground?" she asked, announcing her presence to the surprisingly oblivious Night Fury. He whirled, leaped off the sheep-sized scale he had been perched on, and almost stumbled right into her, rumbling loudly.

Astrid wasted no time in outfitting him, aided by his enthusiastic compliance, his tail almost knocking the false tailfin right out of her hands. They were up in the air almost before she knew it, launching from the shore to leave the island far behind, travelling up through the ever-present haze around the nest-

She blinked as the grey around them grew faint and light, and covered the eyeholes of her facemask just before they broke out into the open sunlight. Toothless dipped a bit and she adjusted the tailfin, setting them into a glide.

It was bright above the clouds; she had to wait for her eyes to adjust before she could make anything out aside from pure blue and grey. Toothless was in no hurry, so she had all the time she needed.

"Most Winters, we don't get to see the sun for months," she told him. "Thanks for this."

He snorted, rolled his wings, and snapped them into a twirl that leveled out without any assistance from her.

"And it's great for you too," she corrected, glad she hadn't screamed. She had been forewarned by him tensing his shoulders, but only just before he acted. "If you want to cut loose, I'll try and keep up."

Toothless responded by doing just that.


Some time later, Toothless brought them down below the haze, and back to the nest. They set down by the ships-

And Stoick was on them almost immediately. "Astrid, I thought I had Gobber tell you I needed to talk to you."

"He didn't tell me it was urgent," she said apologetically, slipping out of the saddle and quickly getting between Stoick and Toothless in her attempt to head him off before he annoyed Toothless. "What do you need?"

"Since Tuffnut is Thor knows where and Fishlegs' Gronckle refuses to move, I need you and your dragon to go back to Berk," Stoick said firmly, leaving no room for argument.

"Respectfully, sir, I wonder why I wasn't your first choice," Astrid said. From what she had gathered, Fishlegs and Tuffnut had spent less than a week with their dragons, whereas she had months of experience.

"You were," Stoick said sternly. "Then you didn't show up. But it looks like you're my only option."

"Sorry," Astrid said. "What do you want me to do there?" She hadn't expected to go back so soon, but maybe she should have, given what Tuffnut had told her had happened. Stoick would want to pass on messages, at the very least.

Sure enough, Stoick held out a small roll of parchment. "Inside are notes for Gothi, Mildew, and a few others," he explained. "Hand them out. Also, tell the whole village that we won. Make an announcement from the rooftops or something, make it dramatic."

"I can-"

"Good," Stoick interrupted, not even letting her finish agreeing. "I also need you to do a count of the supplies in the storehouses and bring that summary back to me."

"Got it-"

"And once you're done with that," he continued, totally ignoring her assent, "check your home. Is there anything there that we wouldn't want an enemy to have? Any knowledge on how you do what you do?"

Astrid waited a moment, just to be sure he actually wanted a reply. "No, sir," she said, "I didn't write anything useful down." Though she had meant to, she had forgotten to keep it up. The single page of notes on Toothless that she had transcribed would be no use to anyone, and was outdated anyway.

"Good. Then check the Thorstons and Ingermans for the same thing, and when you give Snotlout his letter, glare at him for me," Stoick concluded. "And be back as soon as possible. No dawdling. You've already wasted half the day doing Thor knows what."

"I'll do as you ask, sir," Astrid said confidently. This wasn't ideal, but at least he was relying on her instead of ignoring her and what she, with Toothless, had to offer. If he continued to overload her with things to do, she would push back, but for today it was fine. They could deal with being errand-runners.


The flight to Berk was long and monotonous; even on a Night Fury, it took most of the remaining daylight gliding above the clouds, occasionally dipping down to be sure they weren't overshooting, and all Astrid had to do was operate the tailfin and think.

Stoick had given her too many things to do in too short a time, and it was already cold in the air in the day. She had accepted that they'd be staying the night by the time they dipped below the clouds and remained there, flying through a light scattering of snow.

She directed Toothless for the village, seeing no point in dismounting. Stoick had ordered an announcement 'from the rooftops' and she planned on delivering.

Toothless, for his part, seemed content to follow along and watch her, and went where she asked, landing on a sturdy storehouse and looking around expectantly. It was, she realised, the first time he had been in the village itself.

They had been seen on their way in, and were clearly visible on the white-dusted roof. A crowd began gathering. For once, she didn't see a single hostile face; everyone present had reason to desperately want to hear what she had to say. They knew how long the trip to the nest took, and knew that the fight had begun several days ago, and was thus probably over. She was obviously the bearer of news.

Astrid waited until Gothi hobbled along, following the crowd, before she made her announcement. Once the frail Elder was present, though, she began speaking immediately. "The nest has fallen!" she yelled triumphantly. "There were casualties, but not many, and our tribes are preparing to weather the Winter, as planned!"

A ragged, subdued cheer rose from the crowd. Between the cold, the recent upheaval here, and the upcoming Winter devoid of most of the tribe's able-bodied, they weren't as enthusiastic as she thought they would be. It made sense, they had other things to worry about, but it was a letdown all the same.

"Chief Stoick sent me to deliver the news," she continued, urging Toothless down to the ground, on a patch of snow-dusted dirt that was otherwise unoccupied, and dismounted, pulling the roll of parchment out and opening it. "And some messages." There were quite a few different parchments, some going to Elders, some to others, such as Snotlout. She tried not to read any of the actual messages; those were private.

Gothi hobbled to the forefront of the crowd and out into the open, her hand outstretched.

"Yes, there's one for you," Astrid confirmed, handing it over. "Mildew too, but I don't know if he's here." She hadn't seen him in the crowd, and suspected he would have raised a fuss over Toothless' presence if he was around to see it, though Toothless was just standing with his back to the storehouse, watching the crowd.

Gothi took that one too, nodding in understanding. That left Astrid with…

She checked the parchments. "Actually, Stoick gave me a lot to do, so if you could take care of all of them?" she asked hopefully.

Gothi cast her an unamused look, but reached out to take the rest of the parchment. Astrid smiled thankfully. Aside from being relieved of the chore itself, now she didn't have to see Snotlout. Being spared the trial of having to interact with him would brighten any day.

As Gothi receded back into the crowd, Astrid turned to look at the storehouse. They were already right where they needed to be for that particular task, and it wasn't dark out yet.

Toothless rumbled curiously, not taking his eyes off the crowd.

She reconsidered. "No," she muttered, climbing into the saddle, "not yet." First came taking Toothless to the forest, so that he could go find shelter for the night. She wasn't crazy enough to try bringing him into her hut, and having him sleep in the village was asking for trouble. She could take on the burden of assessing the village's supplies herself.


Astrid wearily hauled a basket of fish back to the wall, wishing Stoick had asked her to have someone else take stock. The sun had set long ago, and she was only now finishing, her torch illuminating the last of the storehouses as she returned to the parchment she had left by the door and checked off the last batch of baskets. One hundred and ten salted Cod.

"And I don't even know if it's enough," she muttered, folding the parchment and sticking it in her tunic. She began the long trek back to her hut, leaning forward in the cold.

That was the worst part of being made to take inventory; she didn't know enough to tell whether they had more than enough supplies for the Winter, or nowhere close. It all looked the same to her, just piles of food in a wooden building. She didn't know how fast it depleted, or how much not having able-bodied Vikings around would affect things. Fishing wasn't an option in the Winter, not for ships, so her gut feeling was that it didn't really matter if there were fishermen around, but she didn't know for sure.

Stoick would know, though, and through her he had at least an indirect hand in steering the village safely through the Winter. Gothi and the other Elders knew what they were doing. It would be enough; surely he wouldn't have left without ensuring he was not dooming those who remained.

It wasn't her problem, if it was a problem at all. Worst-case scenario, she and Toothless could spend a few days fishing and help out that way. That would be enough.

Her conscience assuaged, she made her way home, crunching the slowly building snow underfoot. It was cold outside, and she was looking forward to getting inside, drying out and warming up, and collapsing in her bed-

Except her bed was occupied, she realized, coming up to her family's hut and seeing light from between the cracks in the wood, though her parents were still at the nest. Helga and her daughter were still there, allowed to stay out of basic decency and trust.

Knowing what she did now, she wondered whether it was smart to let another tribe basically move in for a few months, but that was probably paranoia. A single mother and her young daughter were not going to be doing anything dangerous.

She stopped at the doorstep of her own home, knocking politely before opening the door herself, giving the occupants ample forewarning while not acting like a stranger in her own home.

It didn't seem to matter; Helga barely looked up from her spot at the table, leaning forward and staring into the fire.

"Were you there for the announcement?" Astrid asked, taking her boots off and placing them close to the fire.

"Yes," Helga said shortly.

"It's great," Astrid said, wondering whether Helga was tired. With a young daughter to handle all day, that might be it. She set her helmet next to her boots, and her ax on the mantle above the fireplace where she would be sure not to forget it. No reason to bring it into her room when she wasn't staying; there wasn't anywhere good to put it without moving things around in there, and Vanna was probably asleep on her bed.

"Is Vanna asleep?" she asked, walking over to her room.

"Yes," Helga said again in the same toneless voice.

Astrid turned just shy of the door to her room, unwilling to let the rudeness go unaddressed. "Did I do something to you, or are you just having a bad day?" she asked coldly.

"Bad day," Helga said quietly. "Sorry. So sorry."

Somewhere in the back of her head, Astrid realized that there was more going on. She didn't have a knack for scheming or reading most people, but Helga was being as obvious as was possible without outright giving anything away.

"I'm not going anywhere until you apologize," Astrid said angrily. As she spoke, she widened her eyes, did her best to look concerned, and pointed to Helga.

"It's just a really bad day," Helga said in the same tense, strained voice, but her hands told a different story. She pointed to the front door, then herself, and then to Astrid's room, her eyes wide with fear.

"You'll have to be more clear," Astrid managed, quickly going back to the fireplace and grabbing her ax, leveling it at Helga while pointing at the door to her bedroom.

Helga shook her head wildly, silently begging for her to put the ax down, gesturing wildly. "I can't be more clear, it was just a bad day."

Astrid lowered her ax, trying to think. From what she could tell, someone had come into the hut and was now lurking in her room, waiting for her, but Helga was afraid of what would happen if she went in there with her ax.

Vanna. Whoever was in there had Vanna, and was hostile enough that Helga feared for her daughter.

Astrid pointed at Helga and then moved her hand to about Vanna's height, pointing at the door and then holding her own ax to her throat. "Was Vanna acting up all day, or did somebody make you mad?"

"Vanna," Helga confirmed. "She's not sleeping well, either. I think she might be coming down with something, but I hope not."

Astrid interpreted that as Helga saying that Vanna might get hurt if she went in armed, but she wasn't sure what else she could do. There was only one way in, and no way to surprise the one within. Her room had one door, and was located on the far side of the hut-

The far side of the hut, one wooden wall away from the outside, one roof away from the sky. She had firepower on her side if she had the time to go get help.

For that matter, she could get less distant help, neighbors, villagers. But Vikings didn't do stealth; they might give the game away before she could get them into position.

Who did she trust more in a hostage situation with an unknown perpetrator? A random assortment of Berkians who didn't respect her all that much at present, or Toothless?

"This is my home," Astrid said, stalling for time, acutely aware that everything they said could be heard by whoever was in her room. "I'm working day and night for the Chief of this island, and I deserve respect. Are you going to complain if I leave, finish my work for the night, and then come back?"

"So long as you don't bring a bunch of noisy idiots back to party, and so long as you do come back," Helga said shakily. "I don't want you or anyone else waking Vanna, she needs her rest so she doesn't get sick."

So nothing bad would happen if she left for a while? "I might be out late, but I'll definitely be back before the night is over," she said, making sure.

"Come back quickly, I don't want to sit up all night waiting," Helga answered.

"You don't have to wait for me," Astrid said flippantly, nodding in understanding. "It's not as if I have anywhere else to go. And when I come back, you had better have a better attitude." She had to hope that whoever it was didn't know her very well, though they were most likely a Viking, and thus ignorant when it came to subtlety anyway.

She lingered for a moment longer, taking a normal amount of time to redress and gather herself, and then left the hut. The moment the door swung shut behind her she was off, running at full speed through the empty, dark village, heading toward the forest.

It would be a long, cold, dark trip, and she was going to need light to navigate the depths of the island. She veered off her intended route, stopped by the Great Hall, and took one of the long-burning torches that lined the empty hall, pulling it right out of the metal bracket that held it to the wall. Then she was off again.

How long to run to Toothless' cave and back again, even using the paths he had shown her? Too long for her liking, but Helga had seemed to think nothing bad would come of her absence so long as the assailant thought she was coming back of her own accord that night.

But she couldn't rely on that; why wasn't she getting people from the huts all around her?

Simple; she didn't trust them to do what was needed. To understand the need for silence, to trust her assessment of the situation, to act as an understanding partner following her lead instead of just barging in and dealing with things their way, which might get Vanna killed. This was a time for subtlety and trickery, and however inexperienced she was at those things, any other Berkian was worse. Toothless was a Night Fury, a creature of secrecy. It just made sense.

Flurries of snow were blown off of roofs by errant winds as she ran, the indecisive gusts pushing her in different directions with every passing moment, heralding another storm coming soon. The moon's light pushed out from behind the clouds at times, but it never lasted long, and her torch was far more reliable, though it flickered in the strongest winds. She didn't stop until she had passed into the forest, sheltered from the worst of the wind.

Even then, she only stopped entirely for a moment, to catch her breath. Then she was moving again, forging ahead.

The chaotic forests of Berk were worse at night, but she persevered, following the path Toothless had shown her. Thanks to said path she was crossing the island at a decent pace, but to her it felt unbearably slow.

As she moved, shoving aside branches and stepping on snow-dusted stones, she wondered who was in her home. Who would hold a young girl hostage? Who would have a reason to wait in her room for her? And why?

Astrid knew she might be wrong, but she suspected one of two things. Either this was some half-planned scheme put into motion by Thunderguts before he left the island to go to what would be his doom, or it was Snotlout, trying once again to get the better of her in some way.

She wasn't sure which she would rather it be, either. That would imply she knew how to deal with either possibility. By the time she reached Toothless' clearing, she had no more of a plan than what she had started running with.

But at least that beginning of a plan was still on track. "Toothless!" she called out. Moments later, her friend emerged from the cave, looking around warily.

"I need your help," she panted, slipping onto his back and working the tailfin as he took off. She was glad she had left his saddle on; not having to put it on saved precious time, time they might not have.

The air was cold, and her face burned. She flipped the mask down, only to have a strong wind blow right through the eyeholes, making her tear up. She was forced to lean forward, lest the wind continue to blind her. That was going to be a problem.

The forest passed below them at a rapid pace, disappearing in moments, replaced by water-

"The village," Astrid requested, pointing out to the side, back at the island. She adjusted the tailfin as soon as Toothless began to turn, wondering if adjusting the tailfin directly would be more efficient. It might serve to indicate where she wanted Toothless to go, but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel forcing him to turn or fall out of the sky wasn't right.

A problem for later; she didn't even have time to blink the last few tears out of her eyes before Toothless set down on the same storehouse as earlier that day, looking back at her as if to ask what they were doing.

Astrid sat in the saddle for a long moment, trying to decide what to do next. She didn't know what approach would be best; landing on the roof of her hut was out, as the sound of impact would alert whoever was inside.

Now that she thought about it, that ruled out her 'break in through the wall' approach too; there was no way Toothless could break through a sturdy wall fast enough to catch anyone by surprise, not in a hostage situation. She would have to be inside the room, distracting them, and at that point she could handle it anyway.

But she could still use him. He was small enough to fit indoors, dangerous and quick enough to ambush someone. It was a crazy, stupid plan, but she needed some unexpected attack angle, and a Night Fury lurking in the hut, ready to pounce, would be exactly that.

It wasn't a good plan, but it was better than anything she could imagine the Vikings of Berk doing, and one that could be adapted on the fly, though she hated improvising.

"Down there, we're walking," she whispered, lowering her voice more to convey the need for stealth than out of any real fear they would be heard. Toothless obligingly dropped down, not making a sound, landing in one of the soft snow piles slowly growing around the storehouse.

Astrid dismounted and led him through the village, frequently looking back to be sure he was still with her. They made it to her home without incident; nobody was around to cause trouble, and Toothless was focused on her, not on exploring the village. It was almost like he had been there before-

She dismissed that errant thought and focused on the task at hand, leading Toothless around the hut. They stopped briefly by the wall she knew separated her and the hostage situation…

"Remember this spot," she whispered, running her hand along the wall in the right spot. "You might need to break through here." Now that she looked, the wood was weathered and relatively weak. He could probably smash right through it if needed, but until she knew more, that was dangerous. Showing him this was just a way of keeping her options open.

"Remember," she repeated, eliciting a quiet huff. That possibility prepared for, she put it out of her mind and led him to the front of the hut. She slammed the door open, announcing her presence with one hand on her ax handle and the other behind her, on Toothless' snout. "I'm back," she called out.

"Quiet, Vanna is still asleep," Helga responded, still sitting at the table, her head in her hands. Astrid pitied her; she had nothing to do but sit there and fear for her daughter. Whoever held Vanna hostage had probably promised to kill her if Helga moved. It was what Astrid would have done, common sense. One didn't threaten a Viking's child and then leave her free to move about and do what she wished. That was a good way to have one's head mashed to a pulp.

"I'll make as much noise as I want," Astrid retorted, stepping inside and revealing Toothless behind her.

"You might hurt yourself, knocking things about," Helga warned.

Astrid let her ax clatter to the floor near the table, both to make a loud noise and to leave it somewhere either she or Helga could reach it, and Toothless squeezed his way into the hut. He fit, so long as he kept his wings close and didn't bat anything with his tail. Their hut had an open floorplan anyway; it wasn't like there was much for him to knock over.

He did look extremely out of place, standing in her home, but she ignored the absurdity. Absurdness was what she needed, something no Viking would expect. The general plan that was coming together was simple; go into her room, draw the enemy out, and let Toothless bite them in half, whoever they were.

"You'll wake her," Helga complained, staring fearfully at Toothless.

"You keep complaining about that," Astrid shot back, speaking loudly. With her hands, she told Toothless to be ready for a fight, but to be wary of friendlies, the latter a command they had learned together and then never had cause to use. He snorted quietly and hunched down in the middle of the room. The moment anyone stepped out of her bedroom and turned they would see him, but in the confines of the hut, it would already be too late.

"I don't want her getting sick," Helga retorted.

"Well, I'm going into my room, and I'll send her out to you if you're so worried," Astrid said decisively, squaring her shoulders. She was ready; her backup was in place, her ax was close by, though if it weren't for Helga's warning she would go in with it.

The door was slightly ajar; she pushed it open and walked in, ready for anything-

And jerked back right on cue, feigning surprise and reaching for her belt, finding nothing even as she took stock of the situation.

Snotlout, sitting on the edge of her bed, holding a sword that was resting on Vanna, who lay perfectly still, tears gliding down her face. She couldn't move without cutting herself, and if Snotlout wanted he could just push down and kill her. His other hand held another, thinner and shorter sword, one that was rougher and unpolished, of unfamiliar make.

"Finally here?" he asked in a low voice. "Move, and the girl gets it."

"What-" Astrid began, cutting herself off. "Why?" she finished instead. She didn't need to know the details of how he had managed this; she already knew more than he thought. She needed to get Vanna out of danger, and then to deal with him.

"Knew you'd come back here, knew there was a little girl in the hut, put two and two together," he said shortly. "I'm taking what's mine, and you're not going to get out of it this time."

"Seriously?" she asked, clenching her fist. "You want to try? Let the girl go, I'll fight you hand to hand, one on one, anywhere you choose." Which would, of course, involve him stepping out into the main room of the hut and being mauled. If Snotlout thought she would be honorable, he would be quickly disabused.

"I'd beat you into the ground," he blustered.

"Prove it," she challenged.

"No." he leveled his free sword at her. "You ruined me. Humiliated me, let a dragon attack me, got away with it, ignored me… Hurt me when I was unconscious." The rage in his eyes was not faked, and Astrid noticed an assortment of fading bruises around his face and head, hard to see in the flickering torchlight but definitely there now that she was looking for them. Bruises she had not put there. His nose was her doing, and the marks on his neck, but the rest were a mystery to her.

"You made me miss the ships, dishonored me in front of the whole village! I'm going to make you pay." He spat at her, and she leaned to the side, ignoring the insult in favor of the far more pressing matter at hand.

"Me, not the girl," she objected.

"She's leverage," Snotlout said, standing. He leered at her. "I'll kill you, enjoy you, and then maybe I'll let the girl go." His free sword waved threateningly in Astrid's direction. He was two, maybe three steps away from being able to impale her. "If you cooperate and let me kill you."

She gagged a little before she could stop herself; the very idea that he might kill her and then do what he wanted with her body was horrible, beyond belief and thus beyond her anticipating. She had assumed he wanted her alive.

What could she do? Snotlout took a step forward, cutting the distance in half. His sword was long enough that she couldn't just reach forward and take it from him without him striking her, and the room was too narrow to allow her to maneuver. Any attack from her would provoke him, and he would kill Vanna in retaliation.

"This is ridiculous," she said, stalling for time, thinking frantically. She couldn't get around Snotlout, Toothless certainly couldn't, not in this tiny room.

Snotlout didn't continue advancing; he stopped there, glaring at her. "It's not!" he objected angrily. "You're stupid! Always thinking you know better. I'm going to-"

"Kill me, leave a witness, and set yourself up for a bloody execution," Astrid interrupted. She didn't need the vile details, and Vanna certainly didn't need any more trauma. The girl was frozen in place, breathing shallowly, utterly terrified, and had been a captive under threat of death for hours on end.

"I'll kill her too," Snotlout growled. "And it doesn't matter, I'm going to be Chief! Head of the Jorgensons, Chief of Berk… Thunderguts won't care about a dead woman."

"Sure, because you murdering his people won't start a war," Astrid shot back, still thinking. He wasn't advancing while he was talking, which was a small mercy. There was nothing she could do, but Toothless had other capabilities, that was why she had brought him along. He was no help out in the main room; Snotlout was going to kill her before he went out there, and he would kill Vanna if she left.

"He owes me," Snotlout retorted. "We made a deal, I'd help him undermine Stoick, set myself up as head of my family, and he'd cover up whatever I did and help make my Chiefdom official."

Astrid would have recoiled if she weren't so focused on not moving; once again, Snotlout had just surpassed her worst expectations. Not only was he a vile creep, he was a traitor to the tribe, too. There wasn't even the slightest hint of remorse in his voice, and why would there be? As far as he knew, he was well on a path that led to everything he wanted.

Much though she didn't want to, she understood Snotlout's reasoning. He was just stupid and greedy enough to believe Thunderguts would hold his end of the deal, and not perceptive enough to realize that Thunderguts could easily just pretend it never happened and laugh at the boy who killed his own father and helped destabilize the island for nothing but empty words.

He also didn't know Thunderguts was dead, but Astrid wasn't about to tell him. If he believed, he might do something rash and he was already a heartbeat from killing her or Vanna.

But she needed a way to keep him talking, so she struck at his stupidity in a different way. "What of my parents? Helga's friends? There are other people in these tribes besides you and Thunderguts. They'll figure out that you were involved when you completely ignore the whole issue."

"I'll pin it on you," he sneered. "You and your stupid dragon. You flew back here, killed them, and then the dragon killed you. I'll leave your body for it when I'm done having my fun, and it'll probably eat you. That will solve everything."

Toothless. Astrid glanced at the wall behind Snotlout, the one she had shown him. If he couldn't come through the doorway and get by Snotlout, maybe he could break through from the other side. The bed, and by extension Vanna, weren't directly in front of the vulnerable wall; Toothless might break through between them and Snotlout, and the distraction would give her a chance to act.

It was risky, it might not work, but at this point she'd take it over doing nothing, running out of ways to keep Snotlout talking, and dying at swordpoint. But she needed Toothless to do his part, and to do that she needed to signal him.

She had stepped into the room; the door was just out of reach behind her. She glared at Snotlout. "And you'll kill a little girl? For this?"

Snotlout glared back, and she inched backward, shuffling her boots and shaking her head to mask the movement. She only needed to move a little bit, to reach the door and stick her hand out into sight; Toothless would see her.

"I don't care- Stop moving!" Snotlout exclaimed, pulling at the sword he held on Vanna. The girl cried out in pain as the tip of the blade was drawn across her shoulder and arm, ripping her tunic and drawing blood.

"Don't move!" Snotlout repeated, repositioning himself in the middle of the room, the tip of one blade under Vanna's gasping throat, and the other a hand's width away from Astrid's chest. "You too, lady!" he yelled again, addressing Helga, who presumably still sat in the other room, unable to do anything. "The girl still lives!"

"Look at what you've become," Astrid said scornfully, her hand moving behind her back; she'd gotten the door open a little while Snotlout repositioned and looked back at Vanna, and he hadn't noticed. Toothless might be able to see her if he had moved from where she had left him, if he was looking.

He had to see, to understand, to fill in the gaps between barebones signals and a full-fledged plan, and he had to act fast. She prayed to any god that was listening as her hand contorted, repeating the four requests that made up her plan. Flank, break, attack and defend. One of the commands they almost never used except in hunting, one she had never before needed to employ, and two of the most basic.

"I know you're stalling," Snotlout said to her, leaning forward and poking her chest armor, digging the tip of his sword into the dark leather. She didn't betray her fear; he'd have to step just a little closer to actually do any damage to her. As it was, he was barely making a mark in the armor. "No more."

"No more hoping for you to come to your senses?" she asked acidly, hoping to bait him back into arguing. "Maybe if you were less like this, you wouldn't need to take what you wanted."

"I'm done caring about what you think," he retorted, stepping forward again. His sword wasn't on Vanna anymore, but Astrid harbored no doubts that he could kill her in an instant, were she to move. She stood entirely still as he poked at her armor with his other sword, his eyes dark and foreboding.

"Take it off," he rasped. "And stand there as I slit your throat, or she dies."

"Take what off?" she asked, playing dumb. Both hands were up in front of her, paltry defenses against a blade, but defenses nonetheless. If Toothless hadn't seen, she was out of options. She could only play for time and hope.

"The armor, everything," he clarified. "Now. Slowly."

So that he could be sure she wasn't trying anything, or for his own twisted enjoyment? Probably both. She reached up and unstrapped a shoulder pad, wishing she had thought to replace the shell that used to lie beneath. A hidden weapon would be great right about now-

The wooden wall behind Snotlout buckled under two near-simultaneous impacts, strong but thin planks snapping like dry twigs, the entire thing bending inward and smashing open, extruding into the room, neatly separating Vanna and Snotlout by dividing the room.

Astrid saw a black body behind the buckling wood, the hole rapidly widening as Toothless forced his way in, ramming forward and clawing at the rapidly dwindling barrier between him and the inside of the hut. She sprang to the side, throwing herself against the interior wall and shoving Snotlout toward the destruction. Snotlout stumbled, caught by surprise, one sword knocked to the floor by the impact and the other pointing nowhere in particular.

She pressed the assault even as Vanna and Snotlout both began screaming, likely for very different reasons, shoving Snotlout right at Toothless, who bit down on his flailing sword arm with almost mocking ease, sinking his teeth into Snotlout's clenched hand and probably the sword handle in the middle.

Snotlout momentarily dealt with, Astrid vaulted over some of the wreckage, quickly spotting Vanna, who was curled up on the displaced bed, huddling as far from the destruction as she could get, bleeding from her shoulder and arm, but nowhere else.

Toothless moved behind Astrid, dragging Snotlout bodily through the doorway, into the main room of the hut, and Astrid approached Vanna. She held her arms out in invitation-

Vanna threw herself at Astrid, grabbing on to her waist and burying her face in the leather armor, bawling loudly.

Astrid stood there for a moment, patting the little girl's back and feeling an almost overwhelming rush of relief, letting it roll through her. Such a dangerous call, having Toothless strike in a nearly unguided way. It could easily have ended with Vanna dead by his paws had he struck the wall in the wrong place, had he forgotten where, exactly, she had shown him earlier. But it had worked.

Vanna continued to sob. A cold wind rushed in through the massive opening in the wall, and she shivered, still clinging to Astrid.

Toothless stuck his head through the doorway and warbled at Astrid, flicking his ears back toward the main room of the hut. He seemed annoyed.

"We're coming," Astrid assured him. She bent down, pulled the little girl more securely into her arms, and began picking her way out of the room, stepping over the many shattered fragments of wall that now littered the floor. It was slow going with both arms occupied, but she was through the doorway quickly enough.

Helga met her there, rushing to pull her daughter away. Astrid barely noticed the blood spattered on Helga's face-

But close up, in the moment it took to transfer the girl, she did see it. She turned, taking in the rest of the room.

Toothless stood in the corner, watching them carefully. He growled at Helga, pawing at the body lying between him and everyone else.

Astrid's own ax was lodged in Snotlout's chest, buried so deep that the blade might be stuck in the floor below his body. Blood pooled around him, and his eyes were dull and empty, his face a rictus of pain and fear.

It took her a few moments to put it all together, to picture what had happened, her mind addled by the retreating high of relief and adrenaline. Toothless had dragged Snotlout out, injured and disarmed but alive, and Helga had buried Astrid's ax in him without so much as a moment's pause.

"You just made things a lot worse for us," Astrid said angrily. She didn't want to be mad at Helga, and she didn't really care about Snotlout; he was long overdue for a grisly end, the way he acted. But this was going to have consequences, and the alternative, letting him live to face justice, would have been far easier for everyone involved.

"It was worth it," Helga said gruffly. Her daughter's bawling was quickly quieting down, transitioning to a near-silent whimpering with every passing moment.

"Maybe for you." Astrid was already anticipating the fallout from this. Snotlout's family would accuse her of killing him and coming up with a story, and people might believe them. Helga and Vanna weren't reliable enough as witnesses to counter that, not when her own reputation wasn't good. Her own ax was the killing weapon, and there weren't any other axes in the hut to replace it with.

"There's an easy solution," Helga countered, softening her voice. "Just go to Thunderguts and explain, he'll give you and your family a place in our tribe. You can get away from all of this, and maybe if you're already living there your parents won't have a reason to hold you to the betrothal."

"Sure, that would work," Astrid muttered bitterly. If Thunderguts weren't such a ruthless idiot willing to back Snotlout and thus endorse this, not to mention trying to kidnap her, maybe.

"It would," Helga persisted. "Our tribe would accept you, Thunderguts wants something like you anyway, your own tribe doesn't respect you… There's no reason to stay."

"No reason except that this is home, and I don't want to leave." If her people drove her off, if they told her to go, maybe, but when they just didn't respect her? She didn't believe things would always be that way, not to the extent it was now. Things would change; Stoick was going to have to validate her in some way so that she could lead the other riders. Simply not being the only one would help soften the village's disdain for her, and leaving before all of that even had a chance to happen was stupid.

And all of that aside… Astrid had seen enough of Thunderguts' way of thinking to recognize this for what it was. "He put you up to this, didn't he?" she asked quietly, aware that Vanna was still clinging to her legs. Whatever happened, she wasn't going to traumatize the little girl.

Helga crossed her arms. "You'd be better in our tribe, happier, respected. What's so hard to understand about that?"

"Thunderguts is dead, you know," Astrid continued, "and I know what you're doing. You can stop."

Helga deflated at that, looking worried. "Dead? Are you sure?"

"He tried to kidnap me before the smoke even cleared," Astrid said bitterly. "He got what was coming to him."

"I…" Helga sat down at the table, staring at nothing in particular, rubbing her daughter's back. "I didn't want to come on this trip, but he insisted. He makes sure Vanna and I are provided for, so I couldn't argue. Now what will we do?"

Astrid didn't like the despair in Helga's voice; it was already hard to hate her for killing Snotlout, and this was draining away any anger she was still holding onto. "You relied on him?" she asked.

"Since my husband died, yes," Helga confirmed. "He ensured we always got what we needed, kept us close out of respect, didn't ask for much in return… Some of his advisors resented us. Now one of them will take over."

Toothless warbled softly, abandoning Snotlout's body to walk over. Helga shied away, standing and backing up, putting the table between them.

"He's not going to hurt you," Astrid assured them. "Toothless, don't come any closer." She didn't want to scare them any more, and Toothless' mouth was still dripping blood from where he had bitten. He didn't look safe.

Toothless grumbled and sat on his tail, towering above them but clearly not intending to go anywhere, looking down at them all.

"I don't know…" Helga shook her head. "I'm not sorry for killing him, but I am sorry for making your life harder. Now there is not even a place to convince you to flee to, since you must hate my tribe."

"Did you spy for him?" Astrid asked. It wasn't relevant, wasn't important, but she felt she needed to get a sense of what had really happened all this time. How deep Thunderguts' treachery went.

"Little things, once he knew what you were," Helga confirmed. "He told me to find out how you did what you do, but nothing you had in your room helped, and you said you didn't know. Then he told me to convince you that our island would be better than this one. That was all."

"If he had stuck to just luring me with a better future, he might have succeeded," Astrid admitted. "But he did things like that, and like this."

"This?" Helga whispered.

"Snotlout thought Thunderguts was backing him up, helping him take power," Astrid said shortly. "Maybe he was, or maybe he was just using Snotlout, but the end result is the same." She wasn't sure if Thunderguts had a desired outcome when it came to Snotlout; he benefited either way.

"Then he deserved to die," Helga said sternly.

Vanna whimpered loudly, and Helga sighed, holding her daughter tighter. "I shouldn't be talking about this," Helga admitted, "but I feel like we are still in danger until this is resolved."

Astrid nodded. She understood that; comforting Vanna was important, but it had to wait until Helga knew what was coming next. "I'll make this quick."

"What is this?" Helga asked. "What next?"

"A bargain," Astrid said, improvising. They each had a problem they could not easily solve on their own, hers imminent and Helga's distant, as nobody would be going back to the Windy Isle until the ice thawed. "You take responsibility for this. Tell everyone that Snotlout barged in, took Vanna hostage. Then tell them you waited until he let his guard down and then jumped in, fighting him off. I was never here."

"But you were," Helga objected. "And that crashing noise… People will have heard."

"… Right…" Astrid said, realizing that massive structural damage would need to play into the story. "Forget that story. But when they ask, and they will ask, I didn't do anything, say anything to Snotlout, any of that. Neither did Toothless. We just trashed my room as a distraction so you could get at him." The only way to prevent Snotlout's family from blaming her was for someone else to take all the credit for actually killing him. If it weren't for the undeniable damage to the hut, she'd have Helga deny their presence entirely.

"I would have to say that I fought him off, mangled his hand, and killed him," Helga said slowly. "They might blame me for his death."

"This is Berk. I don't know how they do it where you come from, but attacking a child is a no-no," Astrid said firmly. "And he's not in good standing right now. It'll work. In return, I promise I'll help you with your problem, and never tell anyone you were spying for your Chief."

"How can you fix the fact that I have no one to provide for me and my daughter?" Helga asked. "I am not remarrying, and even if I took up a trade it would not be enough."

"There are ways," Astrid promised. It wasn't even that hard of a problem; here on Berk, it would not even be an issue, as essentials were free to all who needed them. She was confident she could figure out a way to help.

"Your word… But you break your word," Helga objected.

"I break my word when I need to," Astrid retorted. "You'll have to trust that I want to help. I'm not a bad person and you need help, so I have no reason to go back on it."

"Deal, then," Helga agreed. "You and your dragon did nothing but distract, and in exchange you provide for us, somehow."

"Deal," Astrid agreed. She would offer to shake hands, but Helga had both arms full holding Vanna. Their word would have to suffice.


Astrid sat atop a sea stack, watching the village. From this distance, the people of Berk looked like ants, and the village an odd anthill. She was fairly sure she had made that observation before, but it was doubly true now. Berk was stirring like an anthill that had been kicked over.

Some of that was the general uproar over Snotlout's death and the circumstances around it; she had been down in the thick of it all night, repeating her story and wishing everyone would go away, dealing with Snotlout's screaming mother, and the million other things that came with a hostage situation ending with a murder in the middle of the night.

Toothless grumbled beside her as a gust of wind swept over them. He had flamed the sea stack immediately after landing, but stone only held warmth for so long. It was freezing out, and the ocean was solid as far as the eye could see, a mass of ice that would let no vessel pass.

"We're heading back to the nest soon," Astrid assured him. Though, now that she thought about it, that wasn't much of a promise. It would be cold there too, and there would not be much shelter. "And you got to hide out on the roof all night. I'm the one who should be complaining, if anybody is. I had to deal with everybody."

Toothless snorted derisively.

"Hey, be happy," she countered, trying a different approach. "You got to rough Snotlout up again, and nobody's blaming us for it this time." To be fair, they hadn't killed him, either. Helga was probably facing some tough questions, but she deserved as much.

Toothless rumbled in agreement.

"I just hope Vanna is okay," Astrid continued softly. The girl's physical wound wasn't serious, but trauma like that had a nasty habit of sticking around for a long, long while, and Gothi didn't do much to deal with that sort of thing.

Another agreeable rumble. Toothless pawed at her back a moment later, urging her up.

"Yeah, yeah, time to go." They had done all they were sent to do, and Stoick would be waiting for them. They'd be back soon enough.

Author's Note: Wow, the first bit of this chapter was a slog, and I only had a vague outline for all of it, but the second I got Astrid into the hut and started improvising, the following encounter just wrote itself, and managed to tie into both past and future concepts all on its own.

Also, next week's epilogue is the last entry in this story! It's needed, too; there are a lot of loose ends to tie up, things that can't be resolved without a little bit of time passing.