RIGHT. I'M BACK AGAIN. WITH YET ANOTHER CHAPTER OF THIS TALE.

LOTS AND LOTS OF DISTURBING ANGST IN THIS CHAPTER. THAT, AND SOME INTROSPECTION TOO. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

ONWARDS:


To say that Astrid was just seething in anger by the time she made it to the bottom of the stairs would be a severe understatement. She was slowly, but very surely, losing grip on her fury. She was trying to rein it in, because if she did something to Snotlout, who happened to be the the son of one of the the Elite of Berk (Spitelout being the brother of the chief and all), therefore technically being part of the Elite itself, she would face severe consequences. Miaming the twins, well... she will land in trouble too, probably. But not as much as harming Snotlout.

Her anger had been the source of many verbal, and sometimes physical, spats. She knew her anger was really bad, and just might be the end of her someday if she didn't learn to control it. While anger gave her power beyond anything, the kind of power that had fueled her dreams of being the best warrior of her age, she was in constant threat of being completely consumed by it. She had almost lost it a few times due to her unchecked anger, and had very nearly lost everything in the process. Hell, there were times that she was sure that she would have been banished from her home. While House Hofferson was not part of the Elite, it still meant something in Berk. It was honourable to be a part of the Hoffersons, who had created some of the best warriors in the past few generations. Her father was one of Stoick's military generals, securing that post when Hiccup successfully cleared the name of the Hoffersons after her uncle Finn 'fearless' Hofferson had perished from a Flightmare attack, plunging all Hoffersons to the rock bottom only to be branded as cowards.

She was about to make the same mistake when she had forced Hiccup to take her to the Flightmare on Toothless when the glowy dragon was in transit. Her anger was the one leading her to try to exact revenge, but we all know where that ended. Even she knew that had it not been for Hiccup, she would have lowered the social status of the Hoffersons even more. By the end, it was Hiccup's patience and intellect which figured out the entire picture. He was the one to come up with the solution to their collective problems, and with the help of her and Fishlegs, solved them once and for all.

While she knew she was stubborn, bull headed, bad tempered and really instinctive, it was no good in the current times. An year ago, it was fine. But now, when working with dragons and working to incorporate them with the still sensetive vikings required patience and control, her anger and swing-before-talk instincts were far from welcome. It was only because of Hiccup and his contant reassurances of a much brighter and better future that kept her going, and made her pull through it all. She really wasn't kidding when she had ascertained that without Hiccup, none of them would be here, happy and safe.

The only place where she felt that her anger and violence was not undeserved was where Snotlout was involved. She knew she was beautiful, and she was sure Snotlout will never make her forget it. While she had a vanity streak that ran deeper than her competitive streak, even she knew that all Snotlout liked was what was on the exterior. He didn't care about what she was like on the inside, hence completely ignoring her thoughts about him and almost hourly rejections, and continued his relentless Snotlout-branded flirting. She would do anything to stay away from him, but even she had to agree that he had guts - read on below.

The main reason as to why there aren't any other teenagers from their age group is because ALL of them are married off. When a child turns thirteen, their families are given a choice - marry their children (Not necessarily within themselves: They could marry their children to whomever they damn well pleased, be it a sixty year old rich trader or a kid of the same age), or enroll them in fire prevention squad, which was the first step taken to state that their children would be enrolled in dragon training when they turn fifteen and not up for marriage as they will be future warriors. Mind you, this was until an year ago. While these second batch of kids can marry later in life, they had to have powerful parents in society to make this very lucky choice. Children with families with lower status were almost always forced to marry early, be it due to monetary or status problems.

This explains a lot, seeing that with the exception to Fishlegs and the twins, every other kid in the group of six belongs to families of higher status. Fishlegs was downright rejected by most families on grounds of being a poor family protector and being overly fat, while the twins, well, heh. No one wanted any of the two bat-crazy twins in their households if they weren't looking for deep trouble and profound misery, which they weren't. While it was unclear if Ruff and Tuff did all of the past stuff they did deliberately to be rejected, they legitimately loved to create havoc and cause destruction. So, all in all, everything worked out well for them.

Astrid's hand was asked for marriage unions the most, out of all the others. While it was true that her family gave her the freedom to make the choice, and, of course, said no to all of them without a second thought, there was a second reason as to why the proposals began to dwindle suddenly when she turned thirteen and half. She began to manifest her anger in earnest. Multiple things happened all at once - some HUGE teenage fights between her and her father, many incidences of violences where some people (be it suitors, their family members, or just the poor unlucky passerby) faced her wrath, the worst being a boy named Scarnape who was still missing two fingers of his left hand due to them being chopped off by Astrid's axe. She had become the society shrew at that point, completely unapproachable, but when she was able channel it all into battle tactics and began to show how excellent she was in warring, most of it was forgiven. Only Scarnape's family gave her really hateful stares yet, with Scarnape scampering for cover whenever he saw her. All the other still unwed children hold her like the role model warrior that she is, but she has been long upstaged by Hiccup, who is the literal hero now. Everyone looked up to him, no matter how little or how old, and she was just his sidekick now. It was so hilarious how Hiccup shot up from being the village idiot to who he is now, but saving the entire village tends to do that, she supposed. While it irked her on some deep level, she knew she could never upstage him there, so she had stowed that feeling deep inside and had decided to be friends with Hiccup.

So, with all this in mind, she carefully approached the town square, all the while thinking how Hiccup would handle a situation like this. He would be patient, hear all things, assess the situation, and then sound his verdict, which would be a way to repair the situation most of the times. He was intelligent and efficient like that.

She could do all that, no problem.

...right?

Because, in the end, it didn't matter how confident Astrid was in her capabilities. When push came to the shove, she will snap. It was just the way she was. She could only try.

She had to. As much as she wanted to mortally hurt Snot and the twins at that moment, she would not be forgiven again if she lost it. While she was sure that those three had done something really bad to Hiccup for him to act like however he was acting recently, she still had to hear their side of the story. She just hoped their reasoning was not of their usual stupid and hairbrained quality.

Armed with all this introspective information, she arrived at the square just in time to see the four come out of the forest. Ruff seemed to have calmed down and was actually smiling, landing Astrid to believe that nothing else had happened that night which would mean trouble. She controlled her urge to go to the group and axe-whack the three tricksters on their heads, and stayed put there. She took a huge calming breath and looked around the square, seeing a handful of people milling around and the four dragons staring at her intently. She jumped a bit when she saw five pair of draconic eyes boring into hers, as if sensing her inner turmoil. She shivered a bit closed eyes eyes, and visibly pacified herself. Damn those overgrown lizards to be so utterly perceptive!

She opened her eyes to see that the dragons were still staring at her. She shook her head, grit her teeth and turned around to face the four hurrying towards her. She sighed internally- trouble all around.

Fishlegs began to speak the moment they joined her.

"Well, Astrid, we found them."

"Did they do anything?"

"Nah. We just found the two sparring in a clearing, that's all."

"Hey, I needed it!" - Ruff.

"And I enjoyed it. It's always good to spar with your sister, no matter how much she is in love with you deep down!" - Tuff.

That earned him a sock in the shoulder by his sister.

"Ew, bro. Don't get ahead of yourself."

With that, everything returned to normal with the two. Stupid bickerings hiding how the two were clearly emotionally attached to each other. She would have good-naturedly rolled her eyes at the idiotic exchanges between the two if she wasn't contemplating how to question the elephant in the room without losing her grip on anger. However, Fishlegs broke her reverie.

"So, how did it go? How did Stoick take the news?"

"Oh, that. Nothing to worry about any more, I guess."

"Huh?"

"Apparently, Hiccup came home this afternoon while we were ... otherwise engaged at Outcast Island. He is not here, I asked."

The last part was added when she saw the semi-shocked-semi-infuriated faces of her friends. Faces which clearly said that they wanted to give Hiccup a piece of their mind if they meet him. Snotlout snorted out haughtily.

"Well, that's good. Because if he was, I had some really choicy words to say to him for bailing at us like that."

That just caused Astrid to raise her eyebrows and purse her lips.

"There might be reasons for that, Snotlout. Ever thought of that?"

"Huh?"

"Did you ever think as to why Hiccup abandoned as like that?"

"Excuse me? Don't tell me you are supporting hi-"

"Stoick said that he had a talk with his son when Hiccup had returned this afternoon. Apparently, he was avoiding us. Why do you think that happened?"

"How an I supposed to know that, Astri-"

"You all know about the public fight between me and Hiccup four days ago. Well, I went to see him in the forge two days ago, to talk. See what was eating him. Well, you know what he said in the end? That he hated being hit."

"AND WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO SAY THIS TO US???"

"DON'T YOU DARE RAISE YOUR VOICE AGAINST ME, SNOTLOUT JORGENSON!!!"

"I WILL DO AS I PLEASE! IT SEEMS THAT HE LEFT US BECAUSE OF YOU!!!"

It was a miracle that Astrid was managing to control herself and not bash open Snotlout's head. She was grinding her teeth as she replied.

"AND THAT IS THE SOLE REASON WHY I REFRAINED FROM TELLING THIS INCIDENT TO YOU GUYS! I WAS SO BUSY BLAMING MYSELF THAT I DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING ELSE!"

A small pause, as her anger downgraded from boiling to simmering.

"That's the problem. I was so worried that I had caused him to turn his metaphorical tail on us, that I was intent on finding him and fixing whatever went wrong."

"As you should be."

Snotlout actually sneered at her. The others were really quiet, for which Astrid was thankful. Because if they hadn't, she would have actually burst out.

But Snotlout, being Snotlout, had no survival instinct.

Save it for the endgame, Astrid. Save your anger for the final.

With that in mind, she gripped her axe tightly to dissipate some anger, and countered Snotlout's sneer.

"Is that so, Snotlout?"

The three others shivered slightly, sensing that something bad was about to happen. Sadly, the same couldn't be said about a certain black haired stocky boy.

"Well, duh. You said it yourself. You clearly chased him off, and are now questioning if you are responsible for it or not. I mean, we are not stupid. You recounted the events, where Hiccup said that he did not like being hit. Seeing that you are the only one who has ever hit him, you are the one to blame here."

Mistake. Huge mistake. Snotlout should NOT have lied to her face.

Astrid struck the stone ground with her axe so extremely hard that it's blade got lodged in it. Snotlout promptly jumped back.

"Say that again, Snotlout."

He couldn't. He just gulped.

"It's funny, Snotlout, how I used to hold that very same statement as the truth. The ACTUAL truth, until I talked to the chief this evening."

Snotlout was staring at Astrid with eyes wide in fear. That is what she reveled in, the power that her anger gave her, and the fear it inspired in others. She was trying to avoid this, but she would be lying if she said that she didn't love this feeling.

"You LYING. PIECE. OF. YAKSHIT!!!"

Every single capital word was punctuated by really powerful punches- two to the chest, and two to the gut. Snotlout crumpled to the ground, groaning.

"You actually LIED to my FACE, you slimy cowardly two-faced BASTARD!"

She kicked Snotlout in his groin, illiciting a painful shout from the downed boy. It was clear by now that Snotlout was trying his damnedest to not cry. Fishlegs gathered the courage to actually move, and bodily restrained Astrid after this attack, dragging her away from the black-haired boy. Snotlout saw this as his chance and started to force his words out.

"What is with you, you stupid woman? What is it always violence with you? Didn't you learn anything after what you did with Hiccup?"

This just angered Astrid more. A LOT more.

"Excuse me? EXCUSE ME??? I mean, WHAT THE..."

Words completely failed her. Upto you now, my dear audience. Decide exactly how angry she is.

Fishlegs stopped dragging Astrid after he had managed to put a considerable distance between between her and Snot. He didn't release her from his strong grip, however. For good reasons.

Turns out, Snotlout wasn't going down that easily either. He shot back.

"What did I do to deserve this harrassing beating, Astrid?"

"What you did, huh? Well, for starters, tell me what YOU did to Hiccup THREE years ago."

Words cannot portray how angry she is, but rest assured. She is almost blind in her fury by now.

"Three years... what I did... to Hiccup... what in hel are you talking abo-"

"What I'm talking abou- ARE YOU ABOUT TO LIE ON THIS TOO???"

Screaming Astrid. It's downright horrifying. No one deserves to face that version of Astrid.

Except maybe Snotlout.

"DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME ON THIS ONE, SNOTLOUT JORGENSON! TELL ME WHAT YOU AND THE TWINS DID TO HICCUP THREE YEARS AGO. NOW!!!"

And with that finesse in the finality of her demand, she hit the homerun.

Snotlout visibly paled, a grand feat considering how dark the surroundings were. She couldn't see the others' faces, but she was sure that they had paled from shock as well. Fishlegs, in fact, released her completely from his restraining hold in his shock. She was not prepared for the sudden release, so she fell on her knees. She got up quickly enough, and advanced towards Snotlout with murder written all over face.

So much for anger control.

She was a couple of paces when Fishlegs suddenly caught up with her. He grabbed her left hand and stopped her. She actually whipped around, about to shout at Fishlegs too, when he quietly said out four words in a hurry.

"Astrid, please, not here."

She stilled, his words processing. She suddenly looked around.

A huge crowd had gathered around them to see what was happening. She quickly scanned the throng for the sign of the Chief or his brother, both of whom were thankfully missing.

Yet.

And just like that, the majority of her blinding fury evaporated. Mind you, the majority of it. Not all of it.

Fishlegs was right. Not here.

She spun back to see the guilt-ridden twins help up an ashen faced but equally guilt-ridden Snotlout to his feet. Some of her anger returned at the sight of them, but she had to control her haywire instincts in front of this many people.

Shrugging Fishlegs' hands off of her, she located her axe, pulled it out of the ground without even a grunt, and pointed it at the guilty trio. She actually growled:

"You three. Get on your dragons. The training arena. NOW!!!"


I AM NOT GONNA LIE, BUT THIS WAS QUITE FUN TO WRITE.

NO, I'M NOT MENTALLY DISTURBED. JUST ANGRY AT SNOTLOUT FOR LYING. AND FOR HURTING HICCUP THREE YEARS AGO. MAD AT THE TWINS FOR HELPING HIM. THE LIST GOES ON AND ON. YOU GUYS GET THE GIST, RIGHT?

PLEASE DON'T SUE ME OR COME AT ME WITH PITCHFORKS. THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET A WHOLE LOT MORE DICEY.

ANYWAY, JUST SO YOU GUYS REMEMBER, REVIEWS ARE WELCOME. LEAVE ONE, I WANNA READ 'EM! TAKES A FEW SECONDS, PLEASE DO IT FOR THE STORY!

UNTIL LATER, THEN.

ABHASCLASH.