Author's note: I'm back! Sorry for not uploading sooner, but I think this chapter might make up for the delay. Enjoy!
Narrator's perspective
The woman entered the cave, exhausted and stressed. She walked over to her bed and sat down, head in hands. Why were they there, what do they want? She pondered, thinking back to their chase. A young man came into the chamber, nodding at the woman and sitting down on his own bed opposite hers, looking at the woman questioningly. Without looking up she said, "I was chased to the canyon. They almost got me."
The woman finally looked up at the man, sweat dripping down her face. "I can only assume they want to know his location, and they almost got it."
The man spoke solemnly, "Do you think he's ready?"
"I sure as Hel hope so, either way, we need to do something. We can't keep hiding him forever, they'll eventually find him, and we can't have that. We need to damage their bottom lines and send the message that they can't have him"
"Well," the young man spoke, "let's plan our attack."
Hiccup's perspective
Astrid had been allowed to return home a month and a half ago, but her recovery was still far from over. The doctors had given her strict instructions to not physically exert herself as this could have fatal effects. She was to take it slow and I had been asked to take her on a slow walk every-day, just to strengthen her damaged leg, as well as hopefully helping with her head injury. I had been told fresh air would clear the mind and help her to focus.
The time had passed in a monotonous way, mostly with me going for a walk around the forest. Astrid had started having nightmares about three days after she got back. She always said the same thing about them, she was scared of dragons. This didn't bare well for me until she started talking about how she wasn't afraid of me, so at least she remembers some stuff. All memories of me hitting her with my blast had evaporated for the first two weeks of her recovery, but slowly, things had come back to her.
The resentment I receive from her after she realised I had done that to her had hurt. A lot. Like a fist closing over your heart and wrenching it out. She wouldn't speak to me, she would get her parents to turn me away when I had come 'round. She seemed like she was trying to forget I existed. I don't believe she really hated me in that time. I guess she just found it hard to go through the pain of waking up and trying to go back to her normal life.
After being turned away multiple times by her parents, I had insisted to see her. They allowed me to go up to her room where I found her reading on her bed. I pleaded with her to forgive me, saying I was horribly wrong in my assumption I could turn her into a dragon and that I never felt so guilty. I love her, and it pained me to see her in such a frail condition, her life hanging by a thread. At any moment it could be cut, and she would be gone.
She had taken kindly to my apology and I offered my help in any way she needed it. After much persuasion from me to her parents, they had allowed me to stay at their house to help with Astrid's recovery, plus it made it easier for me to take her out for the walk the doctors recommended. The nightmares started to fade after I had started staying over, but the occasional one still occurred. It would start with the moaning and almost silent sobbing, before the kicking and screaming began. Her parents had just left me to take care of these after the first few nights, them seeing that I was much better at calming Astrid than them.
So here you join me on one such walk. I had packed some food and water into a bag, slung it 'round my shoulder and walked to the front of my house to go over to Astrid's after I had packed everything we would need. My car pulled out of the drive and headed down the road, stopping at the annoying traffic lights that always seem to take too long to change colour. I pressed a button to turn on the stereo, hoping to pass the time with some Imagine Dragons. The lights turned green and I pulled away, Believer pumping through my speakers. Something shiny caught my attention, but I decided to ignore it, believing it to be a passing window. But it happened again. I turned my head and saw a large black off-roader heading down a side-street, parallel to the road I was on. After about 30 seconds it turned down another even smaller road and disappeared from view. I pondered this until I arrived at Astrid's house.
I pulled into their drive, next to Astrid's car and got out, heading for the front door. Knock knock knock.
"Hello Hiccup. Astrid is just getting ready. Come in." Astrid's mum said, gesturing for me to enter.
I stepped over the threshold, leaning against the wall. Astrid was down a minute later, ready to go for the walk.
"I guess we'll be off then. Bye mum!" Astrid called as she closed the door behind her.
"Long time, no see Astrid." I joked as we walked past the main road
"I know Hiccup, we totally didn't see each other this morning, and the mornings before that," she replied sarcastically, "But thanks for helping me recover, even if it was your fault in the first place."
"Ugh, Astrid, you know I'm incredibly sorry for all this. Just please don't make me feel any worse."
"Sorry Hiccup, just poking fun."
We continued to walk in an awkward silence, not really knowing what to say next. Luckily, we didn't have to wait much longer before the forest loomed ahead.
"Right, let's get going." I said, starting my way down the track that went 'round the exterior of the forest. Astrid followed me silently, obviously contemplating something. I noticed the strange look on her face and asked, "Astrid, are you alright. You look concerned."
"Sorry, just thought I saw something. I must be my head playing tricks on me." She shook her head, trying to clear her mind. We continued walking 'round the forest, taking the occasional break for Astrid to rest. We spoke little of dragons or me hitting her, but the conversations seemed strained. I got the feeling that Astrid still partially resented me for hurting her so badly. But this was to be expected after such a traumatic experience, for both of us.
"Could we stop for a minute, I feel a little out of breath." I stopped and turned around, not noticing that Astrid had stopped a few metres back and was leaning against a tree. She had her hand on her chest and seemed to be struggling to breathe properly.
I went over and helped her to sit down against the trunk of a tree, reaching into my backpack and pulled out a water bottle and some medication the doctors told me to give Astrid if she was in pain or severely out of breath. She lobbed the tablets into her mouth and chugged water until the tablets went down. Some colour came back to her previously pale cheeks and she seemed to get some breath back.
"Do you want to go on or go back home?" I asked her
She pointed back the way we came, which I took as either going 'round the forest the other way, or going home. I chose the latter. I picked the remaining tablets up and placed them back in my bag. Astrid kept water in hand as I pulled her up and we started out way back to the beginning of the trail, only about 1 kilometre away.
Astrid leant on my shoulder, hand on her chest again and breathing heavily. "Astrid, what's wrong?" I asked, concern spreading across my face. She didn't say anything. I felt her knees go weak, I knew something was wrong. Her knees gave out. The sudden weight of her pulling down on me pulled me to the ground. Astrid was curled up on her knees, coughing severely. Then she just stopped and fell on her side.
"Astrid," I called out rushing to her side, I began shaking her getting no response. "Astrid, please." I put my ear to her chest, sighing in relief when I heard her heart still beating. I noticed her hand jerk sidewards slightly out of the corner of my eye, pulling my attention to it. Then the rest of her body started shaking. I scrambled back, watching I horror as Astrid's body spasmed on the ground of the walking track. "Astrid!" I called out, but getting no response. She rolled onto her front, and this is when I noticed the two small bulges forming on her shoulder blades and another one on her lower back. "What?" I cried. The bulges on her shoulder blades were quickly getting bigger, to the point at which her shirt could stretch no more. Her shirt ripped loudly, with two protruding bulges sticking through. They continued to grow, along with the one on her lower back. After a period of about five minutes, all the time with me starting I horror at what was happening to my friend.
The bulges on her back had turned a bluish-yellow colour and had become scaly like a lizard's skin. They formed into what looked like wings, with sharp talons on the end and webbing in between each of the finger-like things. Then the bulge on her lower back had elongated to form the same coloured spiny tale, about a metre long. Then it hit me what was happening.
My plan had worked. The blast I hit Astrid with had had a similar effect to her as the blast from the Night Fury had had to me. Albeit it appeared she wasn't turning into a full dragon, just the wings and tail. Finally, after about ten minutes of Astrid writhing on the ground she stopped, and laid very still. I cautiously crawled over to her, still not really knowing what to expect when she woke up.
It had been an hour now since she had stopped writhing around. The sun had just set and it was getting dark quickly. I gathered wood to make a fire and lit it with a plasma blast. I had shuffled Astrid closer to warm her up, still hoping she would wake up soon. I had taken to drawing in the dirt with a stick while waiting.
"Uuuugggghhhh" moaned Astrid, rolling onto her side.
I jumped up and ran over to her, keeling down and shaking her vigorously. This seemed to make her regain consciousness quicker as she sat bolt upright, face pale in the orange glow of the fire.
"Hiccup, what happened?" she asked, rubbing her face with a hand.
"You collapsed, then had a seizure." I recounted while handing her a bottle of water. She took it and downed the whole thing in one go.
"What happened?" she asked me, not yet noticing her back.
"See for yourself," I said pulling her tail in front of her
"AAAAAHHHHH," she screamed, "Hiccup, what is that?!"
"Um, I guess my blast had some effect on you because you now have a tail and wings."
"What?"
I recounted what had happened while she was passed out. She didn't seem to take kindly to her new appendages.
"Well, what do we do about them?" she asked me
"I have no idea. Guess we'll have to wing it," I joked, receiving a glare from Astrid.
"Sorry. But who knows. Maybe you'll be able to fly?" I continued
"What am I going to do about my parents. They can't see me like this!" she exclaimed while gesturing wildly to her wings and tail.
"I don't know Astrid," I heard a rumbling sound off to my right. Looking right I saw two blazing headlights coming down the track, straight at us, "But I think we have more pressing matters to attend to." I pointed towards the off-roader coming fast towards us. Astrid's head snapped over to look.
"Run." We both said simultaneously
I picked up the bag, slung it over my shoulder before helping Astrid up. I pulled her over to the side of the track and into the forest, the truck stopping very near us. We ran into the forest, looking behind us to see the truck had turned off the track and was following us. We picked up the pace, Astrid occasionally stumbling over her tail, wings flapping behind her madly. We reached a large fallen tree lying across our path. I pulled the bag off my shoulder and through it over, then lacing my fingers together and gesturing for Astrid to use them as a step. She pulled herself up and jumped over the log. I turned into a dragon and flew over, picking up the bag as we continued to run.
The truck was still close behind, having swerved around the tree. I handed the bag to Astrid and turned into a dragon, picking her up in my claws. We soared above the canopy and into the open air, leaving the truck far behind. I picked up speed until Berk and its forest was a mere speck on the horizon, the night sky twinkling behind it.
I set us down at the base of a large rock formation. Astrid stumbled over to the base of it and slumped down, falling asleep instantly. I did the same, closing my eyes to the beautiful night sky.
Henchman's perspective
We almost had the boy. We were so close. He would've been our chip to complete the task, but we let him get away. He and his female companion wouldn't last long out there. Either way, boss wouldn't be happy.
Author's note: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I can't believe how much support I'm getting for this story, thank you all so much. Please review and tell me what you think. See you next chapter.