Thank you everyone for your comments and follows/favourites! I have never received that many from a single chapter 3

"I demand you to release me immediately!" Princess Astrid finally spoke. Fear was clear in her voice, but she was doing an impressive job at keeping that fierce look that didn't radiate a single ray of fear.

More questions rose in Hiccup's mind before he had time to mentally answer them. Why was she here? Why hadn't he known what the only heir to their enemy's throne looked like? Had he seriously helped her with her dragon?

"You must be aware of the rules around these lands, Your Majesty," Stoick said with a very satisfied, mocking tone. "Once you enter another kingdom's lands, you are a nobody. No one cares about the titles you claim to have in your own kingdom and you become nothing but a common peasant. Unless I am mistaken, this rule also applies for Briral."

The fierce look on Astrid's face started to slowly fade away, being replaced by uncertainty and anxiety. That was when it hit Hiccup – she had to be alone. There was no way she would react like this if there was a knight, or a hundred knights, in shining armour to rescue her. What had made her risk so much to venture beyond Berk's borders? Had she lost her mind?

When he thought about it, he realised he could expect literally anything from a Briralian, so maybe he shouldn't have been so surprised by this.

"Now, if you value your life more than it's worth, you will tell me how many of your men are out there waiting for your signal," Stoick said with a dark voice. It sounded so horrifying that Hiccup stopped staring at Astrid and turned his attention on his father. His eyes were soon back on the princess though because he craved to see her reaction.

"I acted alone," she said after a pause, trying to sound confident and brave, but her appearance was everything but. "I only had a dragon with me, but he managed to escape."

"But your dragon's a female," Hiccup blurted out before he could stop himself. He felt all eight pairs of eyes on him and his cheeks started to feel hot. "I mean… everyone knows that, don't they?"

"I did not," Stoick said. When the prince glanced at the king, he saw a wide smile had been spread across his face. "But that piece of information confirms that you're lying."

Hiccup could feel the princess' eyes on him. When their eyes met, it looked almost like she was thinking really hard about something. He broke the eye contact in a second, but the prince knew it would be sooner or later that she figured out the true identity of her helper in the woods.

He was never going to help anyone ever again.

"Put her in the cells until I have decided what use we have of her," Stoick said and dismissed the guards with his hand.

The prince watched as the guards made their way out of the Throne Room with Princess Astrid in the middle. He could hear her spit out "I can walk by myself" and "Get your dirty hands off of me" before they were out of sight and the wooden doors were closed after them.

"Why didn't you tell me what the princess of Briral looked like?!" Hiccup yelled at his father and threw his hands up in the air. "She could've walked safely under my very nose because I had no clue how to recognise her until now!"

"Oh, Hiccup," the king chuckled, "I never told you simply because I didn't want you to go out there looking for her and put yourself in grave danger. I never thought you would even have to meet each other; a battleground is no place for women, let alone princesses."

"But… but I could've met her somewhere, like… like in the woods and helped her because I didn't know what she looked like!"

Stoick burst out laughing, apparently thinking his son was just trying to come up with an excuse to be mad at him. Oh boy, if only he knew. "And how would that ever be possible? You surely aren't so foolish to just wander in the woods with no knights by your side, they do know what she looks like. I can't speak for Princess Astrid for that matter, but I'm sure she is well-guarded as well," he said, still chuckling in between some words. He looked at Hiccup, and when he noticed there was no change in the prince's serious and annoyed face, the king's features started to slowly lose the cheerful look as well. He ran his hand down his big, bushy beard as he observed his son. "Is this really the only thing you care about? Aren't you happy that we finally have a powerful weapon we can use against Briral? We might even milk the plan they had for our dragons out of the princess."

Hiccup shook his head slightly and fixed his eyes on the floor while pinching the bridge of his nose. He realised he needed to calm down before he said too much and his father put the puzzle pieces together and the prince's secret was out. He hadn't even thought about using the princess of Briral as a weapon, his mind had been too busy thinking about why she was here instead of how Berk could benefit from her being here. Although he did realise that his father had a point and he should start figuring out a way to get information out of Princess Astrid, he couldn't push the question why out of his mind. It was consuming his mind and everything else seemed less relevant to him by the second. He then looked up at his father who was sitting on the enormous throne and looking at him with his eyes squinted in slight confusion.

The prince sighed. "Doesn't it concern you why she has come here? Before we can use her for anything, we need to figure out why she is here in the first place."

"Why she's here doesn't matter to me," Stoick replied as though that should have been the case for Hiccup as well. "She is here because the knights of Berk were more skilled than her. Now, let us focus on the important matters. We will have an entire army of Briralians on us soon, they need to be located before we can make any further plans on the counter-attack. How long until the patrol can leave?"

Hiccup looked at his father for a moment before he took a deep breath and replied: "An hour, may not even be that long."

"Good. Make sure they start readying the dragons. You are dismissed."

Without saying a word, the prince bowed down to the king and left the Throne Room. Too many things had happened in a short time span and everything felt surreal. What were the odds that of all people he could have stumbled upon on his nocturnal sneak-out, it just had to be Berk's archenemy? His mind was storming, which wasn't exactly anything unusual, but this was different. There had to be a very important reason for Princess Astrid to come here, that much was obvious to Hiccup, but why in the name of Odin did she act alone? Unless she was an excellent actor and she managed to put on an authentic I-am-going-to-die-here-and-it-wasn't-part-of-my-plan look, she had to be here alone. Hiccup just knew it.

Maybe she wasn't the only heir in Briral and the king didn't care if the princess died? What if all kingdoms had just been led to believe that she was his only child, and Astrid would take the king's place on the throne? Maybe she had figured it out and fled, not realising she had crossed Berk's borders because she had been out of her right mind?

There were too many questions and too few answers, and his own theories were beginning to sound more absurd after another. A tiny part of him wondered why he tried so hard to come up with an explanation why the princess had set her foot on Berk's grounds. His father was right; all that should have mattered to him was that Astrid Hofferson was now caught and in the cells. And he had more important things to worry about, that being the task the king had given him. Since Toothless wasn't currently fit to fly, he knew he wouldn't be joining the patrol, which meant he would only have more time for his stupid thoughts and questions, which was just perfect. He dearly wished that Gothi, Berk's court physician, had a potion that would make him stop thinking.

"Have you seen Sir Fairfax or the other knights recently?" he asked a maid that was about to walk past him. The woman stopped dead in her tracks to look at her prince.

"Not since yesterday, My Lord," she answered as she curtseyed humbly. "But you should ask someone that works in the royal kitchens. Some of the knights like to spend their time there, so the maids in the kitchens may have seen them during the past hours."

Hiccup snorted. "Why doesn't that surprise me?" he said mostly to himself and was off again.

It didn't take him long to get into the corridor that led to the kitchen, and he was relieved to find Fairfax there chatting with another young woman Hiccup could only assume to be one of the maids. The prince walked up to them and once Fairfax spotted Hiccup, his attention turned on him.

"Hiccup," Fairfax said cheerfully. "What brings you near the heaven on Earth?"

Hiccup raised his eyebrow at that, amused. "Heaven on Earth? Is that what you call the royal kitchens?"

"Yep," the knight responded with a popping P and took a bite of the apple he had in his hand. "It is about the closest thing I will probably ever be to heaven, excluding the times I fly on my dragon of course – you're in the sky then, you know – so I thought I'd better make the most of my time while I still can."

The prince chuckled and shook his head. "Did you hear the news about the princess of Briral?" he then asked and turned graver.

"I know everything, word travels fast around here. What did you do to her?"

"The king put her in the cells until he decides what to do with her."

"Serves her about right," Sir Fairfax stated with a nod and took another bite of his apple. "Is that why you're here?"

"Actually, yes," Hiccup responded. "Stoick wants a patrol to go out there to look for an army of Briralians. He strongly believes there's one waiting to strike."

"I'll gather our men and get ready," Fairfax said and took a few steps in the direction from which Hiccup had just come until he stopped and turned around. "Just out of curiosity, do you believe there's an army out there?"

Hiccup allowed himself a moment to consider his response. "No, I don't. The look on her face made it clear no one knows she's here yet." He kept a short pause. He lowered his gaze to the cuff of his shirt sleeve and twiddled it as he continued, "I mean, of course we don't know anything about her, but if she was faking it, she did it splendidly. I saw no pretence in her eyes which is why I believe that, for an unknown reason, Princess Astrid acted alone."

He looked back up to see Fairfax nod in approval. Without saying another word, he walked away. That was only when Hiccup noticed the maid had disappeared out of sight too. The prince took one last glance at the door to what Sir Fairfax claimed to be the heaven on Earth, smiled weakly and left the corridor.

The prince had eventually decided to work on the maps to keep his mind busy. The moment he had stepped into his room, he had taken the maps and his compass out of the drawer and was now marking down points on them. He had immersed himself completely with his work and he almost forgot about the things that were happening behind his chamber doors. His eyes set on the map that was his most unfinished work – it was of the kingdom of Briral. He knew he would never get it done because whenever he had any business near that area, it was because he was going into war and that wasn't the time for mapping. He only had the location of the castle and some of the borders of their lands drawn on the fragment of paper, but the rest was completely blank.

He then started thinking about the events of today. Once he did, he immediately regretted it; he felt like he had to do something, but there was nothing he could've done, or at least nothing he could think of. He couldn't get back into his work mood now that he had gotten himself out of it. The prince groaned out of mere frustration and rested his forehead on both of his palms. He stared at the dark, wooden table and felt more and more useless each passing heartbeat.

There was a shy knock on the door.

"Come in," Hiccup said without moving an inch from his current position.

There was a brief silence as the person stepped in, and then the prince could hear an unfamiliar voice speak, "Oh Gods, are you alright, My Lord?"

He raised his head from his palms to see who it was. He had no idea. Hiccup straightened himself up on the chair and put on a fake smile. "Never better. What is it?"

"The prisoner requests your presence," the woman answered. She was trying to look around the room without making it too obvious, and Hiccup wasn't sure if it was because she was curious about the prince's chambers or if she was too scared to look at him in the eyes.

"But she has no authority to do such thing," Hiccup said, confused.

"That is why it is a request, My Lord. You can ignore it if you wish."

The prince nodded slowly. "You may leave now," he said, but a question rose in his mind so he stopped her before she got out of the door. "No, wait. Has there been any word from the patrol?"

"Yes, My Lord. They came back recently. There was no sign of anyone. They've already reported back to the king."

"So no Briralians are lurking at our borders?" he asked for confirmation.

"It appears not."

"Alright. Thank you," Hiccup said and let the woman finally go.

The very second the door was shut, the prince stood up from his chair. He did it so fast that he felt dizzy for two whole seconds, but he ignored it as he was in a rush to get out of his chambers. If Princess Astrid had requested his presence, it would only mean that he was about to get some answers to his questions. As he made his way to the cells, he made sure no one saw where he was heading to so he didn't have to explain himself. He didn't want anyone to interrupt the little chat he was going to have with the princess, especially knowing that he would never hear the end of it if Stoick ever found out that Hiccup had a meeting with her.

The air down in the cells was horrible; it was stuffy and hard to breathe. It was also extremely cold down there, which was the main reason Hiccup avoided visiting the place as much as possible. He once had to spend an hour in there because of a hearing he had to attend, and he couldn't feel his toes for the rest of the day.

He sprinted down the stairs as fast as he could. The cracks and missing pieces of the stony stairs made it clear they had seen their better days ages ago, and the risk of getting himself hurt was high, so he tried to be careful while still keeping up the fast pace. On the way, he took one of the torches that illuminated the otherwise dark part of the castle.

Once he was nearing his destination, he was encountered with two guards guarding the cells. They bowed down to him and let him pass through them. Under his breath, Hiccup told the guards that nobody was to come here while he was visiting the prisoner, to which he earned two understanding nods.

He looked for the princess with the torch and soon spotted her curled up in the corner of one of the cells. She had her back turned on him so she hadn't yet noticed his presence. It didn't take long until Astrid looked over her shoulder as she heard approaching footsteps, and for a moment they just stared at each other.

"I didn't think you'd come," she stated coldly, still looking at him over her shoulder. "The prince himself had the courage to come down here to see me. Should I feel privileged?"

"You will not speak to me like that," Hiccup threatened. "And at the moment I am your prince, just remember that."

Astrid snorted. "You're nothing to me until you've proven to be worthy of that title." There was a rather long silence between them, during which Hiccup placed the torch on the wall so that it would shed a bit of light on the princess. Finally Astrid sighed and stood up. "That wasn't a very good start for this meeting. For all my life I've been taught to hate you and it feels like it's the only emotion I am able to feel towards you."

"If it helps any, the feeling's mutual," Hiccup said and crossed his arms across his chest. Astrid walked as close to the prince as she could. She held onto one of the bars and tried to look him in the eyes but he avoided meeting her gaze. "Why are you here anyway?" he asked.

"I wanted to see you," the girl responded without missing a beat.

Hiccup almost choked on his own spit and was now coughing into his fist. "Excuse me?" he managed to say in between the coughs.

"For years I've wanted nothing more but peace between our kingdoms. Blood has been shed too much and no one even knows the reason why we're enemies to each other." Hiccup didn't say anything so Astrid kept on talking, "I know there's nothing we can do to change our parents' minds, but we could already start building the kingdoms we both want to look at with pride."

"You're talking like this is also what I want," Hiccup stated. "And was coming here really the best solution to see me? You surely know the king isn't letting you live much longer."

"I know it was you that helped me with Stormfly in the woods. I had my suspicions later on – you had such an expensive-looking flying suit and you were hiding your dragon, so it only made sense that you weren't a nobody in the place you come from. But the moment I heard you speak up there," she said and raised her finger to indicate the castle that was above them, "I knew there was something familiar in your voice, but when you knew about my dragon, I instantly knew it was you and my suspicions were confirmed. We know how to be civil around each other." She completely ignored what Hiccup had just said. The way she spoke was too calm and it made the prince uneasy; he had never heard of a prisoner who spoke with such certainty and confidence, and the last person he was expecting that to come from was the girl in front of her. It almost sounded like everything was going according to her plan and she was loving every step of it.

"But that doesn't prove anything, we didn't know each other's true identities. As you probably noticed, once we knew who we were, we started speaking in a hateful manner to each other." That was when Hiccup finally locked his eyes with Astrid's. The princess tilted her head and bit her inner lip as she studied him carefully in the dim light.

"I think it proves a lot," she said thoughtfully as if that was the result of her moment of examination.

Hiccup blinked. "So now you know me?"

Astrid ignored his question once again. "Well, our encounter doesn't prove a lot, but everything else does. I know what you did in Briral. You only took what you thought was rightfully yours so that we wouldn't have a reason to go after you and start another battle. Isn't that what you were aiming at?" The prince gaped at her dumbfounded. He had no idea what to say on that. The princess immediately understood that she had been right, and a small smile spread across her face. "That's why I know we can eventually make peace. We're so different from our fathers, they've already made up their minds about how they see the world, but we haven't. There are so many things we can change for the better once we are ruling our kingdoms."

Hiccup's mind was racing, and he couldn't find the words to describe the emotions he was going through. One second his mind couldn't believe how similar his thoughts had been to Astrid's and that there was now a tiny chance their kingdoms would see the day when all their buildings were over a month old. The next second his brain tried to tell him that this was against everything his father had built Berk on, and if he now teamed up with that girl on the other side of the bars, he would destroy the Berk he had learned to love. The third second was reserved for the thought she is still your archenemy and nothing she says is worth trusting.

When the prince didn't speak, Astrid took that as a sign to go on; "Your actions really do prove that you're striving for the same things as I am. I know that you will eventually see reason and you will help me escape, though I was hoping it would happen a bit easier." The tone she ended her last sentence with made it sound like there was more to her words.

"Help you escape?" Hiccup parroted incredulously. Had this girl been talking to him in his sleep and there had been a moment where they had bumped their fists and become best friends, and that made her say these things? Was she forgetting that if the bars weren't in their way, the first thing that would be expected from them was to draw their weapons and fight till death?

"Exactly," Astrid said easily.

Now it was Hiccup's turn to examine her. For some reason it still made him uncomfortable seeing how calm the princess seemed to be about this entire situation, which was the complete opposite of what he was feeling. It was as if she didn't care if she died here. Her serenity didn't match the events in the Throne Room where she had been shouting and definitely scared. How was she capable of switching between two moods that were polar opposites in a matter of a few hours?

The prince collected his thoughts before he spoke, trying his best to reflect the calmness in Princess Astrid's voice. "You know, it's very strange how you're talking to me like we know each other. That encounter in the woods barely counts for anything – we didn't know our identities and it's impossible to tell how it would've gone if we had. I have no idea what gave you such a great desire to come to Berk, but I am sure it wasn't because you wanted to tell me about your observations and your plans for the future. Do you have any idea what my father would do if he ever found out I am having an almost-friendly conversation with the person I am expected to hate the most? And help you escape? You do realise I would be guilty of treason if I did that? Are you really as naïve as you make yourself out to be?"

There was a flash of anger and hate in Astrid's eyes, but she restored the calm look almost instantly. She then bit her bottom lip and her appearance became stiffer and more nervous. "There's one other reason why I came. You took my dragon from me."

Was she going to ignore everything Hiccup said? This girl needed some serious lessons on how to maintain a conversation with people. "We only took our own and that's what you also noticed," he stated with no emotion in his voice.

"Yes, and I also said that you tried to take only your own dragons, but you also took mine. I think you used to have a Deadly Nadder among your dragons-"

"We still do."

"Your dragon never made it to Briral. She was too sick and the pace was too fast for her. The knights brought her corpse to Briral anyway. It was horrifying to look at her because she looked exactly like my Stormfly… When I had my suspicions about you being my helper in the woods, I decided to take one of our dragons and fly near Berk. Reckless, I know, but the thought of Stormfly being in unfamiliar hands just wouldn't be erased from my mind, so I had to act, I had to do something. I thought that if it were you that helped me, you'd do that once again with a bit of persuading. I was meant to wait for you outside of the borders of Berk, but at some point I guess I got too close and was captured."

Hiccup was silent. That would explain why the dragon had magically made full recovery and didn't let the knight come close to her. He recalled Astrid's words in the woods: she doesn't approve of strangers touching her.

The prince's heart was beating really fast and he wasn't sure why. He was still feeling mixed emotions and he didn't know which one of them he should act on. He felt as though his decisions now would determine a big chunk of Berk's future, which was something he didn't think he'd need to worry about for many, many years.

She is your enemy.

"I can't trust you," he said finally and shook his head. "I can't take anything you say as truth."

Now it was Astrid's turn to be annoyed. "Do you honestly think I would risk my life to come here to tell you bedtime stories?!"

Hiccup took the torch from the wall and took a few steps backwards, his eyes fixed on the princess. "Do you seriously think I would commit treason for you?"

She didn't say anything, so the prince turned around. After a few steps he could hear Astrid bang her fist against the bars and the action left a small echo in the cells. When he reached the guards, he could hear the girl shout after him: "Just think about it and come see me in the morning!"

He didn't say anything at that, he just left as fast as he could. Every part of his body felt frozen and his movements weren't as fast as he would've liked. How were the cells that cold?

He had gone down there to get some answers to his questions, but instead he had been given even more of them. He felt dizzy and he couldn't think straight. If one short conversation with Astrid Hofferson was enough to make his head go crazy, he didn't even want to know what would happen on round two. So if there was one thought that was crystal clear in his mind, then it was that this was the last time he visited Princess Astrid. Ever.

At least that was what he hoped.