-*%The somewhere island*%-

Toothless circled around the island, searching for life. Landing on the beach with a loud crunch, he shakes himself off. His scales whisper like a wave on the shore, as Toothless stretches like a cat. He lets out a warning growl, smelling a storm near by.

Hiccup stroked the dragon's head comfortingly. "It's okay, it's not headed in our direction."

Looking about the island, it seemed bigger than before with no vikingess in sight. He had left her, unconscious, Right Here. But then perhaps it had been to much of a stretch that she would still be asleep, and easily transportable, when he got back. "Perhaps, she swam for it?" he asked, doubtfully. But no, he heard a strangled cry from just out of sight. Jumping off his friend's back he bounds to the very top of the island and looks down to see a figure he hadn't seen from the sky. It lay, covered from head to foot in mud, surrounded by similarly colored earth and seaweed.

As he jogged down he recognized the guttural pained sounds she was making

"Don't Cry…" he crouched down and wiped some sand from her eyes.

Astrid sat up slowly, blinked rapidly and felt a tightening in her gut like when she had first thrown up. "Don't Pity Me…" she more or less gurgled.

"Well you're pretty pitiable…" Hiccup said, vaguely amused. Astrid rose quite suddenly but off balance. She tried to tackle him but instead tumbled into him. Weighed down by soggy earth, she sent them tumbling and rolling into the waves.

The first to emerge was Astrid, scrambling up and away from the ocean as if she feared it. Hiccup stomped after her and stood over her, glowering and dripping. She scowled at him and then at the ocean. Trying to sound gruff and commanding like his father, he grunted, "What the hell happened to you?"

Silence. Awkward silence. And Hiccup cleared his throat, nervously. He wasn't very good at situations like this… She just sat there like a statue, refusing to look at him. Toothless prowled quietly up to them, apparently finished with watching from afar. He nudged her back.

Astrid took one look behind her and leaped away, barely landing on her feet. Toothless, kneeled down as a horse might, expecting her to take the hint. Astrid started backing up and promptly bumped into Hiccup. "Take it easy. I came back here for a reason, you know." Hiccup said softly, as if addressing a wild animal.

She turned on him, slashing at his face with some sort of weapon. "Came back to finish the job?!" Dodging and then catching her wrist, Hiccup twisted her arm to force it behind her back. Astrid promptly backed into and then under him, forcing him to roll off her back and land once more in the mud. Toothless roared and charged Astrid like a bull. She was knocked backwards and once again into the surf. She regained herself quickly and slashed the air in front of her, with what Hiccup now realized was a spike from her skirt that she had been using as a shank.

Toothless let loose a fireball that sent Astrid flying backwards, out of the shallows, shrieking. Lucky for her a wave had swelled right at that moment to turn a good deal of the dragon's fireball in steam.

"No! no, no, no, Toothless!" Hiccup got in between his dragon and the downed girl. "She didn't mean it! I had it coming, really." He murmured sweetly to his dragon. Toothless's eyes widened from cat-like slits in perceived trust and calm. Hiccup kept his eyes locked with the dragon's as he reached for the girl's hand, half expecting her to stab it. He felt instead a circular piece put in his hand instead. Looking down at it in confusion, Hiccup saw that she had handed him the shank. Toothless focused on the make shift blade and hissed. Hiccup tossed it to the side without a second thought and resumed his crooning to his dragon. He walked backward, eyes locked with toothless, up until he was side by side with Astrid, knee deep in water. He reached for her hand. She yanked it away from him, staring at him like he was insane. He put his hand on Toothless's forehead, right between the eyes and Toothless cloded his eyes, relaxed. Grapping Astrid's wrist he pulled her almost in front of him. He directed her hand to where his was.

Astrid's arm began trembling, but her curiosity kept her hand going forward. Closer, closer. Hiccup let Astrid's hand replace his own on Toothless's head. Toothless opened his enormous eyes and stared at Astrid, peacefully. Astrid gasped and the two beings shared a moment, taking in each other.

Hiccup eventually led Astrid around to sit on Tooth's back where she sat in the back end of the saddle. As he strapped her in they talked softly, momentarily forgetting the violence

"So what did happen to you?"

"A storm came while you were gone… Almost all of the island disappeared under the sea." Hiccup swallowed, guiltily averting his eyes, understanding that he had abandoned her right before high tide. He smoothed over her calf as he guided it into a stirrup and felt her shiver. Mistakng it for fear, he looked to her eyes. She wouldn't meet his gaze. "Was it very bad? Was there any rain? Thunder? Lightning? Or just wind?"

Astrid collapsed into herself, letting her head lull backward so she could see the now clear sky, "Just rain and wind. In retrospect it wasn't so bad… I just didn't know what to do." Hiccup nodded, biting his lip. He swung himself over and in front of Astrid clicking his feet into the stirrups and stroking Toothless's neck before they took off. Astrid squeaked and immediately dug her nails into the back of Hiccup's soaked vest as they lifted off, yards at a time. After they established a steady glide, Astrid untangled her fingers from the vest, wrinkling her nose. "Your fur smells disgusting."

"Who's fault is that? Dragging me into the ocean."

"You deserved it."

"By coming back to save you from certain death, I Deserved falling in the ocean and being slashed at? What kind of logic is that?"

She bared her teeth at him, not that he could see, "The swim was for leaving me alone on an island right after telling me I'd die if I was left alone on an island."

Hiccup felt a pang of sympathy and guilt.

"The Slashing, as you put it," Astrid spat the words at his head, "That Was For Everything Else."

While the guilt doubled at that implication, Hiccup's sympathy dried up like a lake.

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Besides I didn't leave you on the island alone in the end, did I?"

Astrid scoffed at his self-defense, "I thought you abandoned me. Left me to starve like the no good Viking I am. Are you saying that kind of mental torture isn't worth a shove?"

There was some pirate logic in that, not that Hiccup planned to admit it. A dozen different retorts and insults to Viking kind popped in his head, but what came out of Hiccup's mouth was, "I'm sorry."

Astrid's face went slack, her mouth actually hanging a bit agape. Hiccup continued, "You wouldn't know this about me, but I've known what it is to starve. And I actually wouldn't wish that on anybody."

Astrid was genuinely curious but it still came out as an insult in all it's disbelief. "Because you are such an exceptionably honorable kind of pirate…?"

"Because I'm that kind of person," He snaps, without looking back.