Chapter 6


Astrid awoke abruptly to darkness and a snarling whisper: "Get up."

Her mind frantically scrambled to connect the new dank and moldy smells, the rough old mattress below her, and the masculine voice to memories. She finally grasped at the wild events that had completely flipped her life around only yesterday… or perhaps earlier today. It was still late, with barely a shred of moonlight struggling through the tiny window in their room. She matched the shape hovering above her to the bartender last night – Dagur.

A nervous glance showed Hiccup's figure, barely outlined by moonlight, sitting upright on the bed.

"What is it, Dagur?" Hiccup spoke with calm urgency rather than his more traditional biting sarcasm or dry wit.

The shape of Dagur moved to the door and pressed his head to the frame. "Got a bad feeling, Hiccup."

"Outcasts?" Hiccup asked.

"Not sure. Could be some of your father's less moral cronies. Could be some fugitives starting some kind of mutiny. Could be Outcasts."

Astrid pulled herself to a sitting position, eyes trying to find features on Hiccup's dark face. What did Dagur mean by Hiccup's father having "cronies"? A small knot twisted in her stomach. Even if physically Hiccup posed no threat to her, she still barely knew him. Astrid grimaced at herself and how quickly she had fallen into some level of trusting him. If she was going to protect herself out here, she couldn't forget that underestimating a potential enemy would kill her. She swept her hand across the mattress, smiling slightly when her fingers collided with her frying pan.

Hiccup stood. "How do you know something's wrong, then?"

Dagur shrugged and replied, "Blood dripping down from the ceiling. Figure somebody slit a few throats."

Astrid felt her entire body shudder in shock before Hiccup elbowed Dagur and hissed, "Not funny." Dagur sniggered, and Astrid put a few more inches between her and the bartender. Hiccup hissed, "What really happened?"

Sighing, Dagur answered, "Woke up with some fool holding a knife to my throat, telling me to stay quiet and do what he said."

"Stupid move," Hiccup muttered.

"Exactly," Dagur gloated. "Knocked him and a few of his buddies out. Their bodies are locked in the furnace. Hopefully I'll remember they're in there before I start making the morning soup."

Astrid heard shuffling and creaking floorboards from somewhere in the inn. The three listened in silence for a moment before Dagur continued. "Couple more running around. They knocked out the guys on duty at the bar, and they have a patrol around the inn too, so it's certainly an organized operation." He paused to listen again. "I don't really care about most of the clientele, but I couldn't leave you to fend for yourself, Brother."

Astrid watched Hiccup run his fingers through his hair, her eyes slowly picking out his features as the dark became less stifling to her vision. "Thanks, Dagur."

"And you know my sister would kill me if I let you die."

"Yeah… she probably would." Hiccup gave a wry chuckle, and Astrid wondered uncomfortably what kind of sister Dagur might have.

She decided to speak up. "So escaping through the window is our best option?" she whispered.

All three gave the window a grudging look. It wasn't large, but it was possible to shimmy through it to safety.

Dagur hummed in thought. "Do you have rope?"

Astrid grinned. "Yeah, of a sort," Hiccup answered. She noticed him smiling at her, and she bit down on her lips. A moment later, she felt a thrill pass through her. She was breaking all the rules. Even biting her lips. It was a shallow victory, but still... take that, Mother.

Hiccup looked back to Dagur. "What about you?" Astrid moved to the window and carefully eased it open to avoid telltale creaking - a trick borne from hiding her stargazing from her sleeping mother.

"I've been craving a bit of senseless violence lately. I'll stay behind."

Hiccup moved to Astrid's side. "Anything you want me to tell Heather? We're heading into the city."

"Tell Sister Dearest I said hello, and I want my kukri back."

"Your-" Hiccup's head moved in a way that told Astrid he was probably rolling his eyes in the dark. "Sure, Dagur." He peeked through the window. His face illuminated in the moonlight, Astrid watched his gaze following something moving – probably a patrolling thug associated with Dagur's would-be attackers. After a moment, Hiccup murmured to Astrid. "Hand me your hair."

Astrid, her hair clenched in her hands, didn't move. Her brain raced in thought. "If they've got men circling the building, aren't you going to check the time rate of his patrol to see how much time we have between rotations?"

Hiccup coughed. "Yeah. Of course."

Dagur cackled quietly. "Ooh, she's good."

Astrid craned her neck to look through the window at the roof overhang above. She spotted a wooden beam similar enough to the iron hook above her tower window that she could use for the escape pulley system. Ignoring Hiccup's outstretched arms, she tossed a coil of hair over her shoulder, wrapped her fingers around the lower frame of the window, and pulled herself up to balance halfway inside and halfway outside the building.

"Grab my legs," she ordered Hiccup. After a bit of stuttering and more awkward coughing, he carefully grabbed the lower part of her calves, struggling slightly to maintain his grip on top of her wrinkled dress. She waited for his hold to steady, and then she let go of the window and looped her hair over the wooden beam above. "Got it," she whispered softly, hoping her voice wouldn't travel any farther than Hiccup's ears. He shot backwards from her legs, and she gently lowered herself down, tugging at her hair to bring the ends back through the window, loop her hair into a noose, and hand the noose to Hiccup. He frowned and opened his mouth, but Astrid had found a moment to voice a question.

"Who's your dad that he has cronies?"

Dagur pulled his head away from the door. "Oh-ho, Hiccup didn't tell you?"

"Dagur," Hiccup began, with all the warning that was safe to direct Dagur's way.

The bartender ignored Hiccup. "Hiccup is the son of the general of the royal guard," he gloated, grinning at Astrid's guide.

Hiccup rolled his eyes and huffed in frustration. "Tell the whole inn, Dagur. Go ahead." He seemed to be about to attempt to berate Dagur further, but he paused as they heard the soft footsteps of the thug passing slowly below the window again.

Dagur took the moment for his own query. "Seems like you're on a quest, Blondie," he addressed her, his eyes on her even as he remained hunched by the door.

In the dark, she matched his gaze. "Every year I see golden stars for one night. That night is tomorrow, and I aim to be up close this time." She twirled her frying pan in a hopefully confident manner.

Dagur nodded. For whatever reason, he accepted her answer. He slid the door open a tiny sliver and checked the hallway. "See you later, Brother."

"Thanks, Dagur," Hiccup said, sounding half exasperated and half genuinely thankful, and the bartender slid through the door and closed it quietly behind him. Astrid heard Dagur let out a low, wild cackle and slide a dagger from a sheath. She shuddered, then immediately returned to the task.

"We only have a three-minute window if he's steady," she hissed. "Once you crawl out the window, slide that noose around the bottom of your foot. Tug once, and I'll lower you to the ground. Once you're down, tug twice and let me tug my hair back up. I'll follow you."

Hiccup didn't seem willing to protest. Within seconds, Astrid had nearly propelled him out of the window. He secured himself in her hair – and even to her, that was a strange statement – and tugged as notification. She began to painstakingly but quickly lower him to the dirt, an internal clock cackling menacingly in her head. The weight at the end of her hair suddenly lessened, but no two-tug alert came. Astrid gritted her teeth. Had he fallen? Been captured? Two quick tugs alerted her otherwise, and Astrid yanked her hair back up, pulled herself through the window, and carefully suspended her body at the window's height as she peered down into the darkness.

Hiccup was gone.

She chose to overcome and ignore the panic flooding her throat. Within seconds her toes hit the dirt, and she sprinted into the shadowed depths of the trees. A skinny-fingered speckled hand reached out, and Astrid took it in her own. She didn't have to check the face. Somehow she knew it was Hiccup.

Yelling erupted from behind her, and she hissed angrily under her breath. She hadn't thought to gather her hair under her shoulder, so any thug turning the corner would have seen the golden tresses snaking away from the inn.

Hiccup began sprinting at a speed she could not have expected him to generate, and she tried her best to match his longer steps as she tucked her hair under her other arm.

He wheezed at her: "Caves." She could only assume that word referred to some hiding place, a sanctuary from the angry shouts and pounding footsteps echoing in their wake. The pair moved in a jagged path between trees, Hiccup leading with a previously unseen determination. Astrid held her frying pan even tighter than she had thought possible. He could be leading her into a trap. At this point, however, she didn't have a multitude of options. Their path was tangled so deeply into the forest as he pulled her to safety in the darkness that Astrid was lost. Her sense of direction was scattered to the wind. Without him, she doubted she could find her way back to the inn, much less to the lanterns or to her own tower. She would have to rely on his navigation from this point forward.

Astrid's scattered mind nearly sent her tumbling over the knot of fallen tree roots over which Hiccup had vaulted. A colossal tree towered above them, its roots adorning a mound of rocks and framing a passageway into darkness. Hiccup took a wheezing gasp of a breath before plunging forward, and Astrid stumbled down after him.

The depth of the darkness changed little as Hiccup and Astrid braved on, and if Astrid's eyes adjusted to the pitch black world, she couldn't tell. The voices of their pursuers faded into the deafening silence of the caves. Hiccup slowed down somewhat. He seemed to be navigating the tunneling worlds of the deep, and Astrid prodded at the walls with her frying pan while they moved along. As his breathing eased, Astrid heard the frustrated murmurings swinging under his breath.

"Don't you know your way around here?" She hadn't meant to sound accusatory, but there weren't too many other ways for him to interpret that.

"Yes," he sputtered indignantly. "I just…" His voice fell to the rocks under their toes.

"You just what?"

"I just usually have a light source and navigation system with me down here to help me out."

She couldn't imagine what that navigation system might be. A map? "So…" Astrid frowned. "You don't know where we're going, do you?"

He did not reply.

Astrid groaned. Hiccup began stuttering out apologies and nervous ramblings, but Astrid was infinitely more focused on her own internal dilemma.

She technically had a source of light to provide.

"If you had a light source, could you figure it out?"

The volume of Hiccup's voice increased slightly, so Astrid guessed he turned to face her as he replied, "Uh, yeah, I could, but-"

"Shut up." He did.

It took a long, dark, chilly minute for her to weigh the risks. Even if Hiccup decided to take advantage of the knowledge about her hair, he would be doing so only after they escaped the caves.

Astrid let go of Hiccup's hand and was immediately unnerved by its absence.

"Flower, gleam and glow." She'd never felt self-conscious about her singing voice.

"Let your power shine." Illumination began to ebb through her hair.

"Make the clock reverse." Hiccup's questions petered off into shocked silence. Astrid squeezed her eyes shut.

"Bring back what once was mine." The one most important secret of her identity, spilled.

"Heal what has been hurt." She could imagine her mother's irate ranting.

"Change the fates' design." Astrid reached out and caught Hiccup's sleeve in her fingertips.

"Save what has been lost." She never could have imagined the chaos of the journey.

"Bring back what once was mine." Astrid was risking everything she'd ever had.

"What once was mine." All for the lanterns.

Opened eyes revealed the cave relishing in soft, warm, golden light. Hiccup was gazing, his mouth utterly agape, at her illuminated hair. Astrid smiled thinly. How strange to watch someone experience her hair's powers for the first time. His uncloaked fascination did not stir in her the self-consciousness she usually felt when her hair glowed in her mother's presence.

"Which way?" She asked, squaring her shoulders.

Hiccup pulled his gaze from her hair. He looked her in the eyes for a second, his eyebrows furrowing downward, his lips slightly pinched in thought. Another minute of quandary and internal conflict passed, with Hiccup staring at her in deep thoughts and her trying to piece through his mind by matching his gaze.

He finally nodded, turned back to the path splitting in front of them, and paused for a moment before pointing. "Right."


"So your dad's the general?"

Hiccup squeezed his face into a knot of frustration. Why did she have to ask? Why did she have to be so curious? Why couldn't he just tell her to shut up? "Yup," Hiccup sighed, walking more quickly and refusing to turn to address her. He heard Astrid hum in frustration and quicken her own stride to keep up with him. He felt guilty. He didn't slow down. For a few blissful moments, Hiccup thought she might drop the subject.

"Why is that a problem?"

"What?" He looked back at her before he could restrain his surprise. That wasn't the question he'd expected.

Astrid's eyebrows dropped over her eyes and her chin firmed. "You don't seem happy about that at all. Most people would probably like the status." She frowned, and Hiccup shifted his shoulders uncomfortably as she continued, "But not you."

"But not me," he acquiesced.

She was silent. Hiccup knew she'd prod more if he didn't elaborate. And he sensed she wanted a mental break from all the tension of the whole running-for-their-lives scenario. He shook his head and tried his best to explain. "My dad is… he's a mountain. He's respected, a leader, a national hero, a warrior. People see him and they throw themselves out of his path." He laughed quietly. "I don't know if you could tell from… well, all of me, but that's not… not me."

"He's a forest, and you're a tree."

"Gee, thanks."

"And not even a strong tree, either. Like a little baby tree."

"Thank you."

"You would snap in a strong wind."

"The point has been made."

He glanced back to see Astrid biting back a smile. Oh. She was teasing him. For fun. It was nice. Hiccup's own lips twitched upward, and he swung his head forward again. Holding out his arm as he stopped, he surveyed the three prongs of the split path in front of them before taking off down the left cave.

Right behind him, Astrid's voice dropped back into seriousness. "That's a lot of pressure."

"Yeah."

"Does he want you to take up his position one day?"

Hiccup tilted his head back and huffed in frustration, nearly ramming his skull into the stalactites starting to ice the cave's ceiling. "Want? Oh, no, no," he groaned. "It's expected."

Astrid was smiling again. He could hear it in her voice. "General Hiccup, huh?"

He crackled his knuckles in his fists. "Well, actually…"

Astrid leaped forward to finally match his pace. "Don't tell me," she jokingly grumbled. "Hiccup isn't your real name."

"Uh…"

She punched him in the arm, but it was much softer than her previous hits. This one wasn't mean. It was… cordial. "I knew it!" she gloated. "What is it really? Tell me!"

Hiccup actually snorted. "No way!"

"What?"

"I'm not telling you!"

"Why not?"

Hiccup tried to walk even faster, but Astrid looped her arm through his and dragged him to her side. He sputtered, "It's embarrassing!"

Astrid huffed and blew the bangs out of her eyes. "Come on, you can't expect me to believe your big forest dad calls you Hiccup!"

He bit his lip to conquer a rising smile. "No…"

"How am I supposed to trust you if I don't even know-"

"Hal." Hiccup winced. He didn't like anyone knowing that. "My dad calls me Hal." Why did he tell her? But he couldn't ask himself that. He knew. He wanted her trust. She already seemed to trust him a little, didn't she? She'd shared the secret of her glowing hair. He didn't have to crane his neck to imagine her illuminated hair flowing in a trail behind them. The weight of the secret created its own sort of glow.

Now that they were beside each other with the light of her hair filling the tunnel, he could no longer hide his facial expressions from her, but Astrid couldn't hide hers either, and he studied her hard but thoughtful expression as she muttered, "Hal."

Please say my name for the rest of your life. Ugh, Hiccup, that sounds so stupid.

He pulled the topic into a direction dragged by his own curiosity. "But enough about me. I have some… scientific questions about your hair."

Astrid's smile wavered for a moment, and Hiccup wanted to kick himself. But she eventually, slowly, cautiously replied: "What do you want to know?"

Slightly encouraged, though he really had no reason to be, Hiccup coughed and asked, "Has that been a lifelong feature? The glowing, I mean. And the length."

Astrid nodded. "Never been cut." She slid fingers beneath the back of her head and pulled her hair over her shoulder to reveal a short lock of a dull straw-yellow hue. "Except this one lock, when I was a child. It loses all its powers and its color if you cut it."

Hiccup marveled at how she allowed it to trail so freely in the forest but didn't seemed worried about its potential for tangling or cutting. Then he blinked emphatically as the realization hit him: she had never had that problem before. "Do you braid it?" he asked.

Astrid turned to look quizzically at him. "No," she said. "My mother braids her own hair sometimes, but never mine. Why?"

Hiccup gestured around them. "The terrain is a lot rougher than you're used to in your tower. There's a stronger likelihood of something sharp accidentally cutting it out in the world." Astrid's fingers wound through her hair as her lips pursed, and Hiccup added, "Plus, leaving it dragging out behind you is going to make caring for it much harder too. You might want to consider some kind of braid."

Astrid gave him another look, with a kind of appraisal. Hiccup realized that somehow with this observation he had won over some of her favor. She stroked her golden locks. "Do you know any braids?"

Hiccup shook his head. "But I'm sure once we get to the village we can find someone willing to take care of it."

A tense smile on her face and a breath hitched on an unspoken word told Hiccup that Astrid wasn't telling him everything about her hair. He could at least guess that whatever other powers her tresses possessed had probably contributed to Astrid's isolation in that tower. Not that he was about to pry into that topic. Maybe – hopefully – she would tell him later.

After several minutes of Hiccup navigating them along the cave paths, a tiny splotch of light gleamed in the distance as they turned around a bend in the cave. Astrid gave a small sigh of relief, and Hiccup didn't bother hiding a grin this time.

Nearing the light source, Hiccup could make out the pile of rocks cluttering their exit path. Undaunted, he pushed forward, brow furrowed, and pulled at one of the smaller rocks closer to the bottom. He wriggled it loose easily, and his luck yielded him the same results with a number of other stones. Astrid joined him at the wall as the pair wordlessly worked, both weakening the bottom of the pile and detracting from the top of the pile. Hiccup found himself gradually beginning to squint, and a glance at Astrid's hair revealed its glow was rapidly fading. He picked up the pace, and Astrid knowingly matched his speed. After a few minutes of labor, the rocks yielded a hole large enough for them to crawl into a small grassy clearing. They were still deep in the night, and only moonlight lit the glinting tips of the grass. Hiccup toppled to the dirt first and slowly pushed himself to his feet. He raised his head to search for threats.

He was almost immediately tackled to the ground.

"Hi, Hiccup!" cackled Snotlout, in a voice of obnoxious cheer.

His face smashed into the dirt, Hiccup managed a "Oh, hello" in return.

"Hey, Hiccup!" Tuffnut called, bending over to wave at Hiccup.

"Hey, Tuff."

"How's life?"

"Could be better, to be honest."

Tuff nodded sympathetically.

As his field of vision was now limited, Hiccup could only hear Astrid and Ruffnut struggling and grunting in what no doubt was a tussle. He placed his bets on Ruffnut. Astrid seemed like she would probably be a stronger and more skilled fighter, but experience mattered, and Ruffnut had an impressive resume of wreckage. After another moment, Astrid was shoved to the dirt at Hiccup's side, her arms pinned to her back by a gloating Ruffnut.

Hiccup gave Astrid his best lopsided and partially squashed smile. "Hey."

Astrid, too concerned with giving death threat glares to their captors, did not reply. Her eyes flickered to his in a brief moment, and he saw a question and something unknown on her face. Both worried him.

"Hey, gang, how's it going?" he asked, trying to remain lighthearted even as dirt freckled across his eyeballs. "Now really isn't the time to beat me up, so if you could just-"

"Where is it, Haddock?" Snotlout was wasting no time today. Unfortunately for him, wasting time was Hiccup's specialty.

"Where's what? My sense of purpose? No idea. My will to live? I'm always losing that darned thing. My traditional masculinity? Not sure I ever had it, to be totally honest with you."

Tuffnut cackled as he took Snotlout's position crushing Hiccup's face into the ground. As he stepped between the two captives, Snotlout groaned, "Obviously I'm talking about the crown, Hiccup."

"Oh-ho, i-is that what you call it?" Hiccup laughed nervously. He didn't need an interrogation about the crown.

"Listen, pip-squeak, Thor may have blessed me with more brawn than brains-" Snotlout preened. "-but I know you've got it. I don't know how some skinny dork like you got the royal crown from me in the first place, but I stole it, fair and square, and I know what it's worth!"

Hiccup could see Ruffnut nodding in his peripheral vision. "We have bills to pay."

"The inflation in this economy is truly abysmal," Tuffnut added.

Astrid strained to look at their three captors, a look of disbelief and disgust unhidden on her face. "He doesn't have it," she snapped.

"Ohhhh, the lady speaks!" Snotlout crowed, motioning at Ruffnut to pull Astrid to her feet. His smirk disappeared entirely as he took Astrid in his focus. "Oh." Snotlout's chest puffed out as he swung a dramatic step toward Astrid.

Hiccup wanted to struggle, but he remained as still as possible. He could feel Tuffnut's grip loosening as the thug observed with increasing interest the change in dynamics. Astrid glanced down for a sliver of a moment at Hiccup, and he understood instantly. She'd guessed – correctly – that Snotlout did not consider "hot girl" and "threatening girl" in the same category.

His mistake.

Snotlout had barely leaned forward to offer what was probably going to be a truly awful opening line when Astrid slammed her skull backward into Ruffnut, crouched down, grabbed her frying pan with newly freed hands, and swung it straight upward into Snotlout's chin. Hiccup bucked, swinging his leg to cut under Tuffnut's stance. All three of their attackers dropped to the ground with various howls of pain and protest.

Astrid grabbed Hiccup's arm, and both started sprinting. Hiccup opened his mouth to tell Astrid that as quick as she might be, Snot was most definitely faster than Hiccup was. Astrid, however, seemed to have anticipated that issue. Without slowing her pace, Astrid gathered a large loop of hair, swung it back, and lassoed a tree branch above them. Hiccup's mind was just quick enough to grab hold of her waist and her hair before Astrid yanked. The pair flew upwards, swinging forward toward the tree.

Hiccup screamed like a guy clearly not in charge of the situation.

Astrid yelled like a shield maiden clearly in charge of the situation.

He couldn't help a sigh of relief through a now only-somewhat-unduly confident smirk once they perched on the tree branch. He'd orchestrated enough escapes through treetops to feel comfortable with Astrid's adjustment of the conflict. Tuff, Ruff, and Snot were by no means bad climbers, but they had learned long ago in skirmishes with Hiccup that they couldn't navigate branches the way he did. Personally, Hiccup also suspected that they weren't a fan of heights.

And heights are obstacles that any capable dragon rider needs to overcome quickly.

Though the darkness of deep night still ruled the forest, Hiccup had honed his navigation skills atop Toothless' saddle, and he took the lead toward the city. If Astrid had not already proven her agility, she only strengthened her impression as she matched Hiccup's precision and forethought across the branches. Later, Hiccup would marvel and puzzle at what Astrid seemed to know versus what she seemed wholly unfamiliar with. He supposed, as he leaped from branch to branch, an informal education in a sequestered tower would yield a strange assortment of knowledge and skills. He certainly didn't have any room to judge in that category.

Trying to keep up with them below, Snotlout made loud but somewhat garbled complaints from the ground, no doubt realizing any advantages he might have had over Hiccup were slipping away. Tuff and Ruff were keeping pace too, but their tones implied they were more impressed with Astrid than disappointed at the escape. Hiccup had to give them credit: the twins had due respect for any opponent that could outwit them.

Normally, at this point, Hiccup would call for Toothless. Snot and the twins usually ran in terror when they heard a dragon's approach, and none was bright enough to connect Hiccup and the dragon's "coincidental" collusion of time.

He wanted to look at Astrid, but, wisely, he kept his eyes on the branches and trunks looming ahead in the night. She already seemed to have trust issues. What would adding a dragon into the mix do? A few minutes ago, he'd thought they were finally getting along – and then the merry gang of Snot intervened. Now what little he had seen through peripheral vision of Astrid's face revealed a truly cold and hard visage. She looked livid. He couldn't tell if that emotion was directed at him.

Pulling all his focus onto their escape, Hiccup swallowed. Whatever part of him that wanted to show her Toothless was smothered almost completely by his need to preserve his dragon's life. He wanted to trust Astrid. He wanted Astrid to trust him. But Hiccup wasn't about to put Toothless on the line for that trust.

Hiccup thrust out an arm in front of her to halt her. He broke off some pine-cones and threw the debris in different directions in front of them. Catching his intent quickly, Astrid copied his actions. Hiccup strained to listen in satisfaction as the noises and rustling caused by their projectiles gave the impression that the pair had continued to run. Tuffnut, Ruffnut, and Snotlout could be heard running forward on the ground below, trying to follow the noises. A soft breeze wafted through the trees, adding distracting sounds and movements into the escape. Hiccup and Astrid waited, breathless and motionless, until their pursuers' voices and footfalls faded into the night.

Astrid tossed and lassoed and hung her hair to create two thick gold hammocks in the trees, just high enough to avoid easy detection from the ground. If she hadn't seemed so emotionally on-edge, Hiccup would have grinned and boasted that she'd taken his hammock suggestion from yesterday to heart.

He did venture one statement: "I'll stay up first." When she tensed and looked at him, he quickly clarified, "We should take turns keeping watch so no one can sneak up on us."

"I'll take first turn." He shouldn't be rejoicing at such a short statement from Astrid, but here he was, biting back a pitiful smile. Short statements were better than complete silence. Nodding, trying to silence his worries over her renewed coldness, Hiccup curled up in the folds of her hair and focused on his own breathing until the tiny gusts of breezing air lulled him to sleep.