It was quite early, she slowly got out of her furs. Her head was still hurting from the wound on her forehead, but it wasn't as bad anymore. Today was also Hiccups big triumph of getting to Kill the Nightmare, she wasn't sure of to feel about that. Before yesterday she would've just been angry and jealous about it. But that encounter yesterday really made her feel uncomfortable in her own Skill, did she Just get Worse with Time? Would she even have a chance at Fighting a Nightmare? After losing so easily against that Black dragon. Would Hiccup win against that one? Or also lose? Did he really overtake her like that?
The last time she even remembers actually defeating a dragon was in the maze against the Orange Nadder, with Hiccup being completely out of the game back then. And her letting all her frustration and anger out on him because of that, she wasn't that happy with how her temper was in that Situation. If She's honest, as mistakes happen. After that she was only close to it, with Hiccup beating her every time in the last moment or way earlier.
She thought she was still pretty great at it through, but now after failing that quickly against a wild dragon she wasn't that sure anymore. What if she froze again like she did with the Black dragon? She already could see it, dragging her families name even further through the dirt and being Remembered as Astrid frozen Hofferson, like her uncle. Maybe she wasn't made for it after all, but she also didn't want to give up like that, maybe she had to learn Hiccup's ways one way or another, maybe she could somehow get him to teach her after he won dragon training. As there was no real point for her to try and prevent that anymore, he had won. Even if she hated it a bit. And take her chance of killing a dragon after that. Finally, she just decided to shove it into the past as she couldn't change it, maybe she should just finally congratulate him and wish him luck. Put her Rivalry with him behind her and try to be more like she was with him before and try opening up again, she did it already once in the Forge as they talked alone. Actually, if she's honest she found him quite pleasant to talk with, she didn't feel the pressure of being judged, like others did. Actually, that memory gave her the Idea to search for him at the Forge, he always seemed to like being there. Through it was quite strange for her to not use her axe as a reasoning for coming there. As she normally just tried to avoid him in public before dragon training, it was kind of because of the mess and chaos he always caused and her trying to avoid getting pulled into it.
She Arrived shortly after at the Forge, as it wasn't that long of a Walk and Berks Houses where quite close together anyways, unless you where Gothi or that Munge Bucket Mildew, how he was still here was a mystery to her. As she entered, she couldn't find Hiccup anywhere, she decided to shortly look at his things at the backroom. It was still filled with Sketches of contraptions, doodles and partly build contraptions, she never really gave them a real chance back then if she's honest. As she never thought of needing a way that isn't the Viking Way, but now here she is wanting to ask Hiccup about his way. But that still didn't mean she found them uninteresting, it was quite the opposite, she just never saw how she would use them. Some Villagers had a thing with Hiccup being called Useless before Dragon Training, but maybe they were just wrong all along? Screw that, not maybe but they were, she knew the entire Time that he was an Amazing Blacksmith, and he got to Work in the Forge which was, probably way better than having to extinguish fires the entire time, which was a fight you just couldn't win after a while. And he also learned a more useful Skill, then Knowing how to extinguish a fire, which is probably a requirement for Blacksmithing anyways. Sure, she helped by trying to keep as many houses as possible, but he actually gave them a chance at defending them self against the dragons. A sword or axe just did more against them then a water bucket.
She decided to observe his sketches a bit further. While looking at them she noticed a dragon looking like the one that knocked her out, maybe she could ask Hiccup later about it if he already saw that one once. He must know more than she did about it, maybe he knew it's behaviour and that it would be there and avoided going to his training area because of that. She realized she was way longer in the forge than she planned too originally.
So, she was a bit in a rush now because of that. So, she Quickly checked Hiccups home, with no one being there, then decided to run for it and go to the Cove to see if he is there. To her luck he wasn't there either. She just decided to try to make it to the Arena hopefully to still arrive in time, while running through the thick greens she was sure about the fact that she will be late, and Hiccup will just have killed it before her even having a chance to apologise and wish him good luck.
As she reached the Arena it was completely empty with no one being there, she had to be way too late. While looking at the Arena Floor she noticed a few odd things, there was no blood or fresh burn marks on the ground, and shouldn't the Nightmare door Still be open after the Fight? Why would they close it? And where was the corpse?
As she headed through the Village it seemed strange, so quiet, the opposite of what she would expect after a Nightmare fight. It almost seemed like Nothing had happened, maybe that would explain the clean looking Arena, so did they delay it? While she was thinking about it near the centre of the Village, she was surprised by a somewhat worried looking Gobber.
"Lass, you've seen Hiccup today?" he asked her, she wasn't sure why he would expect her to know through, they weren't currently on the best terms
"No, I was looking for him before but didn't find him" she told him
"Oh, had not better luck myself. Normally he shows up at the Forge at some time." He sighed slightly
"I looked there too, and in other places but couldn't find in either of them." she noticed Gobber looking more concerned than before
"Almost like he's missing" she quietly muttered to herself, she wasn't sure if he heard it or not through.
"Well thank you lass" he said to her after going in the Direction of the Chiefs hut. She was a bad mad that she couldn't ask Gobber about the Arena.
Still wanting to know what happened at the Arena, so she followed Gobber, she overheard the Conservation between the two adults a bit, something about both not seeing Hiccup Today. So, she decided to go and ask them about the Arena.
"Sir?" she asked them, hoping to gain the attention of at least one of them
"Lass?" Stoick asked
"I was wanting to know if someone could tell me what happened at the Arena? I was somewhat gone while looking for Hiccup" She Asked
"Lass if I'm honest sadly Nothing" he said in a disappointed voice, so she was somewhat right about it she thought
"So, Hiccup didn't show up?" she asked in a worried tone
"He didn't, Lass" "As I told you before haven't seen the Boy all day and neither had anyone we asked, it's like he was swallowed by the earth" Gobber Told her
"Ah, ok" she said quietly, she was somewhat confused how could that just happen, she had to think about that more
"Thanks, I'll go now" she told them before heading off
Later she had a conservation with the other Teens, she wasn't really part of their group anymore after Hiccup happened, she drifted apart from them. They just told her that they waited for a while in the Arena, and then after almost hours the Chief decided it was best to just cancel or delay it. She also thought a bit about what could've happened, Hiccup must have known about the black dragon already and knew how to avoid it. And she'd doubt he would just get jumped by a Wild Dragon without a trace, he always seemed to defeat the ones in the Arena with ease. Even though she got defeated by the Black one, Hiccup would probably approach the whole Situation differently than she did.
The only thing that maybe would make sense to her, is that an enemy tribe somehow was in the Forest and Found Hiccup and captured him. As the chief's son he'd make a great hostage or prisoner. Maybe she should tell the Chief about that, you could never be sure what someone Like Alvin the Treacherous was up to, she never met him, but she knew the stories about him.
Maybe they were trying to invade through the Forest but then just found him and took him with them, as he never was that great of a fighter. And being outnumbered and possibly attacked from out of nowhere would lower the chances of winning even for her drastically, they were both just teens after all. Maybe she'll do that the next day, not today through, she still had to do some training and wanted to try to check up on the things in Hiccups room in the Forge.
As she wanted to do that, she heard the loud roaring of the Raid horn: A Dragon Raid was definitely what she needed now. Hours of fire patrol was ahead of her, and she hated it. While on patrol she saw an Injured looking Dragon, was it an Nadder?. Flying towards the Forest and eventually just crashing down, probably from the wounds or exhaustion. She seemed to be the only one Noticing it.
She decided to look if she could find that dragon the next day, and maybe use some of Hiccup's tactics on it. If she can learn some that is. It took a while until the Raid ended, it wasn't as bad as the last ones and more a smaller one, but things still got damaged. She couldn't look at Hiccups things in the Forge, mainly because Gobber was there, repairing things and probably wouldn't allow her going into Hiccups things without his consent. So instead, she just decided to rest and do it in the Early Morning, when Gobber should be Sleeping or somewhere else. And hopefully figure something out, as otherwise she could just try to imitate Hiccup, but there was a catch, she had no clue what he actually did, as she was way to focused in dragon training to actually notice something like that. But going home was still her best shot now, as there wasn't anything else for her to really do right now.