Hey guys! Sorry for not posting in forever but you know...life and holidays and stuff happens. I hope you guys like this chapter. It's a bit angst-y and stuff but I think you like it. Next chapter there'll be a bit of Stoick and Hiccup.
ENJOY! XD
Hiccup turned the corner of the hallway and ran right into Tuff.
"Hey H master!" he exclaimed. "Made this menu up to show Gobber. Have you talked to him yet?"
"I did Tuff," Hiccup nodded as he looked over the typed piece of paper. "He said he'd think about it but he wasn't sure. He thinks it'll make things too complicated."
"But he said he'd think about it."
Hiccup cocked an eyebrow. "Yes."
"That's good enough for me!" Tuff danced. "So what do you think of the menu?"
"I think," Hiccup stroked his chin. "I like it. I think Gobber might too. It's simple but I think we can work with it."
"Nice!" Tuff pumped his fist.
"Don't touch me!" a voice hollered.
Hiccup and Tuff peaked around the corner to see Astrid's eyes narrowed, tight shoulders, and reddened face in the face of another student.
"But you weren't moving. I needed to get into my locker," the freshman responded timidly.
"I don't care! Don't touch me! Nobody touches me! Ever!"
"Whoa," Tuff recoiled. "Never seen Astrid that way before."
Hiccup scoffed. "I have."
Hiccup happened to look out his window at the overcast sky when he saw Astrid run out of her house slamming the door behind her. She marched down the street and headed towards Main Street in a huff. She doesn't look to happy. I hope she's ok.
Hiccup decided to follow her and see if she needed a friend. As he exited his house and went down the walkway, he heard angry voices coming from Astrid's house. He ran down the street to catch up with her and saw her enter the grocery store before he lost her completely.
He looked down the baking isle, the pasta, the breakfast, and the bread isle but couldn't find her. As he past the frozen isle, he spotted her starring at the boxes of frozen strawberry shortcake. He slowly walked up to her and coughed to get her attention but he didn't seem to have snapped her out of it.
"Um…" he started. He never finished because Astrid spun around and snapped angrily at him.
"What!" Her expression was hard and very distant. He recoiled back a little, more afraid that she would break a bone of his than he was of her dark eyes. Her face softened when she saw it was him. "Oh. Sorry, Hiccup. I thought you were some stranger trying to make me move."
Hiccup relaxed a bit and asked, "Are you alright?"
Astrid shrugged. Hiccup saw that her eyes began to brim with tears and she suddenly turned away. "I guess. I just needed to get out of the house. Needed a place to be by myself."
"So you went to the market?" Hiccup asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"I haven't found a place I can go to yet for these kinds of situations. Back in Meridian, it was an abandoned factory."
I know where I go when I need to be alone. Hiccup thought for a few more seconds before he came to a decision. He put his hand on her shoulder, which made her jump, and smiled gently. "I want to show you my favorite spot. No one but me knows it exists. I haven't even told my mom or dad."
Astrid looked at him confused. "That was a weird turn in conversation." Hiccup shrugged and walked towards the door with Astrid following. "Are you sure you want to trust me with this secret place? You hardly know me."
"Yes," Hiccup nodded.
"Why?" Astrid asked. "Why would you tell me and not your parents?"
"Because you might need to use it one day. I want you to know there's a place you can go if you need to get away. It has always comforted me."
Astrid shook her head in shock but followed him out of the store and down the street towards the forest. "Alright," Astrid said.
Astrid and Hiccup walked in silence. Hiccup figured Astrid's mind was occupied with something and didn't want to interrupt. Astrid was thinking about why she ran off and was grateful to Hiccup for not trying to pry it out of her.
Hiccup led her into the forest and through a circle of trees and followed the stream's flow. Suddenly, the stream just disappeared and their path was blocked by a large fallen tree trunk. There wasn't any way around it except over it but it seemed too large to climb, even for her athletic body. She was ready for Hiccup to turn around and say he's lost when he began to climb the trunk.
"Wait, you're climbing it?" Astrid asked and looked through the small opening between the trunk and the ground. "There's nothing on the other side."
"Not all things are what they seem," Hiccup said as he jumped over the other side.
Astrid gasped and quickly climbed the trunk in case he needed help. It took a while to find holds big enough for her fingers to grab onto. She got to the top and looked down to see that Hiccup was standing on solid ground and waiting for her to follow him.
"You coming?"
Astrid looked down and took a leap faith. She jumped and landed but stumbled a bit as she got up. Hiccup caught her arm and straightened her up then entered the small canyon on her right, his left.
The rock was slick and grey. It was as if water had smoothed it for centuries. She followed Hiccup as they exited a small opening and what she saw was absolutely amazing. She gasped at the beauty of it.
"No one else knows it's here?" Astrid asked in disbelief.
"That's right. No one's ventured beyond the log."
Astrid couldn't believe that no one knew this beauty was here. It was a cove, something she believed that she'd only see in her dreams. The walls of the cove were of the same slick, grey rock they passed by but they were infested and interwoven with bushes, ferns, and different sized roots from the outlining trees. The ground was lush with green grass that connected with a small lake on one side of the cove. In the lake, there were small fish jumping out and grabbing small insects making ripples that sparkled in the sunlight.
"Come on," Hiccup urged as he made his way into the cove. Astrid followed him and continued to take in the marvelous sight.
"This is where you go when things get too much?" Astrid asked still unbelieving.
"Yep. It's nice isn't it?"
"It's like out of a dream. Like out of a fairytale. It's beautiful." She turned to look at Hiccup and watched as he took his shoes off. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to put my feet in the water," Hiccup said nonchalantly. "You can join me if you want."
Astrid smiled and took off her sneakers and sat down next to him. She put her feet in, expecting it to be cold, only to find it was a perfect temperature. It wasn't cold but it wasn't warm either. It was just perfect.
"This is amazing," Astrid said again.
"That's like the hundredth time you've said that since I've shown you the forest," Hiccup pointed out. "Have you not seen a forest before?"
"Not really," Astrid said as she swung her legs. "We don't have these things in the big city." She then put her hand on his shoulder and smiled gratefully at him. "Thanks for showing me your paradise."
"It's not just mine now. It's yours too. If you ever need to get away, it's yours to use."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I feel guilty keeping its beauty a secret."
"You are too cheesy sometimes you know."
"You don't know the half of it. I surprise myself sometimes."
"Hey Hiccup," Astrid asked. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why does your last name sound so familiar? I've heard it somewhere before. But where?"
"Well…" Hiccup said nervously. "Well, my dad works in Meridian."
"Oh. Is he big on the news or something?"
"You can say that," Hiccup shrugged.
Astrid thought about it for a second. She racked her brain of all the news she'd seen or heard in her home or at school. She then makes the connection and her eyes went wide with shock.
"Oh! Oh! Oh! OH!" Astrid exclaims. "Your dad is the Governor of Berk!"
Hiccup smiled sheepishly and looked at Astrid. "Yeah." He looked into the water just waiting for her to get up and leave him.
"You're ashamed of his job?"
"No, no, no! I'm very proud. It's just-" Hiccup trailed off.
Astrid saw that Hiccup was sad but also waiting for her to do something. For a second, she didn't understand his reaction but then it made sense. She slowly reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm friends with you and not your dad."
"You consider me a friend?"
"Yes I do. You're the first person to stay despite me snapping at you."
"And you're the first person to treat me like a person and not a mistake. So I guess we've both found a friend."
Astrid held out her hand and smiled. "Friends?"
Hiccup clasped her hand and shook it heartily. "Friends."
Astrid relaxed on her hands and continued to swing her legs in the water while they laid on their backs looking up at the sky. The two watched the grey clouds as the events that dampened her mood began to seep back into her mind. She frowned as the words came flowing back but what she didn't know was that Hiccup sensed the change in her mood.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Hiccup asked.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Astrid lied.
"What got you upset. I'm guessing it has something to do with the argument they were having but I'm-"
"Wait," Astrid interrupted and looked at Hiccup. "How did you know they were arguing?"
Hiccup shrugged as he continued to look at the sky. "I heard them from the sidewalk."
"Oh," Astrid relaxed and laid back down to watch the sky. "I thought you were spying on me or something."
"No, nothing like that. I'd make too much noise I think. Anyway, I just want you to know that you have an open ear. I won't judge."
"Thanks Hiccup," Astrid said. They were silent for several minutes. Hiccup was enjoying her presence while Astrid contemplated on telling him what had made her so upset. "Yes. It was the argument." Astrid finally spoke.
"Ok."
"It started out with my mom getting angry at him for not telling her that he wasn't going to be home last night. He apparently was out all night and came home early this morning."
"Even after you and your mom made dinner and everything?"
"Yeah. It was a special meal for us to celebrate us having finished moving. Well, when she was done with her rant, she told him about the BBQ idea and he was pretty cool with it. She ended up telling him about you and your mother which included her occupation and-"
"And your dad flipped out."
"Pretty much. She told him the same thing that your mom told her but he didn't seemed convinced. Well, it was more that he blamed you for everything. Saying that you were a danger to me and that I needed to stay away from you. Mom defended you but that made him angrier. He said that you were trying to hurt me taking me back to the dangerous animals. I said that it wasn't true and then he snapped at me saying that I was in bad judgment, that I was foolish, that was a horrible person, that I was a disappointment, and so on. Mom snapped at him and I didn't stay around to listen to anymore."
Hiccup just looked at her in shock. Wow, that's some argument. I don't remember if my parents have ever had that kind of argument. Hiccup saw that Astrid was affected by the argument because her eyes were brimming with tears. I need to say something.
"I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to cause trouble in your family."
"It's not the first time it's happened. They always get into arguments. It's as if anything can make my dad go off. In fact it seems as if they've been getting it more arguments since we moved here."
"I'm sorry again. I guess I was a bit reckless. About what your dad said, he's wrong. You're not a horrible person, you're not a disappointment. You're an amazing and surprising girl who can flip a guy twice her size."
Astrid smiled as tears threatened to fall down her face. "Thanks Hiccup."
Hiccup smiled back. "Anytime."
Astrid was staring at her old house in Meridian. She felt happy, comfortable, and safe. She just stood there taking in the nostalgia of her past life in the big city. Suddenly, it shattered into a million pieces. Astrid fell back in surprise and stared through a dark hole in confusion. She held her chest as she tried to catch her breath, but nothing helped.
"Mom?"
"It's alright dear." Astrid turned to see her mother smiling. Her face was young and healthy, but something felt off about her. "We have a new place remember?"
Astrid nodded as she remembered Berk. She relaxed as she followed her mother down the hall but something was echoing in her ear. She looked at the pictures as she passed them and watched as each one cracked and shattered. She stopped, startled, but the echoing got louder and the cracking continued. Her heart began to race and a shiver went up her spine.
She slowly looked behind her to see that the doorway had shattered and the cracking was the wall, floor, and ceiling beginning to shatter like glass. "Mom?" Astrid called out.
"Yes dear?"
Astrid turned back to her mother only to find her beginning to crack. "No. Mom!" Astrid took a step toward her and the cracking behind her got louder. She took another step and another but the cracking got louder and more intimidating. Astrid finally broke into a sprint towards her mother but before she could reach her-she shattered. "No!" Astrid cried. "Mom no!"
As tears began to fall down her face, the cracking began to surround her. She looked back to see the door and the first half of the doorway completely gone. Astrid's eyes went wide as she ran down the hallway. She looked around only to see her house cracking and shattering around her.
"No!" Astrid cried out again as she curled up into a ball and held her hands over head.
"Astrid?"
Astrid looked up from her crouched position and found a hallway intact in front of her. It wasn't her home anymore. It was the school hallway but the cracking was still threatening to engulf this image as well.
"Astrid?"
She looked down the hall and saw Hiccup walking away from her. He was calling her name and looking for her. She smiled in relief. "Hiccup!" She called as she ran toward him.
He turned around and began to walk towards her. He smiled at her as she ran toward him. The cracking could still be heard behind her and she turned to see if it was catching up with her as it did with her mother. It wasn't. As she looked closer at the hallway, Hiccup was encompassed by the cracking walls, but it never was able to touch him. As he walked toward her, the cracks sealed and patched themselves.
Astrid smiled in relief. "You wouldn't believe the-" Suddenly, a gust of wind flew past her. She stopped to see her father; eyes wild, a crazed expression, and holding a crowbar. As he ran down the hallway, he hit the walls causing them to shatter. Astrid began to panic for he was headed straight toward Hiccup. "No! Don't please!" she screamed.
She began to run after her father but he always seemed too far out of reach. She couldn't reach him in time before he swung the crowbar right through Hiccup, making him and everything around him shatter.
Shards flew everywhere making Astrid hide her face as she screamed into the air. She lifted her head to be greeted by darkness. Around her were the voices of her friends and family but she couldn't find them anywhere. He father's voice then overpowered them all.
"I warned you!"
Astrid shot straight up in her bed. Her chest heaved quickly, sweat dripping down her forehead and back. Her wide eyes looked around the dark room trying to focus on something, but it didn't help. The nightmare continued to echo in her thoughts. She wanted to cry but then fear hit her. She sprung out of bed, threw on a jacket and some boots, and exited out of her window. She climbed down the draining pipe and ran across the street.
She looked up at the house in front of her and then ran around the back. She climbed the tree that grew near the side of the house and using muscle memory, opened the window from the outside. She climbed in and shut the window before taking a breath. "I need to see that he's alright."
From the room's door frame, she saw the hallway light turn on and large, heavy footsteps heading towards the door. She rushed to the closet and hid inside, peeking through the wooden slots. The door was opened and the light switch was turned on.
"Hiccup?" Stoick took two steps into the room. "Are you in here?"
Next chapter will take place directly after this. ;)
