Sample, No Thank You

Over the next couple of days, Camicazi's desk filled with get-well cards and small toys. Someone even dropped off a coin-counter bank, although Astrid had already been to the hospital to give her a swear jar for every time she stole something in the future. Already, five dollars had accumulated, and more were sure to come.

Hiccup didn't get much work done, as far as Astrid could tell. He sat at his desk (forgoing more therapy sessions!) and stared off into space. His pens were looking about in as good conditions as Astrid's wastebasket full of chewed up pencils, which was bad, considering that the rest of his desk was always as clean as a pin.

Astrid was busy chewing her own pencil and tapping her foot against the floor when Hiccup marched over to her and slammed a fist down on her table.

"Uh, hi?" Astrid casually asked, twirling her pencil around her thumb. In actuality, she knew that he needed to decompress and had been about ready to go drag him out to go get coffee.

"I know what to do." Hiccup stared her straight in the eyes. He didn't look like he had gotten much more sleep, if any at all.

"What?" she asked eagerly.

"You'd kill me if I told you," he said gravely. "But you'll find out after it happens."

"You've got to be kidding me." Astrid glowered at him, cheeks flushing. "We do things together, Hiccup." Astrid now slammed her fish on her desk. "We made a deal."

"You're cute when you get mad."

Astrid's mouth worked wordlessly. How could Hiccup be so idiosyncratic? "Don't you dare try to change the subject, Hiccup Haddock the Third! You're nuts! You can't deal with someone like Excellinor on your own! Don't you remember? She can turn into a dragon, too!"

"I'm not letting you get hurt again," Hiccup said stubbornly.

"I'll go to your dad," Astrid threatened. "I'll get Snotlout to do something."

"Go ahead. We're all stubborn Vikings around here."

Astrid clenched her fist, anger rising at every stupid sentence that came out of Hiccup's mouth. "Did you not hear me? This conversation is feeling very one sided. Excellinor has a gun! Why'd you come over here to tell me if I can't help you?"

"I hear you, Astrid."

"Oh, yeah?" She snorted. "Well, you're sure not listening!" Done with him, she slammed her computer shut, grabbed an item from her desk drawer, and shoved everything into her messenger bag. She brushed past him roughly, and on the way, landed a punch on his shoulder. "That was for being block-headed!" she yelled over her shoulder as she marched out the door.

"Astrid, wait!" Hiccup called after her.

"I can't hear you!" she proclaimed testily as she exited. She did not look back.

It was wrong and possibly illegal. Astrid probably shouldn't have done it, but when she bumped into Hiccup, she had slipped a tracking device into his pocket. Hiccup had actually made the thing for her while he was in the hospital, and now she was using it against him. He was a complete moron if he thought that she was going to let him face anything on his own.

He deserves it, Astrid decided, opening up the connected app on her phone. She was at her own house now, but the second Hiccup left his, she would be trailing his back like a tick. A very annoying tick. How hard could it be to track a one-legged redhead?

Apparently, it was very hard.

First off, Hiccup didn't use his crutch. Second off, with his fingerless gloves, ratty coat, and limp, Hiccup could have passed off for any other homeless guy. Third off, he wore a hat so his hair wasn't visible.

Astrid ground her teeth in frustration, trying to navigate the app and keep track of Hiccup with bulky gloves on. She was beginning to see why Hiccup liked his fingerless gloves. Between them, the wool scarf, AND her parka, she was about as mobile as a walrus on anesthesia.

She had to push her way through the crows on the street's sidewalk, yelling "Sorry!" and "Excuse me!" at the people she elbowed past. Then the worst possible thing happened: Her phone flashed a five second warning and then promptly died.

"You can't quit on me, you dumb electronic!" Astrid yelled at it.

"Free sample, Miss?" A clerk standing in front of a beauty salon store stepped in front of her and held something out.

"I'll give you a sample," Astrid snarled, not trying to be mean, only in too much of a hurry to bother with politeness or check the product out. The distraction was all it took for her to lose sight of Hiccup. "Now look at what you've done!" she groaned and took off again. Why did all the crowds have to be out in the streets when she was searching for someone? It was dinner time! They should have been at home, eating!

Where was Hiccup?

Astrid got her answer, and it did not please her one iota.

A large, bat-like shape rose above the skyline of New Berk City, except Astrid knew it wasn't a bat. It was the Night Fury.

Hiccup had finally changed, and he could fly! The injury to his leg didn't affect a thing, and he somersaulted through the clouds and roared joyfully.

No, Astrid realized with alarm, not joyfully. He was issuing a challenge to Excellinor.

Astrid turned to a woman next to her on the sidewalk. "Give me your cellphone. Now!" Astrid's tone was so authoritative that the woman didn't hesitate. Astrid dialed the whole gang, barked a cryptic message along the lines of "Get your sorry excuses for Vikings down here!" and stared helplessly at the sky, searching for any sign of Excellinor. What had possessed Hiccup to try to take her down alone and without his team?

The Night Fury roared again, drawing a crowded of people who gawked at the spectacle. The Night Fury hovered in the air for a second, and it looked as if his challenge would go unmet.

"Look, Mommy!" a little girl cried from Astrid's left. "A dragon!"

"Yes, Emily, I see," her mom said. "It's black, isn't it?"

"No, Mommy! It's white!" Emily exclaimed.

Astrid's head snapped around, her eyes frantically searching for the white dragon Emily saw. They landed on a ragged white shape twice the size of the Night Fury that arose from the skyline like Hiccup had.

…

Oh, how long she had waited for the call, the challenge, the summon. She could not have stopped herself if she had known what was coming beforehand:

The hot rage rushed to her head, and the instinct to go wild pulsated through her mind. She shed what had once been the sickly body of Excellinor and exchanged it for power, might, and carnage. She was the White Death. Excellinor was temporarily gone, but her mission didn't dissolve into nothing like her consciousness had.

No matter what happened, the black dragon had to die.

…

Unknowingly, Astrid dubbed the white dragon what the white dragon had dubbed itself: the White Death. It was a perfect fit. The dragon arose in the air like a corpse. It might have been pure white, but even from her place on the ground, Astrid could smell decay on it.

It opened its jaws, displaying black teeth and a blood red mouth, and roared back at the Night Fury. The White Death might have been twice the Red Death's size, but there was no doubt that it could beat Hiccup, and it seemed to know that. It took its time gliding around Hiccup like a hawk that had cornered its prey, occasionally flapping its white wisps of wings.

Delaying it was cruel, Astrid decided, clenching her fists. If only she had wings! "Oh, Hiccup!" she berated him, even though he couldn't hear her from his altitude. Her nails dug into her palms, and Astrid bit her lip. Warily, the two dragons circled each other, neither willing to make the first move, reminding Astrid of the staring contests that she used to have with her father.

Finally, the White Death caved in and dove through the air at the Night Fury, long talons outstretched like a wolf closing in on its kill. The Night Fury waited for her, and at the last second dove to the side, his claws flashing. The two scratched at each other, and the battle began.

Chills spread through Astrid's bones, and it had nothing to do with the weather that was already cutting into her shoulders. Dragons not being a common thing since the past year in New Berk City, Astrid had not seen many reptilian fights in her life. When the the Night Fury and the Red Death had been fighting, she had been busy trying to defend herself against a crowd of goons. Now, there was nothing to distract her, and it drove her insane.

"Are we too late? What's going on?" Ruffnut ran up beside Astrid; Tuffnut, Snotlout, and Fishlegs were at her heels.

"Moldy Midgard!" Tuffnut exclaimed. "He can't fight her!"

It was true. The only advantage the Night Fury had over the White Death was his speed. It took the bigger dragon twice as long to do anything. Astrid winced as the black dragon almost had his tail bitten off.

Police sirens wailed through the air, and police cars arrived at the scene, parking haphazardly. No one really cared because they were all watching the ongoing fight, and – in true Viking style – cheering for their resident superhero, the Night Fury.

"STOP YOUR FIGHT. I REPEAT, STOP YOUR FIGHT." A captain Astrid didn't recognize efficiently plugged in a megaphone and started shouting at the stop of his lungs into it, nearly blowing out everyone at the scene's eardrums.

What good was that going to do? Astrid wondered. It was like asking Snotlout to stop buying hair gel or asking the twins not blow anything up for twenty-four hours!

"That's it! Whoop the white thingy!" a man twenty feet away from the group yelled as the Night Fury swatted the other dragon across the snout, narrowly missing a return stroke. No blood had yet to be drawn, but the spectators were certainly cheering for it. Didn't they know that it wasn't a game?

"Cuz has got a fan club," Snotlout snickered.

"He's not going to win!" Fishlegs wailed, pulling out his phone calculator. "That dragon is twice his mass, and the velocity of the-"

"Oh!" Astrid sucked in a breath, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. She could have been up there, ravaging the White Death. She 2as strong! The only problem? She didn't have wings. She would have to work on that...

Making an unexpected move, the White Death raked a talon across the Night Fury's flank. The two dragons separated, the White Death roaring in triumph, and the Night Fury roaring in pain.

"Where are fireworks when we need them?" Ruffnut moaned, tearing hands through her hair and thoroughly tangling the blonde mess.

Astrid wholeheartedly agreed with her crazy friend for once. Fireworks would surely make a dent in the big dragon, if not help end the scrimmage completely. In the sky, finesse was thrown to the wind, and the two dragons full out brawled. Suddenly, Ruffnut's words rang a bell, and a light bulb went off in Astrid's head. "Fireworks! Tuffnut, where can one hypothetically buy the biggest fireworks on Berk?"

A few seconds later, her arms were yanked out of their sockets as the twins took off running down the streets. "Oh, you're going to love Uncle Tony!" Ruffnut chattered, to Astrid seemingly oblivious to the pressing time schedule. "He's the best thing since... sliced bread! Roman candles!"

The twins pulled her around several corners, distorting her sense of direction, lassoed her around in front of them, and pushed her into a shady-looking shop she didn't have the time to catch the name of. The building was very dusty and dark; Astrid couldn't see very much, and that was probably on purpose. Snotlout and Fishlegs stayed outside.

"Uncle Tony!" Ruffnut sang. "We have a customer for you!"

A door behind a dusty counter opened and a large man in a wife beater and baggy sweats stepped up to the counter. "Ruffnut! Tuffnut! How are Uncle Tony's two favorite customers doing?" He dramatically rolled his r's.

"Fine as frogs' hair," Ruffnut answered, leaning up against the counter and giving "Uncle Tony" a big, but genuine, smile. "We need the biggest thing you've got."

Tony rubbed his shin, which possessed a five o'clock shadow. Or maybe it was actually the shadows of the shop, because it was kind of hard to tell. "Uncle Tony is not sure he should give it two you. Have they been good?" he addressed Astrid.

"VERY!" Astrid checked her watch. How much time had passed? Hiccup could have been killed already, and here Uncle Tony was asking the twins if they had been good or not! Of course they hadn't!

"Uncle Tony-" he began again.

"Uncle Tony better get it fast or he will face the wrath of a HOFFERSON!" Astrid hissed, showing him her knuckles. Normally, she wouldn't have threatened a civilian, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Faster than you could have said, "Red leather, yellow leather", four boxes of the most gargantuan (and most illegal) boxes of fireworks were in front of them on the counter.

"Free of charge!" Uncle Tony swallowed nervously.

"Thanks!" Tuffnut snatched the box, and they were back out on the street again.