Prologue
Five years. It has been Five years since Astrid's life had been turned upside down. Five years of ups and downs that the young Viking will never forget, not that she ever wished to. Five years of emotional pain and suffering courtesy of a particular event that shook her to her very core.
A twenty year old Astrid Hofferson sat alone at her table, a fork in hand. Before her was a plate filled with lamb chops with a side of mashed vegetables as well as a tankard of berry mead -her favourite since she was old enough to drink- her stomach growled and complained in hunger but she couldn't bring herself to down a single bite, since her teen years she had learned to cook properly, and most importantly cook things that wouldn't make everyone who tried a bite sick as a dog, but that was not the issue, not today. Astrid stabbed at her meat solemnly, a large saddened frown chiselled onto her face. In front of her plate, nearly in the middle of the table sat a Viking helmet, a smallish helmet with metal bands lending structural support and a pair of horns jutting out and sweeping upward on either side. It was well made, well enough to be worthy of a chief… though that thought merely sent an aching down into the pit of her stomach. She reached out and ran a finger along one of the bands, fighting back tears as her digit contacted the bare metal. Astrid pushed away her plate, careful not to knock over her tankard in the process and slumped into her arms, burying her face into her forearms and letting out some long held back tears, pained sobs filling her hut.
Crying was very unlike Astrid, in fact it was very unlike most Hofferson women, but in this case she simply couldn't help it. Besides, it was not as if anyone was around to hear her, nobody who would judge her for it in any case. Astrid glanced up as she felt a familiar feeling of something nudging her side; she looked at the source to find a pair of compassionate glowing emerald eyes looking straight at her, pupils wide. The black dragon those eyes belonged to cocked his head sadly, seemingly understanding what she went through without even sharing a word, his human friend went through the same thing every year since… since the incident, an incident that pained the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself each and every time he remembered it despite not even having witnessed it. Astrid slung her arms around him, shutting her eyes and nuzzling into the crook of the beasts well-muscled neck. Her sobs muffled against his slick black scales, prompting him to simply rub his head against hers. He crooned at her in an attempt to calm her nerves, the physical contact seemed to be doing the trick quite nicely so far, but he felt she still wasn't up to her normal standards. She wouldn't be until the following day at the earliest, that much he knew. Astrid pulled away from the embrace and looked at the dragon with a crooked, pained smile on her lips. 'What would I do without you…' she thought, the dragon gave her a look that could only mean the feeling was mutual, she looked at him fondly, petting his head a good few times before rising up from her chair sadly. "Shall we go for a flight, bud?.." she said, her nasally voice cracking at that last word, on any other day she wouldn't mind calling the beast by his usual nickname, but today… today was all different, it was always different.
Every single year the same irksome song and dance. Every single year she got out of bed, did her daily duties, lacking her usual enthusiasm, prepared a good meal that she wouldn't end up eating and took the dragon out for a flight around the island before going to bed with an empty stomach and an empty heart. Every single year she wished and hoped that the following would be different… yet it never is… It has been five years…