Chapter 3: Instinct
'ASTRID, IT'S ME.'
Astrid looked down at the runes scratched into the dirt in a mixture of shock and disbelief. When she'd set out from the Night Fury's crash site she'd been confident that her chief's heir still lived on in the body of a dragon. However, when she had finally confronted the Night Fury - no, Hiccup - in the flesh, all her certainty had vanished.
Then Hiccup had all but prostrated himself on the ground before her, and the truth had hit her with the force of an angry gronckle.
Astrid sighed and ran her free hand down her face. From as soon as she'd been able to pick up a weapon, she'd strove to learn everything she could about the art of warfare. Yet, in all her years of training, nothing could have prepared her for the situation she found herself in.
Hiccup glanced between his runes and her face. His gaze met hers and she looked into his eyes, his expressive, hopeful, almost human eyes.
"Hiccup..." she repeated his name. "What happened to you?"
Hiccup snorted. She knew the question sounded stupid, but her mind was still struggling to accept what was happening as fact.
'I GOT TURNED INTO A DRAGON' he wrote. She'd never seen a dragon roll its eyes before, but somehow Hiccup managed to replicate the human gesture.
That comment erased any remaining doubts she had about the dragon's identity. She might not have known the chief's son well, but his sarcastic streak was unmistakeable.
"And you have no idea why the Night Fury did this to you?" she confirmed.
Hiccup's wings twitched in a gesture she interpreted as a draconic shrug, then he nodded his head at her.
Astrid thought for a moment. "How did you do it?" she asked eventually. When Hiccup tilted his head sideways, she clarified "I mean, bringing down the Night Fury, in all seven generations of Berk's history, nobody's even seen one."
And lived to tell the tale, at least. A small voice whispered inside her.
'I BUILT A DEVICE THAT LAUNCHED BOLAS' Hiccup scratched in the dirt. 'I GOT IT JUST AFTER IT HIT THE EAST CATAPULT - ITS FIRE GAVE ME ENOUGH LIGHT TO SEE IT'
"Using it's own strengths against it," she commented approvingly, "That's smart." It might be buried deep, but it appeared there was a warrior's mind hidden somewhere inside Hiccup's skull after all.
Hiccup's jaw dropped and he stared at her like she'd suddenly grown a second head. 'THANK YOU' he hastily scrawled.
"Okay," she said, ignoring his strange reaction. "That explains one thing, but how did the Night Fury get free? It looked to be tied up pretty good when you found it, and it must have lain there all night, why did it wait until you showed up to break free?"
Hiccup looked down at the ground, and shuffled his paws in what she would have sworn was a nervous gesture.
"Hiccup, what happened?" she pushed.
He looked up at her. The brief rapport they'd built up had almost vanished, he looked almost as frightened as when she'd first appeared in the cove.
'I LET IT GO' he wrote with a shaking paw. 'I LOOKED DOWN AT IT AND I SAW MYSELF - IT WAS AS SCARED AS I WAS'
Astrid stepped back, turning away to hide her reaction. Hiccup had always been strange, an outsider, but she'd never suspected him of being a dragon sympathiser. She suddenly saw his situation in a new light, 'Sympathise with the enemy, and you become the enemy' was an old Viking saying; Had the gods made it literal as a form of ironic punishment?
She turned back towards the Human-turned-Night-Fury, a half-formed response on her lips.
Before she knew what was happening, she found herself on the ground beneath an obsidian paw, looking up at the slitted pupils and bared teeth of a feral beast.
Hiccup stared apprehensively at Astrid's back as she took in the meaning of his message. He forced himself to take a shallow breath. As always, the breath was accompanied by an onslaught of olfactory information.
Earth, stone, water, sweat, textile, metal...
FOOD!
It all happened in less than a second. His stomach contracted painfully, and he sprang. Astrid gasped as his weight suddenly fell on her, driving her to the ground. His nostrils flared as he homed in on the pouch hanging from her belt. He easily tore the leather with his teeth. The smoked herring within had barely touched the ground before he snatched it up and swallowed it whole.
Hiccup froze, the realisation of what he'd just done slowly dawning on him. In that moment of hesitation, Astrid moved. Her fist connected with the side of his head, knocking him off balance enough to slip out from under his paw. Before he had recovered from her first blow the flat of her axe impacted the other side of his skull, knocking him to the ground.
Hiccup's head spun, and he swayed as he hastily scrambled to his paws, but he was too late. In the moment he'd been stunned she'd vanished into the crack in the cliffs.
Hiccup sat back on his haunches, staring after Astrid. As the pain from his head faded, it was replaced by a leaden numbness. "Well now you've really screwed up" he told himself, "The one person in all of the nine realms who wouldn't have killed you on sight, and you attack them for a mouthful of smoked fish. Wow, Snotlout was right, it takes effort to mess up that badly."
The worst part of it all? The fish hadn't even sated his hunger. If anything, the small taste of food had just made him more hungry.
"DAMN IT ALL!" he roared at the heavens, his vision blurring as tears welled up in his eyes.
He swayed on his feet. "I can't..." He'd already broken down once, and it it had taken almost all of his willpower to drag himself out of it. He knew that if it happened again, this cove would become his grave. He needed something to occupy him.
Rising to his feet, he turned and clambered atop the boulder he'd been standing on earlier. With a roar of pure emotion, he launched himself at the cliff face.
He barely felt the pain when the rock inevitably gave way beneath his claws and he fell heavily to the ground.
Astrid's stomach growled at the tantalising scent of roasted meat as she ascended the steps towards the great hall. She hurried up the last few steps and slipped into the cavernous hall, thankful to escape the persistent drizzle that fell from the leaden skies. She was early; the hall was still fairly quiet. Crossing to the kitchens at the back of the room, she collected a plate of food and a tankard of ale and sat down at the nearest empty table.
She raised the tankard to her lips and downed half of its contents in one go, soothing her parched throat. She'd ran almost all the way to the edge of the forest, and her body had been crying out for a drink since then. Letting out a relieved sigh, she set down the drink and ravenously attacked her food.
As she ate, her thoughts drifted back over what had happened in the forest. She'd found Hiccup, and had even managed to hold a conversation of sorts with him, and then out of nowhere he'd attacked her. It didn't make sense, one instant he'd been totally unthreatening, then the next moment, it was like he wasn't there at all and she was dealing with a wild dragon.
Had she been wrong about him?
"Hey Astrid! Where've you been all afternoon?"
Ruffnut's voice startled her from your thoughts. "In the woods," she answered offhandedly, "Training."
"Pity, you missed Snot and Tuff get into a fight over who's going to kill the Monstrous Nightmare"
Astrid looked up at met her friend's gaze. "They're wasting their time." she replied with utter certainty. "I'm killing that dragon."
"I don't doubt that, but it's still fun to watch" the twin replied, sitting down opposite her. "Wow, Astrid, did you miss lunch or something?" she added when she saw the remains of Astrid's meal.
"Yeah, you know what it's like with training, I totally lost track of time," she lied.
"So, where do you think Hiccup is?" Ruffnut asked between bites of her own meal.
Astrid almost choked on a mouthful of ale. "Probably got lost hunting for trolls or something," she replied, forcing herself to sound casual. "Who knows what goes on in his head?"
A gust of cold wind made the torches that lined the walls flicker, and Astrid looked over her shoulder to see the unmistakable silhouette of Stoick the Vast in the doorway. The chief quickly made his way over to the side of the room where Spitelout, Gobber and a few other Vikings had been poring over several charts spread out on a table - likely planning for the upcoming nest hunt.
"Shh" Astrid hissed, cutting off whatever Ruffnut had been about to say. She strained her hearing to pick up what the chief was talking about.
"... The ships are ready to sail chief, but-" Spitelout said.
"But what, Spitelout?" Stoick interrupted. "If the ships and men are ready, then we sail on the morning tide tomorrow."
"What about Hiccup?" the second-in-command asked.
For a long moment Stoick was silent. "We sail tomorrow, Spitelout." He ordered emotionlessly, "Inform the men."
"At once chief!" Spitelout nodded, then quickly left the hall.
Stoick turned to Gobber as the other man left, "How are the repairs from the last dragon raid going?" he asked.
"They're comin' along nicely," the smith replied. "We should have 'em done by tomorrow or the day after. Of course it would go quicker if my apprentice decided to show up for work..."
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," the chief replied in a heavy voice.
"Oh..."
"As soon as the repairs are finished, I want every able-bodied man left in the village looking for Hiccup. Understand? Tear up the whole forest if you have to, just find him."
"And if we don't find 'im?"
Stoick's reply was as cold as ice; "You will find him." With that the chief walked past his friend and headed for the rear of the hall.
"Wow, the chief seems really shaken up" Ruffnut observed.
Trying to ignore the cold sense of dread that had settled between her shoulder blades, Astrid looked up. With a shock she realised she'd been so focused on eavesdropping that she hadn't noticed Tuffnut, Fishlegs and Snotlout joining them.
"It makes sense," Fishlegs put in, "Hiccup is Stoick's only son, if he's not here, then our next chief would be..." He trailed off as every eye at the table turned to look at Snotlout.
"I don't get it" Tuffnut muttered.
"He's Hiccup's cousin, you idiot!" Ruffnut exclaimed, punching her twin in the head, despite the metal helmet he wore.
"So Astrid," Snotlout drawled, interlacing his fingers and placing them behind his head, "How do you feel about being a chief's wife?"
"It'll be a cold day in Muspelheim before that happens," Astrid muttered.
"Lesson two of Dragon Training," Gobber announced suddenly, knocking Snotlout's helmet with his hook-hand, "Never, never, let your guard down."
Snotlout spluttered and quickly sat at attention, followed by the rest of the group.
"I ever tell you kids how I lost my arm?" Gobber continued.
Astrid inwardly rolled her eyes, she'd heard at least three versions of this story, all completely from each other.
"It was many years ago," he began, adopting a storyteller's whisper "I was transportin' a captured Monstrous NIghtmare that we'd bartered from another island. They must have used rotten ropes to tie the beast down, because we were halfway to the ring when he broke free! The fools hadn't fed the thing for the whole sea journey, so the first thing it did when got out was take a bite out of the closest living thing; my arm! With one twist, he took my hand, and swallowed it whole, then took off, never to be seen again. Before he left, I saw the look on his face: I was delicous! He must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg."
"I swear, I'm so angry right now!" Snotlout growled. "I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot! I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight!"
"Nuh-uh," Gobber replied, "It's the wings and the tails you really want, if it can't fly, it can't hunt, and it can't get away; a downed dragon is a dead dragon." He paused for a moment, to let his words sink in. "Anyway, you've got better things to than listen to my old war stories." He produced a leather-bound tome from behind his back. "This is the Dragon Manual, it contains everything we know about every dragon we know about..."
Astrid tuned him out, his previous words echoing in her mind.
'Hadn't fed the thing for the whole sea journey...'
'...First thing it did when it got out...'
'If it can't fly, it can't hunt'
'A downed dragon is a dead dragon.'
It suddenly occurred to her that Hiccup had left to find the Night Fury immediately after the dragon raid, meaning he probably hadn't eaten since the day before. That was now two nights ago, and if it was really him inside the dragon's skull, he probably had no clue how to use his new body, which ruled out him getting his own food. He'd been almost unhealthily thin beforehand, and coupled with whatever strain the transformation had put on his body, by now he was probably starving.
The bench scraped noisily as she abruptly stood up, every face at the table turning to look at her in surprise. "I need some air" she muttered.
Cool drizzle moistened Astrid's face as she stepped outside. The great oak doors boomed shut behind her, cutting off the sounds of the hall. Astrid sighed, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. Her heart was torn. She remembered several long, cold winters, when the harbour had frozen solid and the fishing ships had been unable to sail, when her family had teetered on the brink of starvation. She knew firsthand the desperation that hunger brought.
However, part of her remembered his written confession from earlier, he'd had a dragon - their ancestral enemy - helpless before him and had willingly chosen to let it go. And not just any dragon, she reminded herself, a Night Fury, the unholy offspring of Thor and Hel herself. He was a traitor, and a dragon; seven generations of Viking tradition demanded only one fate for him.
Stoick's conversation with Gobber in the hall replayed in her mind. For a brief moment she'd seen something unthinkable in her chief; weakness. She shook her head, Stoick was the unshakeable foundation that the village was built on, if he was removed, Berk would undoubtedly fall.
She let out another sigh, realising what she needed to do. Berk needed its leader, and Stoick needed his son, which meant that Hiccup had to survive long enough to find a way to get him back.
Astrid rose before the sunrise the next day. She'd barely gotten any sleep the previous night, going over the details of her plan, and her rationalisations for her actions over and over again.
Heart pounding in her chest, and hardly daring to breath she smoothly rolled out of bed - she had slept in her clothes. Picking up her axe from where it leant nearby, she cracked open the door with her spare hand. Pausing outside her room for several tense moments, listening to see if her movements had disturbed her parents or brother. When she heard no sounds but soft snores and the whistling of the wind outside, she let out a noiseless breath. Silently, she padded down the stairs, keeping her feet close to the wall to prevent the boards squeaking.
Despite her efforts, the penultimate step creaked as she placed her weight on it. The sound was deafening in the predawn silence. She froze. When nothing stirred within the house, she quickly descended the last step and slipped out the front door.
Fingers of frigid mist swirled between the houses of Berk in the predawn light. All was quiet. Astrid let out a soft sigh, feeling herself relax slightly, the most difficult part of her plan was over. Turning, she set off towards the docks at a brisk pace. She knew that she had limited time, when the sun rose, the harbour would be full of fishermen preparing for their daily voyage and warriors setting off on the Nest Hunt. However, she forced herself not to run and to walk openly down the main street, rather than darting between houses; she couldn't afford to appear suspicious if someone happened to glance out their window at the wrong moment.
She silently thanked the gods when she made it to the fish storage warehouse and slipped inside without meeting another soul. She quickly located a basket of second-rate fish and hurried out of the building. Taking a breath to calm her beating heart, she slung the basket over her shoulder and began the hike back up the ramps to the village.
A few early risers were moving through the village when Astrid crested the final ramp. Thankful for the concealing mist, she skirted the edge of the village and hurried into the relative safety of the forest.
Astrid slumped against a large pine just past the edge of the trees, closing her eyes and taking several deep breaths. What am I doing? a voice whispered in her head. She'd spent her whole life working to become the model Vking, yet here she was sneaking around and stealing much-needed food, to feed a dragon.
No, not a dragon, she reminded herself, Hiccup.
Even so, could she justify stealing food for him? In their last meeting he'd admitted to having sympathies for their ancestral enemy. She shook her head, perhaps she'd been too hasty in branding him a traitor. Hiccup had always been somewhat of a dreamer, he didn't share her intimate, visceral understanding of the war, he didn't know the true horror that their warriors faced in a raid.
"It's too late to go back now, anyway" she thought out loud, as she pushed away from the tree.
She'd memorised the location of the Night Fury's crash site from her previous two trips and quickly found the small clearing, and from there retraced her steps to the narrow pass between the cliffs that led into the secluded cove.
Maneuvering the bulky fish basket through the narrow crack in the cliffs was an awkward chore, and Astrid's nerves were strained by the time she stepped out into the Cave. She held her axe at the ready in her right hand and the strap of the fish basket in her left, ready to drop it and defend herself in an instant.
Hiccup was lying in almost the exact same spot that she'd last seen him in.
"Hiccup?" She asked cautiously.
The frills along the side of his head twitched at the sound of her voice, but the boy-turned-Night-Fury's eyes remained closed. Astrid cautiously took a step towards him, distantly realising she was probably the first Viking to catch a dragon sleeping. As she examined him closer, it looked more like he had collapsed out of exhaustion rather than choosing to sleep out in the open. His wings were splayed out on either side of him, and his left foreleg was folded awkwardly underneath his body, in a position that couldn't be comfortable, even for a dragon. Hiccup twitched in his sleep and her gaze was drawn to his right forepaw. His claws were caked in grey-white dust. She glanced up at the cliff behind her and saw a multitude of scratch-marks roughly halfway up the rock face. Was he trying to climb out? She wondered.
A soft rustle of scales jolted her from her thoughts, and she whirled around as the sleeping Night Fury began to stir.
Dull, constant pain dragged Hiccup unwillingly back to the waking world. He let out a pained groan, not even trying to open his eyes. Every part of his body seemed to hurt; his leg muscles were strained from repeatedly throwing himself at the cliff, and his back was painful and stiff from too many heavy landings, and his stomach still twisted painfully with hunger. To top it all off, the cold of the previous night's rain seemed to have seeped into his bones, making his joints ache like an old man's.
Gritting his teeth, Hiccup wrenched his eyes open, and blinked in surprise at Astrid standing a few paces away.
They stared at each other silently for several heartbeats. Eventually Astrid shook herself out of it.
"Hey Hiccup," she said, "I brought you something to eat."
He didn't notice the basket that she held in her other hand, until she placed it on the ground in front of her and kicked it over. The lid of the container came loose as it toppled, and it deposited a mound of raw fish onto the ground with a wet squelch.
Eugh, that's disgust- Before he could even finish the thought, his body rose to his feet and lunged at the pile. His mouth opened and he snagged the first fish he saw with his teeth; and with a single motion he threw his head back and swallowed it whole. No sooner than the first fish had disappeared down his throat, his head was lowering to pick up the second, and then the third, and fourth...
For an unknown amount of time, all Hiccup saw and smelt was fish, and all he felt was an overpowering urge to gorge himself, accompanied by a sense of satisfaction that grew with each fish that disappeared between his jaws.
When he regained his faculties, Hiccup found his head lodged inside the fish basket. He sat back on his haunches, and the basket came with him. With a jerk of neck tossed it to one side, he blinked rapidly at the sudden light.
Only then did he realise that the basket was empty. He looked down at his paws. Where a few minutes ago there had been a mound of fish large enough to feed a family for a week, there was only a patch of trampled grass and a few scraps of meat and entrails that had escaped his jaws.
He blinked several times and looked up at Astrid, who was clutching her axe in both hands and staring at him, a shocked expression on her face.
"Err, Hi Astrid" he mumbled awkwardly. Then, shaking his head he extended a claw and wrote in the dirt, 'THANK YOU'. When Astrid remained silent, he added 'I'M SORRY ABOUT YESTERDAY - I DON'T KNOW WHAT CAME OVER ME.' That wasn't strictly true; he had an inkling of what happened the day before and with the fish basket a few moments ago, but he refused to consider what that might mean for his precarious relationship with Astrid, or his ultimate fate should he remain a dragon.
Finally Astrid broke her silence, "Don't worry about it" she said, stepping closer to him.
Hiccup cringed and unconsciously took a step backwards. 'COULD YOU PUT THE AXE DOWN?' he wrote 'IT'S MAKING ME NERVOUS.'
She glanced down at the weapon for a long moment. "Okay," she said softly, before slowly crouching and placing the axe on the ground. She stood up and stepped forwards. "For what it's worth, I didn't want to hurt you yesterday, I just..." She trailed off, but Hiccup knew how the sentence ended; she'd seen a dragon, and she'd attacked. It was an uncomfortable reminder of what would happen if anybody else stumbled across his hiding place.
"Truce?" Astrid asked, extending her hand towards him, palm-forwards.
Hiccup blinked at her outstretched arm. He knew that she probably had more weapons on her person, but she was offering him her trust, and he'd be a fool not to take it. Taking in a steadying breath, he lowered his head down to her level, then closed his eyes and gently pressed his nose into her palm. He held the contact for a long heartbeat, then pulled back, resisting the urge to rub at the area her fingers had touched.
He opened his eyes and looked down at Astrid, she was staring at her hand like she expected it to suddenly turn black and drop off.
Given what happened to the last Viking to touch a Night Fury, he thought detachedly, That's not an unreasonable concern.
'SO NOW WHAT?' Hiccup wrote when Astrid wasn't forthcoming.
"You stay hidden here until I can can find a way to turn you back."
"As simple as that," Hiccup muttered sarcastically. 'AND HOW DO YOU PLAN TO DO THAT?'
"I have no idea," her eyes flashed fiercely, "but I will find a way."
Hiccup resisted the urge to chuckle, if there was a finer example of bullheaded Viking stubbornness he'd never seen it. Taking a deep breath, he scratched a question into the dirt: 'ASTRID, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?
Astrid tilted her head at him in confusion.
'I'M A DRAGON,' he explained, 'YOU KNOW WHAT'LL HAPPEN IF YOU GET CAUGHT'
"It's for the good of the village," she answered simply.
This time it was Hiccup's turn to look at her in confusion.
"I overheard some of the senior warriors talking in the mead hall," she began, "The dragon raids are becoming more frequent." She paused, letting the significance of her words sink in. "If Berk is going to survive we need a strong leadership, which means chief Stoick can't be distracted by by looking for - or mourning - you."
Oh gods, Dad, Hiccup thought; he'd been so wrapped up in his own problems he hadn't even thought about how the village would react to his disappearance.
Astrid hesitated, brushing a stray lock of of hair away from her eyes, then continued in a low voice. "That, and I figured you must be close to starving after you tackled me yesterday... I couldn't leave anybody like that, even if they'd been transformed into a Night Fury."
Hiccup blinked at her. He'd begun to suspect that Astrid wasn't even capable of feeling 'soft' emotions like compassion. 'THANK YOU AGAIN' he wrote.
A bird cawed loudly in the forest above, breaking the sudden silence and making both of them jump. Astrid glanced up at the sky and cursed softly.
"Hiccup, I've got to get back to the village, my dad wants me to help with repairing the Sjóknapa's nets, and Gobber wants to run another Dragon Training session tomorrow." her eyes dropped to meet his gaze. "I'll come back as soon as I can, I promise."
'DON'T GET KILLED' Hiccup wrote. He didn't want to admit it, but his survival was totally dependant on her. If she decided to share the location of the cove, or didn't come back with more food, he was as dead as if she took her axe to his neck.
"I'm not planning to" she replied, turning towards the exit of the cove - picking up her axe from the ground.
She paused just before the crack in the cliffs and glanced back over her shoulder. "I'll be back, probably!"
"And I'll be here, definitely."
The Unholy Offspring of Lightning and Death Itself was abruptly torn from sleep. In one moment she'd been curled up asleep on a ledge in the nest, and in the next she was on her feet, flexing her wings for takeoff. She blinked, disoriented as her conscious mind struggled to catch up with her body. Around her, the dragons of the nest rose and stretched their wings, all awoken by the same silent signal.
Without warning, an image appeared in her mind: An island village, it's harbour guarded by a pair of stones crudely carved into the form of human gods that rose from the black sea. Of their own accord, her legs flexed and her wings drove downwards, driving her into the air. Her tail fins flexed and she joined the thunder of dragons as they spiralled up and out of the mountain.
For a brief moment she felt a flicker of annoyance at the subversion of her conscious control, but the thought was swiftly dismissed. This was the way of the world; Her Queen commanded, and her body obeyed.
The dragons flew in a tight orbit around the nest's peak, then smoothly split off into several sub-groups that arrowed away towards their destinations. There were no collisions, even as dragons passed within wing-lengths of each other, each member of the flock knew exactly where to be. The last Night Fury took her position at the head of her group as they winged their way into the darkening night.
The flock's wings stilled as one as they neared the island, stealthily gliding in for the final approach. A strange sensation overcame the Night Fury as she looked down on the village, she felt like something momentously important had happened here, but couldn't quite remember what.
Attack. Now.
All thoughts were pushed aside as the Unholy Offspring of Lightning and Death Itself beat her wings twice to gain height, then dove. The unmistakable whistle of her kind filled the air as she fell, and in response the panicked voices of the humans drifted up to her:
"Night Fury! Get Down!"
Icelandic:
Sjóknapa - Sea Rider
Norse Mythology:
Muspelheim - The mythical Norse realm of fire.
Hel - The realm of the dead in Norse Mythology, presided over by a female being of the same name.
Author's Notes:
Friendly Greetings!
Exam season is in full swing now, so productivity on this fanfic will probably drop off for the next few weeks, so I apologise for any delay between now and the next update. (I definitely don't have a math exam tomorrow that I should be revising for, rather than publishing this chapter :P)
For anybody who's read my previous fanfiction 'Winds of Change' (plug!), I'm going to be using the same headcannon of Astrid's family that I used in that story; The Sjóknapa is the name of a fishing boat owned by her family. I've been told that the name is technically grammatically incorrect in Icelandic, but it sounds good to an english-speaking ear, so I'm sticking with it.
A brief note of curiosity for those of you that aren't scholars of Norse myth: The traditional Christian image of Hell is "fire and brimstone", but in Norse mythology, Hel is associated with Niflheim, the realm of ice and cold. Also, If you didn't catch it, "Offspring of Thor and Hel herself" was my mythological translation of 'Offspring of Lightning and Death itself'.
After the last chapter, quite a few of you were asking when "Toothless" is going to show up again in this story. While it's going to be a few chapters before she really gets involved in the story, I hope you enjoyed that little tease from her POV that I threw in at the end, I actually find writing from her perspective quite fun :D.
Finally, while it feels a bit odd to 'recommend' the most popular fanfic on this site, if for some reason you haven't read the epic "Hitchups" by 'The Antic Repartee', I strongly suggest that you do so. Among many other things (far too many to list here) this story includes probably the best depiction of Hiccup and Toothless' "bond" that I've seen in fanfic, and one of the best interpretations of Astrid's character from before the 'Romantic Flight' (Where do you think the Inspiration for all the Astrid-Introspection in this chapter and the last came from? :P)
Last, but not least, as always, thank you for reading, and please let me know what you think of the story so far in a review!
~Superbun