Update 11/25/18: Looked over this as part of Persephone: the Director's Cut Edition, and didn't find anything to change. If I missed any typos or grammar mistakes, let me know.

I'm just going to say this right now, I'M SO SORRY FOR HOW MUCH THE END OF THIS CHAPTER WILL MAKE YOU HATE ME.


Chapter 19: Into the Inferno

"You really got to be her first word?"

"Well, she said 'Sissy', not 'Astrid', but she said that before 'Mama' or 'Dada', so I'm counting it. Toss me another one, will you?"

Hiccup pulled another half-thawed apple out of the bag at his side and tossed it to her. They'd spent the majority of the day in bed, until two grumpy dragons grew tired of giving them space for this nonsense mating business and dragged them out for a flight. They sat now on a few rocks overlooking a small pond around which Stormfly and Toothless capered, chasing each other and bobbing their heads in some strange dragon conversation.

Hiccup took a bite of his own apple. "I bet your parents loved that."

Astrid shrugged. "They were kind of used to it by then, I think. I was always her favorite."

"Why was that?"

Astrid paused in peeling her apple. "I just spent a lot of time with her, I guess. Mom wasn't as young as she used to be and having a new baby in the house was exhausting so I helped out a lot. And it helped with the trauma, I think, to have her to look after."

Hiccup frowned at her. "Trauma?"

She didn't look at him. "Of thinking I'd failed to save someone from being torn apart by a dragon." She kept her eyes on her apple as she tossed the peel aside and cut off a chunk. "For a long time I didn't want to talk to anyone, so I guess I found it easiest to spend time with Brenna." A smile quirked her lips. "That led to some interesting rumors, though."

"Like what?" Hiccup asked around a mouthful of fruit.

Astrid giggled and groaned. "Gods, looking back I can't believe anyone even believed it for a second. I think the twins might have started it as a joke, and a few people thought they were serious. I don't know that many people really believed it for very long, but a lot of people talked about whether they believed it or not."

Hiccup raised his eyebrows. "You're killing me with the suspense here, Astrid, get on with it."

Astrid smiled at her feet. "Well, for a long time after what happened to you I didn't want to go out and see people or do anything. I just kind of holed up in my house and stayed there, and then we had a really cold winter that year so when I did go out I was bundled under like, five layers of fur. And all this coincided with Mom being pregnant with Brenna, so—"

Hiccup groaned. "Oh, don't tell me this is going where I think it is."

She giggled. "So, somehow the rumor got started that Brenna was my daughter instead of my sister, and that Mom faked being pregnant to hide the scandal. And somehow this rumor managed a small circulation despite three midwives witnessing Brenna's birth and no one ever seeing me look really pregnant." She shrugged. "Most people knew it was ridiculous but there were a few gossip mongers who spread it anyway. Juicy gossip takes priority over logic sometimes, apparently." She took another bite of her apple and glanced at Hiccup, who was frowning contemplatively at his apple core.

"So, wait, who were they saying fathered your supposed child?"

Astrid's chewing slowed. She chewed carefully and swallowed, averting her eyes from Hiccup's curious stare. "Well," she began, toeing at a pebble. "Since usually when a girl gets pregnant outside of wedlock everybody scrambles to the altar and the whole thing is swept under the rug, and that hadn't happened, whoever was spreading this rumor decided that the father must be dead."

She let that sink in for a moment, then glanced at Hiccup, who was still frowning, his eyebrows drawing together. He looked at her like that for a moment, waiting, and when she divulged no more information, his eyes widened as the implication finally dawned on him.

"No," he said, then laughed, "No way, no, no, there is no way anyone could possibly have believed that!" She shrugged, and Hiccup threw his head back and cackled. "Oh my gods, you've got to be kidding me!" He looked at her, his eyes twinkling with mirth. "People were actually saying that? There were people who actually seriously thought it possible that I, scrawny, dorky, clumsy Hiccup, knocked you up?"

Astrid giggled and shrugged again. "Like I said, I don't know think that many people really believed it for very long, especially since there were three people who witnessed my mom giving birth to Brenna, but it got spread around anyway. I think it was one of those 'It's almost definitely not true, but wouldn't it be a grand scandal if it was' kind of things. Blame it on people like Cattail and Grimda, you know, the ones who won't stop to think about the plausibility of something they're told if it's exciting or cool or scandalous enough? Anyway, yeah." She laughed again. "The whole thing was super ridiculous."

Hiccup sniggered. "Too bad that rumor didn't last, it would have gotten you out of the whole virgin sacrifice deal."

Astrid's smile faltered. "Yeah."

She could feel Hiccup's eyes on her. "Should I not have brought that up?" he asked, and Astrid shook her head.

"It's fine." She looked at him and smiled. "It's not how I wanted my life to end up, but it is what it is and I like it."

Hiccup's smile stayed in place but the look in his eyes shifted. "Well I hope so, since you're stuck with it now." He looked down. "I didn't ever want you to feel like you were trapped in this, you know."

She scooted closer to him and bumped his shoulder with hers. "I don't feel trapped," she said, and tilted her head to invade his line of vision. "I feel free."

Their eyes met. "I never wanted you to have to give up everything for me," he said quietly.

Astrid shook her head. "I didn't just give it up for you," she said. "I did it for me, and for Stormfly. And…" she trailed off and looked out over the pond. The sun was slipping past the horizon and gleaming off the water in oranges and pinks. "I saw Brenna during that raid last night." She thought of her little sister, looking up at her in such amazement. "The way she looked at me…she didn't look scared or upset or anything. She just looked at me like, I don't know. Like seeing me on a dragon was the coolest thing she'd ever seen." She smiled. "So everyone else can feel like I betrayed them, fine, they betrayed me first. But I saw Brenna, and I thought, so long as I haven't let her down, I'll be okay."

There was a loud squawk beside her and she looked up in time to see Stormfly stomp over. She smiled and stood. "What is it, my brave girl?" she said, and accepted the nuzzles against her chest. "Do you just want some attention? I know I've been ignoring you today, but I promise I haven't meant to." She scratched under Stormfly's chin and the dragon chirped her appreciation.

She heard a roar and looked to see Toothless shifting restlessly from foot to foot and baying at Hiccup. "Okay, okay," he said, packing the rest of their picnic back into his bag and stranding to strap it back to the saddle. "You wanna go flying, I know."

Xx

"Are you saying you're faster than me?"

"I'm saying I could be. Stormfly's a pretty fast flier."

Hiccup scoffed. "Yeah, but she's not Night Fury fast. No dragon is Night Fury fast."

"Night Fury fast, please." Astrid rolled her eyes. "The only reason anyone thinks Night Furies are the fastest dragon is because no one has ever been able to study their speed and because they're fast enough and invisible enough during raids for no one to be able to tell how fast they're going. You have no proof he's actually the fastest dragon there is."

If Hiccup looked offended, it was nothing compared to the look Toothless was giving her. His green eyes were narrowed and his nose was scrunched in a grumpy pout.

"I have plenty of proof!" Hiccup said, his voice high pitched with indignation. "I've been all over the world, and I've seen how fast Toothless can go at top speed, and it's nothing like any other dragon I've ever encountered."

"Mm, sure," Astrid mused, scratching behind Stormfly's crown of spikes. The sun had set by now, and the moon was full and bright above them. "But how do you know, really? Have you ever pitted a Night Fury's top speed against another dragon's top speed?" Stormfly chirped her agreement. "I'm just saying, I've seen Stormfly hit some pretty high speeds when we've been flying. And we've never had trouble keeping up with you and Toothless." She peered at Hiccup out of the corner of her eye to see him shaking his head and scoffing.

"I can't believe what I'm hearing," he said. "You actually think you could outfly us. I mean, Night Fury, Astrid. Night. Fury."

"Yeah, yeah, you've got yourself a fancy mysterious dragon," she droned, smirking at Hiccup's consternation. He was adorable when he was flustered about something. "I'm just wondering if you live up to the hype, is all."

Hiccup's eyes narrowed and the corner of his mouth turned up in a half-smile. He raised an eyebrow. "Is that a challenge, Hofferson?"

She pursed her lips against a smile. "Catch me if you can, Haddock."

She nudged Stormfly's flank and they shot off, Hiccup's complaints and shouts of unfair head-starts echoing after them. Astrid laughed and looked back to see a determined Hiccup and Toothless gaining on them.

"Is that the best you've got?" Hiccup asked as they pulled up alongside. "Because really, I'm not impressed."

Astrid glared. "Please, we're not even trying. Come on, girl," she patted Stormfly's neck. "Show 'em what you've got." Stormfly lowered her head and her wings pumped harder and they put on a massive burst of speed that put them far ahead of the boys.

They were hurtling through the sky; the wind stung at her cheeks and eyes but the speed was exhilarating. She looked back to see where Toothless and Hiccup were, and caught only a black blur as it zoomed past, moving at such speed that they were well ahead and well in the lead by the time Astrid even registered what she'd witnessed. Toothless's wings were pumping furiously, and Astrid growled in frustration as they continued to grow smaller and smaller as they flew further and further ahead.

"Come on, Stormfly," she encouraged, her heel pressing into the dragon's flank, but no matter how hard she tried or how fast she flew, Stormfly couldn't hope to make up the distance. After a moment her dragon made a mournful cooing noise and settled into a glide. "No, come on!" Astrid shouted, rubbing Stormfly's neck in an attempt at encouragement. "Don't give up now, girl, we can still catch them!" But her dragon only looked back at her with an apologetic trill and slowed further. Astrid huffed and sat back in the saddle. Ahead of them Hiccup and Toothless were hovering in midair, waiting.

She wanted to slap the smug look off Hiccup's face when they finally caught up.

"Shut up," she said, before he could say anything. "So you win at a sprint; I bet we could take you at a marathon."

"Sure you could."

"I said shut up."

"You know there's a lot of things that can be said for Deadly Nadders," Hiccup said conversationally as they both glided through the cold night air. "Beautiful scales, great trackers, strong fighters with those tails of theirs—"

"I will knock you off your dragon."

"Decent shot limit, one of the hottest flames of all dragons, great aerial maneuverability, and you know, pretty good speed."

"We're never having sex again."

Hiccup settled for snickering at her. "You're the one who challenged a Night Fury to a race."

"I mean it, Haddock. Never again."

Hiccup shook his head. "We should head back," he said, looking up at the moon above them. "We've gone a long way and it's getting late."

"Right," she said, and adjusted the handles to direct Stormfly to turn but met resistance. "Stormfly?" Her dragon's pupils suddenly narrowed into slits and her head popped up, looking from side to side in a jerky motion. "Stormfly? Come on, girl, let's go home." She tried again at turning her dragon around but Stormfly wasn't listening. Astrid frowned. "Stormfly?"

"Astrid, we need to leave." She didn't immediately register the concern in Hiccup's tone.

Astrid tugged again at the saddle. "She's not listening to me."

"We need to get out of here. We really, really need to get out here."

"I'm trying, aren't you listening?" She looked over at Hiccup, who was frowning at the thickening clouds around them. Toothless's pupils had narrowed as well, and he was warbling worriedly and shaking his head. Hiccup ran a hand over his head.

"I know, bud, I know. We're about to leave, I promise," he said absently, still looking at the clouds around them with a worried expression.

The mist had thickened to block out their view of the moon, though an eerie cool light still permeated the clouds around them. There was a soft growl nearby and Astrid whipped her head around in time to see a Monstrous Nightmare appear out of the fog. She held back a shriek of surprise. Around them more dragons were appearing: Nadders, Gronkles, Zipplebacks, Timberjacks, Hobblegrunts, dragons of breeds she'd never seen before. They all were flying near-silently in the same direction they were, but ignored them completely.

Nearly all of them carried food. Some had sheep or pigs in their claws, some had fishing nets full of fish. She saw a Thunderdrum carrying what looked like a shark.

"Astrid." She turned back to Hiccup, who was flying close with his hand extended to her. "Get on. Come with me."

She shook her head. "What? No. What's going on?"

"No time to explain. Just get on. We need to get out of here while we still can."

More and more dragons were appearing, all of them flying in the same direction and all of them carrying food. Something about the complete silence unnerved her. She pulled again at Stormfly's saddle and again received no response. Stormfly's pupils were narrowed to impossibly thin slits and she didn't even seem to notice Astrid's hand scratching under her chin or her foot digging into her side.

"I'm not just leaving her!" she snapped, glaring at Hiccup. "Why isn't she listening to me?"

Hiccup shook his head. "Astrid, she'll be fine, we may not be. I'll explain on the way, but right now we need to get out of here."

"Out of where? Woah!" They dove, all of them, Stormfly and Toothless and the innumerous dragons surrounding them. She gripped the saddle tight as they flew almost straight vertically down into the mists and into the darkness of an opening in the rock that had appeared out of nowhere before them. She had no control of Stormfly and therefore no option but to hold on tight, with Hiccup and Toothless hovering protectively close by. Toothless she noticed didn't have the same narrowed-eyed blank look the rest of the dragons did, but he seemed to be fighting whatever call the rest of them were answering. He was restless, shaking his head and crooning, and Hiccup kept stroking his head or scratching his ears and murmuring reassurances.

Hiccup was no more comfortable. He kept his eyes on the dragons around them, lines of worry and fear etched on his forehead. The tight tunnel opened onto an enormous warm cavern surrounding a giant smoky pit from which emanated a red-orange glow. The dragons were swooping through the cave and dropping their kills into the mist below before settling on ledges.

Stormfly found one such ledge and landed, and immediately Astrid hopped off and came around to face her. "Stormfly," she cooed, rubbing at her neck and trying to coax her dragon back to her senses. "Come on girl, it's me, it's Astrid. Look at me, Stormfly!" Stormfly ignored her, eyes narrow and fixed on the pit.

Something grabbed her arm and she whipped around, on edge and ready to strike, only to see Hiccup with one finger to his lips. "Come on," he whispered. "We need to get out of here." He tried to pull her back to where a nervous Toothless was waiting, shifting from foot to foot and wiggling all over.

"I'm not just going to leave her!" Astrid hissed, but Hiccup shushed her and pulled her towards Toothless.

"She'll be fine," he said, grabbing her other arm and dragging her back to his dragon. "She'll catch up, now come on."

Astrid dug her feet into the rock. "Hiccup, what is going on? I'm not just leaving my dragon behind without a damn good explanation!"

Hiccup stopped pulling and shoved his face close to hers. "Will you keep your voice down?" he growled through gritted teeth, glaring. "This is the nest, and we're not exactly welcome here and we need to get out while we still can. Stormfly will be fine and she'll find her way home later, now come on, or Thor help me, I will knock you out and drag you home."

His grip on her wrists had turned almost painful, and Astrid swallowed and nodded. Hiccup was scared, she could tell, and as much as she didn't want to leave Stormfly, anything that scared Hiccup enough to put him in this kind of state was not something she wanted to meet.

She was about to open her mouth to answer when the silence around them was broken by a deep, rumbling roar from somewhere in the pit below. Around them the other dragons were shrinking back, slipping behind rocks and cowering against walls. Young dragons hid behind their mothers. Some dragons covered their faces with their wings. Hiccup yanked her forward and down behind a large rock. Before she could ask what was happening he clapped a hand over her mouth.

Hiccup peered around the side of the rock and after some awkward maneuvering around his grip on her face and arm she did too. Another deep roar echoed through the cavern; it vibrated through the rock beneath her feet and the air in her ears and left the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. A shadow appeared in the mist, growing larger and darker until it emerged into the open, huge and grey and scaly. Nostrils, then snout, then three eyes and huge knobbly crown, until the whole enormous head was visible.

She gasped against Hiccup's hand and gripped his sleeve. She felt his shaky exhale against her ear. All around the cavern the other dragons were scrambling back further, some of them scurrying into tunnels. Astrid looked for Stormfly, and saw her dragon low to the ground and shivering as she pressed herself into the wall, as far away from the ledge as she could get.

The dragon queen blinked her three small eyes (six, Astrid thought, six eyes total. No blind spot. Not good.) and sniffed the air with her huge nostrils. It growled.

Hiccup pulled her further behind the rock and crushed her to his chest. She could just barely hear him praying under his breath. Toothless crawled over them and spread his wings over their heads. She couldn't see the giant beast anymore; just the ledge beyond their hiding place and the dragons trembling on crags and cliffs around the cave.

For a moment everything was quiet.

She closed her eyes, just for a second, just long enough to take a breath. It was like being back in that cove again, all that time ago, hiding behind a rock from the Night Fury that now was trying his best to hide them.

She opened her eyes.

A roar ripped the air and the dragon queen's head crashed into the ledge outside their rock, huge jaws opening and closing on empty stone as she tried to wedge her head into their small hiding space.

Astrid screamed and buried her face against Hiccup's chest. He held her tighter and Toothless roared and adjusted the angle of his wings. From under the crook where wing met shoulder she could barely see the ledge. There was another roar and the dragon tried again to reach them, though its huge skull prevented it from getting its mouth into their hiding place.

"Hiccup," she whimpered.

"I'm thinking," he said, his voice shaking. The dragon queen butted her head against the rocky wall beside them again, and above them Toothless roared. When the dragon queen drew back Toothless leapt out from behind the rock and shot a blast of plasma at its face. They heard the queen roar in anger and pain. Toothless answered her roar and fired again. The queen lunged towards him and Toothless jumped back behind the rock just before the place where he'd been standing was crushed by the queen's armored skull.

There was a low growl, then quiet.

They hid behind the rock, the three of them, all tense and panting, while the quiet stretched on. Slowly, she and Hiccup peeked their heads around the boulder at their backs. The queen was still watching them, all six beady little eyes fixed on the rock that prevented her from getting at her prey. Her mouth opened, green gas bubbled up from the back of her throat.

Hiccup pulled her back behind the rock and Astrid pressed her face against his chest. This was it. A dragon that huge, if the fire didn't melt the rock and them with it, then its fire would superheat the air around them and they'd bake. She could hear the building gasses, the building blast, and then there was a shrieking roar and the queen's answering howl. When Astrid opened her eyes she could see Stormfly on a distant ledge, squawking as she flashed her wings and flung spikes from her tail at the huge dragon's face. Stormfly flew higher, and the queen followed, head lifting further out of the mist and revealing the tops of enormous shoulders. She snapped at the little Nadder, and Stormfly nimbly hopped out of the way and fired more spikes at the queen's face. Around them chaos was erupting. The other dragons were taking flight, filling the air with screeches and roars and the flapping of wings.

Hiccup grabbed her and pulled her roughly to her feet but her eyes were locked on Stormfly. "Stormfly!" She yelled, even knowing her voice wouldn't reach her across the huge cavern and above the sounds of the other dragons. "Stormfly!" Hiccup's arms wrapped around her waist and he hoisted her off the ground, half carrying her, half dragging her back to Toothless even as she kicked and screamed.

She knew it was hopeless. She knew it was illogical. She knew there was nothing she could do against a beast like that. She knew this was Stormfly trying to help, trying to save her, trying to distract the queen long enough for Hiccup to haul her into Toothless's saddle, but that didn't make it any easier when Toothless's feet left the ground and she knew she may never see her dragon again.

The queen paid them no mind as they took to the air, blending in amongst the hundreds, maybe thousands of dragons beating their way out of the mountain. The last glimpse she got of Stormfly before they exited the top of what must have been a volcano, her brave little dragon was still avoiding the queen's snapping jaws and flinging her tail spikes at its eyes.

The cold night air felt especially frigid compared to the warmth of the nest, and Astrid turned to hide her face in the crook of Hiccup's neck. Around them she could hear the distant sounds of dragons dispersing in all directions, and even more distantly the deep rumbling roars of the dragon queen.

"She'll be alright," Hiccup said softly, his arms comforting around her waist. "And if she's not, well, she defied her queen for you. That's loyalty. That's love."

"This is all my fault," Astrid mumbled into his neck, feeling tears start to gather in the corners of her eyes. "I should have listened to you when you tried to get me to leave."

"Hey, no," Hiccup pulled back so he could look at her. "If you wanna play the blame game, blame me. I should have explained sooner. I should have paid more attention to where we were, to where we were going."

"You would have if I hadn't challenged you to that stupid race," Astrid said miserably. "This is all my fault." Hiccup's arms pulled her into him again.

"No, Astrid no." He shook his head and buried a kiss in her hair. "No, this is not your fault. And there may not even be any fault. Stormfly's fast and she's smart. She could easily have gotten away." She closed her eyes. She wanted desperately to believe him, but she felt like someone was squeezing her heart with an iron clamp, and she knew that if she allowed herself to hope it would only hurt that much more if Stormfly didn't come home.