A/N – I am aware of how long this update has taken. I apologize. On the bright side, I'm done with school. I'm starting to read more and work on my book review blog and on promoting myself as an indie author and editor. In a way, the real work has only begun. In other news, my third novel, a steampunk pirate adventure, is now out and about on the indie markets. Check out my profile for the link to the author site if you're interested.

Also, thanks for being super awesome readers!

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Chapter 13

Astrid screamed her throat raw. The ground drifted farther away. The Night Fury was taking her to its nest, she knew it, where it would devour her and no one would ever hear from her again. They'd all wonder what had happened to the princess. She'd been in her room, and then she wasn't. All anyone would ever find of her would be clean-licked bones scattered about the forest.

At the worst of thoughts, suddenly the dragon's claw released her. Astrid fell and her fear fell anew with her. She clattered into a tall pine and latched onto the branch that smashed into her stomach. She hadn't fallen far. The dragon's wings flapped above her head. Her shaking arms fastened around the branch as she took account of her settings; the ground was far below, too far, even for her to climb. The tree she clung to was ancient, all the trees around her were ancient. The dragon had taken her in the opposite direction of the castle, toward the heart of the forest.

How would she get out of this alive?

"Astrid?"

She'd been carried off by a dragon – a dragon! The very dragon she'd daydreamed about killing and hanging over her throne.

"Astrid!"

She knew that voice. She glanced up. The dragon circled above her, looking at her with cautious, hungry yellow-green eyes, but it was not the dragon that bothered her most. There, riding on the dragon, on a saddle, was Hiccup Haddock.

The tree underneath her grip seemed to wiggle itself loose. Hiccup… on a dragon?

"Astrid," Hiccup called again, and the dragon came in closer.

She let out a squeal as the dragon landed on the uppermost top of the tree. It bent the trunk like a wet towel. The branch Astrid clung to let out a creak as the wood groaned, threatening to snap and send her falling to her death.

Hiccup Haddock… on a dragon. The very dragon he'd told her he hadn't seen. The dragon he hadn't told her about, even when she had asked. He'd lied to her. He'd kept it from her. Her.

Astrid looked down. She saw no other way than to slowly navigate the tree branches to the ground. At least they got bigger as they got closer to the ground. She hauled herself onto the branch and started to shimmer her way toward the main trunk.

"Astrid, wait," Hiccup said, still atop the dragon, who let out a snarl. "Astrid, please, listen to me."

"I'm not listening to anything you have to say!" she said, her voice shaky and exhausted from clinging to the tree and from all the screaming.

Hiccup inhaled. For a moment, she didn't think he'd say anything else. She made it to the trunk of the tree and prepared to drop down onto the lower branch. One slip, and… she pushed the thought from her mind.

"Then I won't speak," he said.

She glanced over her shoulder at him. He held his hand out to her.

"Please, Astrid. Let me show you."

Hiccup Haddock, her squire, her… whatever he was. Regardless of how she felt about him at that moment, she didn't think she had the strength necessary to descend the tallest tree in the forest. She didn't want to take his hand for the dragon, however she wanted to take his hand for him. She trusted him, even though he'd lied about the dragon.

She climbed onto a branch higher, one that bent out beside the dragon. Hiccup's hand still reached for her.

In a fit of anger, she swatted his hand away.

The dragon snarled.

Astrid cast a wary glance at the dragon; it looked at her over its shoulder, wide and cautious. She reached for the saddle; it had been made in a hurry and looked like a modified horse saddle. Had Hiccup made it? All those nights of him too busy, tired, or out of breath. Had he been coming into the forest? Had he been seeing this dragon?

A fierce fit of jealousy raged through her.

Astrid hoisted herself onto the dragon and adjusted her dress around herself.

"You're going to have to hold on," Hiccup said.

The dragon adjusted its giant, leathery black wings.

Astrid scoffed, although she loosely set her arms around Hiccup's middle. She couldn't lie about the heat that rushed into her face.

The dragon suddenly pushed off from the tree; she heard it snap back into place, but after that, nothing. Wind rushed passed her eyes, blinding her vision, stealing the breath from her throat, and even Hiccup let out a yelp.

Her grip on Hiccup had not been tight enough. She felt it slipping. She felt her hands sliding over his tunic. In a blind panic, she grabbed onto whatever she could – his clothes, his arm, his hair, and wrapped her legs around him; her thighs were stronger than her arms. As the dragon leveled its mad ascent, she barely found a moment to assess her surroundings. They were very, very high; the ground had vanished underneath a layer of darkness, underneath a layer of thin wispy clouds.

Clouds.

They were above the clouds.

Oh, gods.

The dragon moved to the side, summersaulting through the clouds, soaking Astrid's dress through with chilly condensation. She clung to Hiccup as the screams escaped her throat, as they tumbled, soared, and cartwheeled through the clouds. With each lunge, flip, and turn, her heart twitched and wanted to burst out of her chest and jump to the safety of the solid forest floor.

She shut her eyes tight as they twisted and twirled in the sky. Hiccup spoke, but she didn't hear him over the whipping of the wind or her own screams.

Oh gods. Oh gods.

Then, suddenly, the commotion halted. The twirling stopped. The wind died down. Beneath her cheek, Hiccup's heart beat madly; she didn't remember pressing herself against him hard enough to feel it. Yet, as she opened her eyes, she found herself so tightly curled around him that her fingers cramped as she released her death hold on his tunic.

Then she saw the otherworld they had crossed into.

The clouds, larger than life, rose to Valhalla in glimmering, shining columns alit with sunlight. A floor of thick clouds blocked them inside, or was it the ceiling? She couldn't tell. It felt as though time itself didn't exist in this cloud-realm, only them, and the dragon.

"My gods," Astrid said. She spied Hiccup. He looked as thunderstruck as she felt.

The black dragon seemed to shimmer with gold as they flew through the god-like light, easy and free.

Astrid realized she wasn't holding onto Hiccup at all; she reached her hand out and grazed the chilly surface of a cloud. The mist swirled around her touch and puffed. She brought her hands back; her fingers shimmered with wetness.

They flew in silence for a while, too awed to speak. Astrid kept gazing at Hiccup. The anger she'd felt at him felt hours away. How could she have been upset at him? If anything, she should have been mad he'd kept this from her all this time. Something as amazing as this needed to be shared, not hoarded.

Astrid slipped her arms around Hiccup, but not for steadiness. She just wanted to touch him. Her squire had found a dragon; her squire rode a dragon; her squire had taken her on a dragon flight. Who else in the kingdom could do such a task?

Hiccup's breath shifted slightly as she pressed herself against his back. She flattened her hands against his chest; his heart beat underneath her touch. She set her chin on his shoulder, if only to be closer to him.

Hiccup, preoccupied with Astrid, and Astrid, preoccupied with Hiccup, and both preoccupied with the cloud-kingdom, both missed the glance the dragon tossed at them, as if he knew more than they, and he seemed to silently snicker.

They flew a while longer, and then the dragon steered itself toward the ground. They burst through the cloud-kingdom floor and back onto the earthly side, where the midnight blues seemed brighter than before.

Astrid spied a new sight that took her breath away – Berk, all of it, her entire kingdom, laid out before her. Torchlight twinkled like stars, thousands and thousands of them, and in the far distance, the sea sparkled like black diamonds.

Her kingdom, sleeping.

She couldn't begin to explain the feelings that swelled in her at the sight of it. All the people sleeping below would one day count on her to lead them, to guide them, to rule over them fairly as she could, with clear judgement and a true heart.

And she would.

The dragon steered lower and lower, until she could see no more of the kingdom, and the trees swallowed them. The dragon landed in the clearing. Suddenly back on solid ground, Astrid's knees felt weak. Hiccup unlatched himself from the saddle and slid off. Once on the ground, he held his hand up to her.

She took it, and once on the ground, held onto it.

"Astrid, I-"

She kissed him. How dare he speak in such a moment. She felt too much to speak. She held onto his shoulder, and he kissed her back, loosely sliding his arm around her waist. The dragon purred and shook his head; his ears, or whatever they were, flapped. Astrid kissed him as long as she could, until he broke apart from her.

She delighted in the smile on his face.

"I bet Eret couldn't do that," he said.

She kissed him again, if only to erase any thought of Eret from his mind. Eret didn't matter now. He'd never mattered.

"So what now?" Astrid said at last, lips lingering against his.

Hiccup let out a defeated sigh. He took a step away from her.

"Hiccup, you've found what could be the last dragon in these woods," Astrid said, and glanced toward where the dragon drank from the lake. "You've done what most knights haven't been able to!"

"Astrid," Hiccup said, turning to look at her with a gaze that froze her. He looked at her with determination, a fierce kind that stole her breath. "No one can know about Toothless. If they did, there'd be hunting parties scouring these woods day and night until they found him. No, we can't let that happen."

She knew he was right. She glanced at the dragon; he'd called him Toothless.

"Astrid, he isn't some bloodthirsty beast to be mounted on a wall," Hiccup said, that determination burning in his eyes. He stepped closer to her and grabbed her arms, forcing her to look at him. "Dragons aren't what we think they are. They're just creatures. They're kind, intelligent, and deserve respect, not a volley of hunting arrows in their ribs just for sport."

She nodded, unable to form words under his gaze. He'd never looked at her like that. He spoke of valiant things, of a kind of chivalry that didn't exist anymore, of loyalty not just to a crown but to the world.

He spoke… dare she even think it… like a king.

"Astrid?" he said, releasing his grip. A sudden shock came over him and let go of her like he'd touched fire. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"I understand," she said, nodding.

He looked down at his hands, then up at her with pleading, hopeful eyes.

"You want to protect the dragon," she said.

"He's not just a dragon," Hiccup said. Toothless trotted over and gave him a friendly nudge. Hiccup scratched the dragon's chin. "He's a friend."

"What will you do?"

Hiccup's eyes grew downcast. "I don't know. I can't hide him in here forever… I just… need time to think of something else."

"How…" Astrid began to ask, looking at the dragon in awe.

Hiccup sighed. "It started before I'd become a squire. I'd come with my dad on hunting trips out here. I think it was his way of trying to make him into him. I started… coming out here on my own. It's peaceful out here. Then, I decided that in order to make my dad proud of me, I should hunt down a dragon. I shot Toothless down," Hiccup pointed to the tailfins. One had been replaced with a tan replica of the mirroring black fin, and a strange set of gears and strings attached the tailfin to a pedal; the pedal that Hiccup had his foot in as they flew. "It took me weeks to figure out how to make the tail, but I did. Now he can fly again, but… I also have to fly."

"He can't fly on his own," Astrid said.

Hiccup shook his head, guilt weight on his shoulders. "There's nowhere else in the kingdom I could hide him. He needs all this space and the fish in the rivers, but if the wrong person sees him, then…"

"He would be hunted down," Astrid finished.

Hiccup nodded. "The day you asked me about dragons… I thought you'd caught me. I was terrified, you know? Then you saw him… gods, I should have been found out so many times by now. I'm not sure how we've been so lucky."

Toothless warbled.

"You're lucky it's been me each time," Astrid said.

"I have," Hiccup said. He glanced at her. Moonlight reflected in his eyes. "I'm been beyond lucky since I met you."

She blushed.

"Astrid," he said, serious, "no one can know about him."

"Absolutely no one else," she said. "It's another secret we can keep, but on one condition.

He smiled, but he looked worried.

"You have to take me flying again."

He laughed, and said, "Okay."

She straightened her skirts and said, "It's getting late. If I don't return to my room, someone might wonder where I've gone off to. It's unlikely, but I'd rather not chance it. My father will raise hell if he discovers I've been sneaking out."

"Right."

Hiccup took Astrid by the hand, bid goodnight to Toothless, and set off back through the woods. During that walk, Astrid realized just how tired she'd become. How long had they been flying? Time seemed to slow in the sky.

They arrived back at the edge of the woods, waited for the sentry to pass, and slipped in through the kitchens; Astrid showed him the servants' passage behind a portrait of Bertha the Bearded, and they kissed goodnight behind the portrait outside her room. Astrid slipped into her room without trouble and leaned against the back of her door, listening to her racing heartbeat.

Dragons and squires… never in her life had she imagined something like this. She hadn't imagined meeting someone like Hiccup Haddock, or riding a dragon, or challenging her father like she had been. She was becoming someone else, and it was due to Hiccup, she knew. Something was changing inside of her, for the better, and it both terrified and excited her.