Hey you guys! Sorry about that cliffhanger...hope you aren't too mad at me. We're nearing the end, but still have a little way to go! Hope you enjoy and keep being awesome by leaving a review, favoriting, and following! Your reviews make my day! Thanks!
Astrid made her way back up to her room, and had to practically drag herself to make it. She shut her eyes and sighed tiredly as she went inside. Hallberta was already there and opened her arms out for a much needed hug.
She embraced her back, and murmured heartbroken," What's going to happen now?"
Hallberta shook her head," I don't know, but we'll find out tomorrow..."
"That's what I'm afraid of..." Astrid said trailing off past the verge of crying. She didn't think she would ever be able to cry again. It just wasn't possible.
Hallberta motioned her to sit in front of the mirror and started to brush her hair," You shouldn't let yourself worry, anyhow."
She looked up at her through the mirror sharply," Excuse me?!"
She waved her off," I don't mean it like that, dear, I just mean that you won't have to worry as much as you think."
"And what makes you say that?" Astrid asked tiredly.
"Because your...father," Hallberta said," just hasn't been the same since you left. He...whatever else he may or may not be, did miss you. And so you won't be harmed."
She looked at her incredulously," And you think that's what I'm worried about?"
"Well, aren't you?" Hallberta asked uncertainly.
"No!" Astrid cried suddenly angry," I'm not!"
"Then what are you worried about?" Hallberta asked confused.
"I'm worried about Berk," she cried nearly hysterical," I'm worried about my real parents, I'm worried about the dragons, and I'm worried about everyone else but myself. I know he won't do anything to me! But I don't know what he is going to do to everyone else."
Hallberta's eyes widened in understanding and continued to brush her hair," I see..."
"I just want this to be over," she said more to herself than to Hallberta," I feel like this is just some horrible dream that I'm going to wake up from, and find myself back on Berk, with Stormfly, with my parents, and Drago never even existed."
"But then you're setting yourself up for failure," Hallberta said simply," This is not a dream, and all of this is happening."
"And your point is?" Astrid said.
" That what you have to do," she said," is accept it for what it is, and use what you have to fix it."
"Fix it?" Astrid asked bitterly," I can't fix anything."
"Then I suppose you'll be quite happy to stay here for the rest of your life, while everyone you've come to care about suffers," Hallberta said in a completely blasé manner as she set down the brush.
She looked up at Hallberta at a loss for words," Hallberta..."
Hallberta just smiled tiredly and shook her head. Her expression softened and nodded towards her bed," Your nightgowns on the bed, goodnight, lass."
Astrid bit her lip," Goodnight...and I'm sorry...for..."
Hallberta kissed the top of her head," I understand, dear, don't worry your pretty little head over it."
Astrid gave her a small smile. Small, but genuine," Thank you."
And with that she got ready for bed, and hesitantly wrapped herself in the familiar blankets and furs. She sighed and forced her eyes to close. Before she could manage to will herself to sleep, however, she heard a faint growl and squeal, and she shot up. She tried to light a candle as fast as she could, only to come face to face with an oh-so-familiar little dragon.
"Sneaky?!" she nearly screamed, but remembered not to make a commotion knowing that Drago had most likely place a guard outside her door," What are you doing here? How did you even..."
But she trailed off and looked at the little dragon who took the moment to lick his own eyeball. Astrid shuddered but then rolled her eyes and picked the tiny dragon up and brought him up to the bed. She had to admit, that it would be nice to have some reminder of her newfound true home for comfort. Tonight of all nights, especially. And it was with the tiny little dragon next to her, that she managed to trail off to sleep muttering a sleepy," Don't make me regret this..."
But the dragon had already dozed off a long time ago, and the threat fell on deaf ears.
"Do you even bother to think before you go out and possibly kill this entire island?!" Stoick bellowed.
He shut his eyes and took a deep tired breath," I'm sorry."
"You're sorry?!" he bellowed," You're sorry! Is that all you have to say?!"
"No, but right now I don't think you really want to hear any of it," Hiccup said dryly.
"Well, maybe if you would think," Dad said," I wouldn't have to make you explain yourself, or any of your brainless, thoughtless, -"
"Look, Dad," he said trying to get to the point," I know I messed up-again- but that's not important right now."
"And what exactly could be more important-?" but Dad was cut off before he could continue as they saw his mom running up to them clearly out of breath as she got off of Cloudjumper," Stoick!"
"Val?" he said his demeanor completely changing in a way only she could manage," What's wrong?"
"Have you seen Astrid anywhere?" she asked," Her parents are worried-Hiccup?!"
He bit his lip and ran a nervous hand through his hair," Hey, Mom..."
"When did you-is Astrid with you? She's-"but she was cut off by none other than Ruffnut," Astrid's gone."
"Gone?" Stoick asked in concern," Gone where? Where could the lass have gone?"
"She went after us," she explained sadly.
Tuffnut nodded smiling a bit," She was so awesome, too. You should've seen her..."
He shut up at his sister's look and Fishlegs spoke up," She saved us...if it weren't for her, we wouldn't be here right now."
"So you did go after Drago, after all?" Stoick said angrily.
"We did," Hiccup responded," and we already regret it."
Snotlout nodded surprisingly, pretty genuinely, sad, "If we hadn't gone...Astrid wouldn't have gone either..."
"But where is she?" his mom asked.
"Drago captured us the moment we got there," Hiccup said," He took our dragons, and interrogated us."
"Did you say anything?" Stoick asked panicked.
Fishlegs shook his head,"No, but he wasn't too happy about that."
"Not long after that he had Astrid meet him," he said remembering seeing her looking both angry and terrified," He made her sit down to eat with him while we were being guarded."
"And what did he do to her?" his mom asked in concern.
"Nothing," he said still relieved about that," When she saw us she tried to fight him, but he obviously didn't like that and she got the hint."
"She's a pretty good actress," Ruffnut said smiling a bit until Tuffnut smirked happily," I taught her well..."
He rolled his eyes at his antics and continued," She played the meek and loyal daughter card once he kind of blew up over us arguing that he wasn't her father. She told him what he wanted to hear, and she...she managed to get him to let us go."
"He let you go?" Stoick asked dubiously obviously not believing it," Why would he let you all go so easily?"
Fishlegs frowned and said," I'm pretty sure he's expecting to get back at us pretty soon."
Snotlout nodded," He told the guard that he could let us and our dragons go because we wouldn't have them for long anyways."
"He only let us go for Astrid's sake," Hiccup said," He almost seemed to care about her...in a strange angry way. I only hope he doesn't hurt her."
"But she said he wouldn't hurt her!" Ruffnut exclaimed worriedly.
Hiccup nodded," But that doesn't mean we should just rest easy. Bedsides, while he may not hurt her...what's to stop him from hurting us. Astrid was more worried about us than herself."
"And she said she knew what she was talking about," Snotlout exclaimed," So Astrid only saved us for now which means we're probably next-"
Tuffnut looked at him for a moment and then as if his mind just clicked as if he'd solved a big problem, he exclaimed," What do you mean probably?! We're next!"
"Then what if he's coming to Berk soon?" his mom said her eyes widening in sheer terror as the same realization dawned on her.
Stoick nodded grimly," I hope the lass knows what she's doing, for both her sake...and Berk's, as well."
Astrid spent most of her time trying to stay under Drago's radar as much as possible. Unfortunately, that was almost impossible. He went out of his way to ensure that she was almost never alone. If she wasn't with Hallberta, she had a guard following her, and if there wasn't a guard, then she was with him. She'd been with him to see the dragon army, and it both broke her heart to see the poor creatures enslaved, and both enraged her to the point of wanting to break the innocent and meek facade and go after Drago herself.
But it was in those moments that she would take a deep breath, plaster a fake serene smile on her face, and remember that being reckless was not the way to defeat Drago. He was too powerful, and she would be stupid to forget that.
Instead, she would distance herself from Drago and travel around all the traps and cages. She would try and catch as much information as possible. She would manage to catch bits and pieces of information from the way too cocky dragon trappers themselves. Eret...son of Eret, in particular, proved too easily swayed. She just had to casually provoke his anger and defensiveness into spilling so many things he probably didn't even know she caught.
He'd let it slip that they had been raiding villages and islands and nests. They'd taken all the dragons they could possibly find and enslaved them under a huge white dragon called the Bewilderbeast. They'd gone so far as to challenge the Alpha dragon in one of the nest and sadly, Drago had one.
He'd also managed to inform her of when and where they would be striking next, and she would gasp and say that she just hoped they would be careful and go on her way with an innocent smile on her face as she joined her "father".
After dinner she would stay up a little later, under the pretense of wanting to read the Drago's revised dragon manual, and would write down whatever information she had managed to get. The tiny terror, did end up being useful after all. He had provided her the perfect method of sending the information back to Berk. The dragon lived up to his namesake so well, that she doubted anyone even guessed he was there at all.
After having sent some information, she always felt as though she was doing her part to protect Berk. However small or insignificant her actions seemed to be. Drago rarely went out of his way to see what she was up to. He probably relied on the rest of the staff and guards to not fail him again.
She'd seen what he'd done to the staff...or at least Hallberta. She'd noticed the lash marks of her back and had demanded to know where she'd gotten them. Hallberta had been hesitant to speak, but Astrid knew how to get her to tell, but afterwards...she was left wishing she hadn't.
If Drago had so easily lashed out at the servants, why was it that he hadn't done anything to her? He hadn't yelled at her, or even looked remotely upset since that first day. He seemed to have almost mellowed out.
After Hallberta had told her about the lashings, she'd gone to dinner a bit wary. Drago had noticed immediately," What's wrong with you?"
"What do you mean?" she asked lightly.
He frowned and looked her in the eye intimidatingly," You either tell me now, or I will find out myself."
She internally cowered but just said meekly," I heard about what you did after I...after I-"
He sighed tiredly and almost dismissively," After you left."
She nodded looking down refusing to make eye contact,"Yes."
"And what do you want me to say?" he asked already bored," I was mad, they disobeyed me, they let you escape, and I was supposed to be happy?"
She stayed quiet.
"Was I supposed to reward them with mead and a great big feast?" he demanded in his menacing growl of a voice.
She decided she'd been stupid to let her guard down and decided to once more play up the meek and harmless act," No..."
"Then why all of this?" he asked her.
"I just..." she trailed off.
"You probably thought that I was going to do the same to you," he finished once more.
She looked at him hesitantly this time, only to see him eating normally again.
"Well...aren't you?" she asked confused her heart pounding.
He looked at her with a calculating look before sighing and shaking his head," No."
She looked at him disbelievingly. While she had been the one to assume he wouldn't hurt her, she didn't think it would be this easy. She had handled a lot, after all, but never nonexistent," But why?"
"Well," he said after a sip of mead," not only would that make it impossible for you to do your work, but I doubt that it would make you want to stay."
She looked at him confused again. All of this was making her head start to pound, but he continued," You left the moment you were free, and that was not without reason. You've never been an easy child, and while you've been a horrible, ungrateful, and pathetic daughter...that doesn't mean you don't still have a temper.
"The second I do lash out, you won't be able to hesitate lashing back at me. You're a Viking...as much as that disgusts me. You are a warrior, it's in your blood. You fight for yourself, and you fight those who stand in your way.
"Right now, I can't be that person. I have my reasons, and I have better things to do than fight and punish a pathetic young girl who couldn't manage the simple task of staying put in the house where she belonged being a good daughter. For now, I won't do anything."
She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment before catching herself. Thankfully, he didn't seem to notice and she stayed quiet.
He finished eating and then left by saying one more thing," But...don't think that you will be able to pull a stunt like that again, without any grave consequences."
And he was gone, leaving her to let out a sigh of relief and finish the already cold meal before her.
Hiccup sat back and couldn't help but grimace at Drago's next target. It seemed as though he were taunting them with how long he was taking to get to them. He just wanted to get it all over and done with, and get Astrid back.
He'd been furious when he'd first received the Terror Mail from her. It was just like her to risk her safety for the sake of Berk. He'd promptly thanked her for the information, but told her not to do it again. He was worried that Drago would become suspicious, and decide to take it out on her.
But, as was her character, she didn't listen, and they had been communicating for the past couple weeks. It was never much, and it was almost always straight to the point, but he couldn't help but wish that he was bold enough to tell her everything he wanted to tell her.
How he missed her, how Berk just wasn't the same without her. Nearly everyone felt the emptiness. Her parents, the people, the group, the dragons, Gothi, everyone.
He missed their talks, their moments, how determined she always was, how she always managed to help those around her, and how she would always manage to seamlessly manage to ensure that everything was okay...even when things weren't. He missed her blonde hair that gave off the illusion of sunshine, her bright blue eyes that reminded him of the summer sky even in the middle of winter, and her laugh when she was enjoying one of his many blunders, but most of all... her understanding.
How she seemed to just get everything he wanted to say, but couldn't seem to put into words, himself. He only hoped that she would be back and that he would be able to tell her in person.
So sorry it was a bit on the short side, but things pick up next chapter, I promise! Just hold on a little for me, okay! Let's just say that some of your guy's predictions are on point...
And don't forget to review!