This chapter covers Astrid confronting Hiccup outside the forge. It gets a bit... Intense, should I say? I'm not entirely sure whether it's K+ appropriate. If someone could give me a bit of advice as to that, I'd be very happy.

Is everyone liking the general idea? I thought the whole 'What if' concept was a bit too frequently applied to when Hiccup tried to run away, so I though I should try to find something original to use. I must say, I got quite a bit more of a response for this fic than I expected!

I'm sorry the chapters aren't longer. The story isn't flowing evenly at the moment. Don't worry, I plan to keep working on this.

Hiccup wasn't likely to return for another two hours or so, so I had time to kill. Should he happen to return early, I'll find him anyway. He can't hide forever...

The problem was finding something to do to pass the time. For the first few minutes, I considered how I was going to start things off, until I realised that regardless of any plan I came up with, I'd end up using an intimidation tactic to scare the information out of him.

Although, it wasn't a complete waste of time, as it did give me a very good idea on how to scare him.

It's a real drag, trying to come up with something to occupy your time, isn't it? Especially when your waiting for something important. Not that Hiccup was, or anything like that. Certainly not to me. As far as I was concerned, he was cheating somehow, and it was about time I kicked him out of his stolen spotlight.

Guess what I ended up doing? I'll give you two guesses.

If you guessed re-reading the Dragon Manual, you guessed correctly. After all, despite Nadders, Nightmares, Gronckles and Zipplebacks being the only breeds we commonly had to deal with, there were plenty of others.

It was actually quite pleasant, reading over the old legends that revolved around some of them. I can sorta understand why Fishlegs gets so excited over dragons now. I mean, the Skrill? Seriously nasty dragon right there. Apparently, it's only appeared five times in the three hundred years Vikings have been living on Berk.

It's quite a large dragon. Supposedly three times the size of a full-grown Nightmare. (Which are about a size-and-a-half bigger than the ones we usually see. Let's just say the dragons don't often get to live their very long lives to the fullest...) Much like the Nightmare, in that it has no front legs. However, unlike the Nightmare, it doesn't use it's wings as secondary legs. It sort of balances on it's hind legs when on the ground.

Interestingly, there's a note at the bottom of the page, saying that according to Merchant tales, the Skrill has been sighted far to the south in some place called... Af-rika, I think it's called. It's supposed to carry off these large, grey creatures with huge ears, and a massively long snout.

I've never heard of the place, nor these things called... E-lef-aunt, I think. Whoever the scribe was, they needed to take a refresher course, 'cos I could hardly read the bloody book in some spots!

According to the manual, it didn't breathe fire in any fashion similar to the others. From what I could make out, it instead spat some sort of... oil, I think it is. It then ignited the oil by lobbing a fireball at it. Odd, in my opinion. It could toss fireball, but instead decided to ignite the oil... That was when I noticed the Skrill's shot limit: 2, sometimes 3.

This thing had to have the least amount of shots of any dragon species there was! But it made it easier to understand it's chosen method of attack. It couldn't afford to waste it's shots, so it made them as effective as possible by covering as large an area as possible with oil, and then using it's fire.

I had to say, it was pretty darned clever. However loathe I was to admit it...

I'm afraid to say that I ended up just flicking through the entries. Although there was one that caught my something (Something about turning victims inside-out) I wasn't able to find it again. By the time the moon was beginning to rise, I'd almost worked my way right through to the Night Fury. I didn't bother looking at it, 'cos I'd already read that one dozens of times, imagining what it looked like.

I found it hard to believe I'd managed to pass several hours re-reading the Dragon Manual. But I had a job to do now. No more time for reading. I put the book aside, and hid myself in the shadow of the forge, waiting for Hiccup to return. Yes, there was a chance that he would go home instead, but if that was the case, then I'd only wait at the forge for so long. If he hadn't come back in the next hour or so, I'd head to his house. If he happened to be asleep, he soon wouldn't be.

I was determined to get my answers.

Time passed, with me waiting patiently outside the forge. Eventually it got to the point where He had to have gone straight home.

"Typical," I muttered to myself, as I stood up straight and brushed myself down. "It's almost like he knows I was waiting for him. Oh well. If he wants to make this harder than it has to be..." I cracked my knuckles, feeling some of the tension ease out of me.

Naturally, it was just as I started to walk between the crowded houses that I heard a banging from the forge. Not the sound of metal, more like someone had kicked something, maybe a bucket, and sent it flying through the air.

I stopped dead, fuming slightly.

"Why am I not surprised?" I mutter to myself, before turning right back around and heading the way I just came from.

"Hiccup," I called out as I approached. There was a brief pause, then Hiccup came tumbling out of the forge through the window, closing it behind him. Strangely, he did it in an almost... graceful fashion.

I grimaced slightly. Another word no one would have thought would ever apply to Hiccup. I did notice something though. He was wearing that leather get-up of his still.

"Astrid! Hey- Hi, Astrid. Hi- Astrid, hi Astrid."

Wow. And I honestly had not thought he could possibly be more obviously head-over-heels for me. Yeah, I knew. Contrary to popular belief, I wasn't completely oblivious. I think the only teenage guy on the island who wasn't infatuated with me was Tuffnut, and that because he already hero-worshipped Snotlout and his sister would probably come up with something that would make crushing on me seem like a bad thing to him. That's just the way those two are.

"Ok Hiccup, I'll get to the point. Frankly, I don't quite trust you at the moment." He winced.

"Uh, any particular reason?" he questioned, sounding slightly tense. I smirked slightly, invisible in the night.

"People don't get as good as you have, as quickly as you have. I want to know how you're doing it! And I'm not going to accept no for an answer Hiccup. If I don't get the answer out of you now, I WILL force it out of you!" My right hand pulled something out of my waist pouch. Very carefully. Making sure that I was holding it by the blunt end, I brought it into the light. It glinted wickedly, promising pain beyond anything he could handle.

It was ever so gratifying to see him pale the way he did. He knew exactly what was in store for him if he didn't comply.

"Uh, Astrid- Now, there's- um, there's no need for that- really, you don't need to use that!"

"Not if you answer my questions, I won't," I said, deceptively sweetly. Strangely, he seemed to know enough about how a girls mind worked that he could see the veiled threat behind my words and tone. Snotlout probably wouldn't have gotten the hint if I had explicitly stated that I was going to kill him, with a murderous tone in my voice.

Yeah, ok, so my threat wasn't actually all that veiled, but it was still more subtle than most males on the island would have been able to perceive.

"Fire away," he replied, gulping nervously. Before he could blink, I was in his face, grabbing him by the leather he was wearing.

"First question, what in the Name of Odin is this?" I hissed at him, lifting him clear off the ground.

"Uh- It's a, um, harness?"

"For what!"

"You, er, wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

"No."

THAT stumped me. Hiccup, of all people, had the nerve to try and give me no for an answer. And after I'd tried to make it clear I wouldn't accept it. I lifted my hand so that the object in it caught the light, glinting with the promise of Pain. I raised my eyebrow at him. It didn't take a genius to figure out what I was daring him to say.

"I don't suppose you feel like repeating that?" I whispered with a dangerous tone overlaying my voice.

"I said no."

"You should really think more carefully about your answers."

"It stays the same."

"I think you'll be changing your tune soon."

"Try me."

Oh, he was SO asking for it. No-one turns my words against me.

"You asked for it." I jabbed the object into his arm, hard. His face contorted with pain but surprisingly; he remained, well, stoic.

Pun intended.

I raised my eyebrow at him. "I'm impressed," I admitted honestly. "I wouldn't have thought you could withstand that." He grinned wanly.

"Yeah, people seem to think that a lot."

I slammed him against the window in response. "Because it's usually true," I snapped in his face. "You can't swing a weapon of any sort, in fact, you can barely lift them!"

"That doesn't mean I can't have surprises hidden up my sleeve."

"So show them. I dare you."

My answer is still the same. No."

I sighed gently. I really didn't want to keep hurting him. I wasn't sadistic, not by anyone's standards. But I HAD to know how he'd become so good! I simply refused to walk away as ignorant as when I started.

"Hiccup, I really don't want to hurt you more than I have to," I said, almost whispering. "But I'm telling the truth when I say that you are NOT walking away from me tonight before I get what I want."

"And you're not walking away with what you want. So where does that leave us?"

"I believe it's called in impasse," I growled at him. He simply smiled slightly.

"You know you can't hold me up in the air forever Astrid. You'll tire eventually, and I haven't wasted any energy just hanging here. You'll be tired, and I'll be perfectly refreshed."

"You're still not going anywhere."

"And I'm also still not answering. You don't need to know."

I have to be brutally honest, I completely snapped at that. He'd been infuriating with his sudden success, his instant popularity, his determinedly mysterious disappearances, and now his refusal to answer. I'm rather ashamed of how I behaved, but there's nothing I can do about it now. It's all in the past.

That doesn't make me any less guilty though.

I put him down abruptly, pulling back my right arm, and punched him in the face so hard, I'm pretty sure his nose broke in two places.

"Argh!" he screamed.

"That's how serious I am about this," I hissed at him. "If you don't give me the answers I want, I swear to Odin you are going to feel more pain than you thought possible!"

He sighed heavily. "Fine," he muttered thickly through his newly broken nose. "You win. Tomorrow."

"Swear it," I replied.

"I swear on Thor's name," he muttered.

"See? Wasn't so hard now, was it? I'll meet you at your house tomorrow. I don't think I need to remind you what might happen if you decide to go back on your word."

With that, I turned and walked off.

"One question," he called out. "Why'd you use the sewing needle?"

"I thought it would be most effective in getting you to talk," I called, without looking back. It was only when I was about to go out of sight from the forge that I turned around, to find him still leaning against the window, hand over his nose, looking more broken and defeated than he had when he'd claimed to have shot down a Night Fury. It was only then that guilt clenched it's fist around my heart.

"Oh dear Odin," I whispered. "What did I do?" Ashamed of myself and my lack of control, I ran back home, never slowing, never looking back. Unable to face what I had done to him.

...

Don't kill me... Or Astrid. She's just doing what I write her to do. I admit she's a bit OOC...
Yes, Hiccup is going to reveal Toothless to Astrid. Hopefully with a little less pouncing and axes involved compared to the movie introduction. We'll see how that goes...

Part of the plot for this fic is the idea of changing the Vikings. While I have no problem with the movie's ending, I find it hard to believe that the Vikings would change their attitude so readily. So Hiccup's going to be a bit more sneaky this time around, and pre-prepare certain vikings for the new world he has planned. He doesn't realise it yet, but Astrid may just have provided him with the perfect oppotunity to begin converting people to his cause.

I would like reviews from all who reviewed the first chapter, be you anonymous or have an account. Special thanks to all who reviewed, by the way!

Incidentally, I'm planning for the 'Sewing Needle' to become a bit of a running gag. We'll have to see how well that goes.

I think that's all. See you next time!

-Eidorian999