AN: Mi ha ha ha… here we introduce the owner of one of the best lines in history. I want it on a t-shirt- "Uh, hello? I'm deranged!" "Yep, can't argue with logic like that," I laughed so hard when I saw Cast Out part two. Dagur is hilarious. Also slightly mad. But meh.
In this chapter, I also threw in another character. I don't know if she will end up becoming a support character or just a background, but I see her as an Angela-the-Herbalist kind of character (Angela says: Watch out for Ferrets!) and I like the way she supports Astrid. Anyway, toodloonseeyasoon…
Chapter eight
The Day and the Night Fury
Of course, the next day they all woke to another attack. Astrid picked up her axe, having slept fully dressed, and ran to Stormfly, who flew her to Hiccup's house. Hiccup was, for some reason, painting his face with gray, red and green war paint.
"Why are you putting on war paint?" Astrid asked.
"Because I've managed to convince Dad that if I can scare the attackers away they might not come back too soon. Do we know who this lot are?"
"A bunch of Berserkers, led by- you guessed it- Dagur."
Hiccup groaned.
"That's all I need. Oh well, now all I need to do is scare the Hel out of a nutcase. Should be easy."
He turned to her, and she shuddered. His steady hands had painted terrifying swirls of colour over his face. The corners of his mouth twitched upwards at her expression.
"Please don't freak. It's just paint."
"Yeah…" Astrid responded. If she tried, she could ignore the paint and see just regular old Hiccup, gangly and awkward, and resolved that when this was over she was convincing him to start wearing green tunics again. Hel, she would stitch the thing herself if she had to. It wasn't fair on Hiccup that he was being forced into a warrior's guise. The poor boy was a pacifist, for Thor's sake! Even play-fighting made him uncomfortable. Astrid watched as he buckled on the gloves and pulled on his mask.
"Time to go," he said, his voice slightly muffled. Astrid followed Hiccup outside.
"Don't let him use you for knife practise again," she said. Hiccup climbed on to Toothless and nodded. Astrid pulled her own mask over her face and climbed onto Stormfly's back.
"You guys hide the dragons and come back if you need to." he told her. She nodded and shot away. As fast as she could, she gathered the dragons and left them in Snorri, Fiske and Idris' care in the woods. She left her mask and hurtled towards where Hiccup had been last. She skidded to a stop just in time to see Hiccup drop from Toothless' saddle, landing in front of Dagur.
"Hello, Dragon Conqueror," Dagur grinned, his face alight with manic revelry in the violence around them. "I wonder what you look like under that mask."
Hiccup let out a harsh laugh. To Astrid it sounded forced and ridiculous, but to Dagur it probably sounded completely legitimate.
"I'm offended. I would have thought you would recognise me, Dagur" he drawled. Hiccup pulled off his mask and threw it to the ground. At the same time, he flicked the gloves and the fangs slid out. Astrid watched as Dagur's face turned white.
"Hello, brother," Hiccup said, and screeched his dragon cry. It was blood-chilling; and a few of the other Berserkers cried out "Night Fury! Get down!"
"You…" Dagur snarled. "I called you brother. I taught you how to hunt dragons, how to throw knives, how to fight!"
Hiccup made another dragon noise; the choking Toothless laugh.
"If reminding me that you liked to throw knives at me is supposed to deter me, it won't."
He growled, a low animalistic sound. Though Dagur obviously couldn't, Astrid could see how forced this all felt to him, and see how Hiccup's fighting stance was more for show than actually for fighting.
Dagur laughed, the maniacal sound echoing.
"You should know I like hunting dragons. And you seem to be more dragon than Viking, Hiccup."
"I'm not a Viking at all," Hiccup retorted, before springing with a power Astrid wouldn't have thought possible. It wasn't an attack at all, but it still sent Dagur stumbling backwards. The Berserker swore angrily and pointed his axe at Hiccup, and Toothless screeched and advanced menacingly.
"I used this axe to usurp my father, and I'll use it to kill you too. I swear, I will have that Night Fury's skull as a trophy. I wonder how much someone would pay for the skull of the Dragon Conqueror?"
Toothless blasted Dagur's boots with flame, and the Berserker yelped and tore them off. He didn't see Hiccup pull a handful of metal filings from his belt and throw them on the ground; Dagur swore as he stepped on the sharp shavings.
"This is how you fight? With fire and trickery? Cross steel like a real man,"
Dagur lunged forwards and Hiccup tripped backwards over his own metal leg to avoid the swinging axe. Astrid strode out of her hiding place and brained Dagur with the flat of her axe blade. His helmet was left with a large dent, and one of the horns snapped off sideways.
"You scream like a girl," she said as Dagur dropped. She turned to Hiccup.
"Did he get you?"
Hiccup gave her his signature deadpan look.
"No, I'm bleeding all down my front because he missed," he said, wincing and wrapping his arms around his stomach.
Astrid hadn't even noticed. She ducked forwards and prised away his arms to get a look at the cut.
"You're lucky, it's just a scratch. I need to teach you how to dodge. You don't seem to get that you need to get out of the way of attacks," she told him, undoing his belt and re-tying it around the wound.
He rolled his eyes, grimacing as Astrid tied the belt tight.
"Yes, I thought I was supposed to get chopped into little tiny pieces. You know, large, sharp, deadly weapons are most beneficial to your health,"
"They'd be beneficial to my health right now," Astrid muttered, standing up. "You're an idiot. I'm not your nursemaid. Stop getting injured and I can stop fussing over you."
"Yes, milady. And meanwhile we can worry about getting the rest of the Berserkers off the island before they finish sneaking up behind you with a hammer."
Astrid turned to see a very large Berserker with a very large hammer heading towards her. She ducked under the blow, snatched her axe off of the ground and swung it at the man. It bit deep into his side, and the man fell sideways like an axed tree.
Oops, she thought guiltily. That was meant to be the flat of the blade. She stooped and looked closer. Great Odin's ghost, she thought, eyes widening. I think I killed him! She dropped her axe and started hyperventilating. I killed a man! Oh my gods, I killed someone!
Behind her, she heard a retching sound, and turned to see Hiccup throw up. She felt like throwing up too.
Thor's hammer, I killed someone! In front of Hiccup! I killed him! He's dead! And Hiccup was RIGHT THERE! Gods above, what have I done?
She stumbled to Hiccup, trying to block the Berserker's face from her mind. It would be forever frozen in that look of shock he had worn when Astrid had hit him. Dragons were one thing; until a few days ago, Astrid hadn't been aware that they had deep emotions. But people? She wrapped an arm around Hiccup's shoulders. He was shaking with horror, and his green eyes were filled with a petrifying fear. She turned to the Night Fury, who seemed utterly bewildered at his rider's reaction to the violence, and gestured him over. The dragon plodded over, and Astrid manoeuvred Hiccup into the saddle. She picked up Hiccup's mask from the ground and strapped it on his face, bent and pressed the prosthetic into the stirrup, then looked the dragon in the eye.
"Keep him safe," she said. The dragon practically nodded, and bounded through the village. She snatched up her axe and started running through the fray, dodging swords and maces as she ran to the woods.
Most of the Berserkers were subdued by now, and it was time for the dragons to come out and scare the Hel out of them. She blinked away the tears that flooded her eyes. She was disgusted with herself. She had killed someone! She had literally swung the axe that had killed them! She shook her head to clear it, stumbling blindly over tree roots. Her boot crunched into a large branch and she landed flat on her face. Picking herself back up and plucking the splinters and decaying leaves from her hands, she finally managed to locate Idris, Snorri and Fiske.
"Gods of the shrine," Fiske said, leaning backwards. "What happened to you?"
Astrid suddenly realised she was still holding a blood-covered axe.
"It's… it's nothing. I'm fine. Dagur's down, and most of the Berserkers have been beaten. It's our turn."
She crossed over to Stormfly and picked up the mask Hiccup had given her, tying it on and hauling herself onto Stormfly's back. The Nadder chirruped happily and turned her head to look at her rider.
"Hey, girl," Astrid murmured. "Let's go flying."
Stormfly screeched in agreement and spread her blue and yellow dappled wings. Lifting into flight, she was soon joined by Stormcleaver, Cloudjumper, Thunder and Lightning and the other dragons. She allowed herself to lean forwards against her dragon's neck.
"Oh, Stormfly, what have I done?" she asked, to no-one in particular. Stormfly cooed, a reassuring sound. It was amazing how dragons could communicate their feelings with simply a noise. It was very calming, and she relaxed slightly. The flock of dragons, Valka at their head, swooped low over the Berserkers, who howled in terror and strained against their captors. Several broke loose and fled to the docks, and at Stoick's signal the rest of the Berserkers were let go. They grabbed their fallen comrades, Dagur included, and leapt into their boats, rowing away frantically. Stormfly and Astrid peeled away from the dragons, and Astrid scanned the ground below for the black Night Fury. After a short while, she spotted him, and dropped beside them neatly.
"Hiccup," she said quietly, reaching out to the boy. He pulled off his mask and looked at her.
"I'm so sorry," she said pleadingly. "I really didn't mean to kill him. He gave me a fright, and I didn't have time to think, and-"
"It's alright," he broke in. Astrid stopped."It's not the first time I've seen someone die,"
"Then why did you-" she gestured vaguely.
"It's really stupid," he answered, wincing. "I have a phobia of blood,"
"What?" she said, astonished. He looked at her, a slight wry smile on his face.
"I know, it's ridiculous. Who ever heard of a Viking that hated blood? But then, I never was much of a Viking, was I? Dagur had a point,"
The fact that Hiccup honestly saw himself as a square peg in a round hole was a bit of a problem. Astrid nodded and gave Hiccup a quick pat on the arm.
"Good fighting today. You probably could have made Thor himself drop his hammer and cry there."
Hiccup nodded, and Stormfly lifted back into flight. Astrid landed with a thud in front of the seamstress' house, which was fortunately undamaged. She had a request to make.
o~0~O~0~o
Boredom. Sheer boredom.
The seamstress, Toffa, had given Astrid a very knowing look when Astrid had asked for her help. After almost an hour spent stabbing herself in the finger with a needle, Astrid was relieved when Toffa gave up on teaching Astrid how to sew.
"At this rate, by the time we've made it the boy will have grown out of it," she said. "Now, see that box? There's a few bolts of cloth in there. I think I've got some green."
Astrid dug through the box, unearthing the folded fabric. She straightened up and cursed when she hit her head on the box's lid.
"Stupid box," she muttered, bringing Toffa the cloth. Toffa held up the fabric.
"He hasn't grown too much, I think. So only a little larger than the last one." the seamstress muttered to herself. "Knife, please."
Astrid passed her the knife, and Toffa deftly cut the cloth into the right shapes. She watched mutely as the seamstress compared different threads to the fabric, deciding on the right colour. This was all nonsense to Astrid; what did it matter if the thread wasn't precisely the same colour as the fabric? Toffa noticed the shieldmaiden's reserved behaviour.
"What happened, Astrid?" Toffa asked. Astrid looked into Toffa's wide brown eyes. The seamstress looked concerned.
"Today… when everyone was fighting…"
"Oh," Toffa drew out the syllable in comprehension. "I saw that. It's alright, honey. Almost everyone on this island has had to make the decision for someone to die at one point."
"But… I didn't even mean to! I panicked, and Hiccup saw, and it doesn't feel right! I feel like I should be covered in blood, so everyone knows that I've done something unforgiveable, but I didn't get a SINGLE DROP on me! It… I can't explain, I feel… contaminated, like I've got some disease, and no-one should come near me."
"Astrid, that Berserker was coming at you fast. If you hadn't done what you did, he would have killed you and kidnapped Hiccup. I can't tell you what to feel, but just ask yourself; do you value Hiccup more than the Berserker?"
Astrid nodded.
"And if it comes to it, is your cause important enough to justify killing again, or will you falter at the crucial point in a fight? Because I don't think it's just about you here; you're worried about Hiccup. Does protecting Hiccup mean more to you than allowing the senseless violence of the kidnappers to continue unabated?"
Toffa had something there. Astrid turned the question over in her head. Toffa sensed her indecision.
"I'm not saying that the Berserkers and such deserve to die; everyone deserves a long life. But to you, Hiccup means more than they do, doesn't he?"
Astrid made up her mind.
"If I had the chance to change what I did, I think I would turn it down."
Toffa threw her hands up in mock gratitude.
"Thank the gods and pass the thread box." she said.
"What does that mean?" Astrid asked in confusion.
"It means pass the thread box, Hofferson. I need more of this thread."
Astrid cursed and scrambled to find the box.
o~0~O~0~o
Astrid waited cautiously outside Hiccup's house the next day, waiting for the teen to return so she could give him the tunic and pants. Toffa had dug a pair of boots and a fur vest out of some old chest in her house, and had given them to Astrid as well. When Astrid had tried to talk about some kind of payment, Toffa had waved her off.
"It's payment enough to watch you two gambolling around, hopelessly in love," she had smiled. Astrid had glared daggers. "Don't try and tell me otherwise," Toffa argued. "That boy's been head over heels for you since he was nine. And I quote verbatim, 'he's not a very convenient boy to have a crush on, mum!'."
Astrid had blushed.
"I was ten! I didn't know how… erm… he wasn't…"
"You got warded off because everyone else told you how much of a stuff-up he was." Toffa had said matter-of-factly. "Don't worry about it; he marches to the beat of his own drum. You two are a match made in Valhalla; and at least one of you can sew, even if it is a bit backwards. Now, go find the boy, and watch out for Fangless Daydreams!"
And now she waited. First Valka came up the hill to the house. She took one look at the clothes and nearly fell back down the hill laughing. Astrid glared miserably at her boots. If Hiccup reacted the same way she didn't think she would be able to take it.
Then came Stoick. He barely noticed Astrid, but she heard Valka inside tell Stoick something. The chief's face and enormous beard poked back out the door to see Astrid waiting and then he started laughing.
With all this laughing, Astrid thought crossly, there's going to be a landslide.
Finally Hiccup trudged up the hill, Toothless bouncing playfully at his heels like an oversized cat.
"Astrid," he said in surprise.
"I-" Oh gods, she thought. "I wanted to give you these,"
She thrust them into his hands and hurtled down the hill so fast she slipped backwards and ploughed furrows into the grass and dirt with the spikes in her skirt. Face burning, she leaped to her feet and only slowed once she was safely in her house.