Astrid woke up to the smell of fish cooking. She peeked one eye opened but she found it was still dark. Had she gone blind?
Her moment of worry quickly passed as whatever it was she was in unfolded until she could see the cave. She crawled out and turned to see Cloudjumper looked at her curisouly. She giggled before patting him on the nose.
She heard a cough behind her and saw Valka holding out a piece of fish. "Are you hungry?" Valka said as she held out the fish she caught toward Astrid almost tentatively. Astrid drooled. She couldn't remember the last time her family got her fish.
Her family…. She thought as she got the fish from Valka and started to chew on it. After she was done she called out to Valka. The woman turned in response.
"When am I going back home?" Valka froze before she smiled at the girl. "Soon" she responded quickly.
"You want to go find Stormfly?" she said trying to distract the girl.
Astrid gave a bright smile before running towards the entrance. Valka sighed in relief before turning to Cloudjumper. "Come on, boy. The king wants to see us." Cloudjumper nodded in response before they made they journey to the king.
Hiccup watched as his dad showed him a bunch of weapons. He assumed that his dad wanted him to choose a weapon. They had been at it for hours.
He looked at hammers, swords, axes, and other things Hiccup couldn't name. However, none of those interested him until he saw something in the back of the weapon storage room.
Stoick watched as his son walked towards a weapon that was put silently in the corner of the room. His eyes widened at what his son noticed. It was a bow! Very few vikings actually used a bow because they thought it was a weak weapon.
However if used correctly it could be very deadly. Stoick walked over to his son. "Are you sure about this son?". The only person who ever used a bow around Berk was…...Valka.
His son nodded stubbornly tightening the grip around the bow. Stoick sighed. The last thing he needed was more painful reminders of his wife. "Alright son, let's go"
Astrid and Stormfly were playfully wrestling with each other. A watchful Firefly would glance at them every once in a while before turning to her other hatchlings.
Stormfly and Astrid were taking note of how often she was checking on them but before they could plan their escape a big shadow appeared over them. It was a orange monstrous nightmare who was looking curiously at the two playing. Astrid smiled at the dragon before she walked over to it. The dragon sniffed the girl. She still smelled like a human put had a dragon smell.
The nightmare's tail swished back and forth. Another human-dragon to help take care of them! Astrid quickly glanced at Firefly who was busy with the other nadders.
"Stormfly, now's our chance" she said as she started to get on the nightmare.
Stormfly chirped quietly in response. The nightmare seemed reluctant to leave at first but after some reassuring from Astrid it flew away quietly.
Cloudjumper and Valka were sad that the girl had to leave. However, they knew what the king told them was right. They couldn't keep a little girl from her parents. Valka looked over at Cloudjumper who was looked downright devastated.
"Aww, Cloudjumper you must really care for her". Cloudjumper nodded. Astrid really grew on him the night she slept in his wings. He never relized how lonely he was even though he had Valka. Of course he loves and will always protect her but Astrid is different entirely. She reminds him of the hatchling he never had.
Cloudjumper whined pitfully. "I know Cloudjumper but this is for the best" she said trying to comfort him. As they walked they noticed that several dragons were on edge. As they got closer they could see what the problem was. Firefly was flying back and forth with a panicked expression.
Cloudjumper chirped to catch her attention. When she turned to them with a wide-eyed expression they already knew what happened. Astrid was missing.
Astrid yelled in excitement as the nightmare did a couple of turns and twists to appease the girl. Stormfly was having fun too. She wasn't able to fly yet so any chance she was in the sky she thoroughly enjoyed it. However, Astrid noticed something in the forest below her.
It looked like a dark shape running between the trees. She urged the nightmare to fly down and land. As she edged towards the forest the nightmare tried to pull her back. "If you're afraid then stay here" she said pushing the dragon off her. The dragon snorted before following her into the forest.
The deeper they went into the forest the more it became apparent that she did see something between the trees. There were a lot of foot prints and little burning smell Then, they heard it a wailing cry. Astrid jumped at first before realizing that it was the sound that baby dragons would use when they wanted something.
She followed the noise into a clearing. She gasped at the sight. Right in the clearing their was a small black dragon right next to another bigger black dragon. The bigger one noticed her and growled. Astrid gulped.