IX.

"What do you think you are doing, you filthy half-troll coward? You have to turn around," she demanded, voice bordering on a screech. Astrid's boots heavily thumped across deck as she confronted Eret, yanking the fur pelt draped across his shoulders and forcing his face into her icy blue-eyed stare. Though well over half a foot taller than her, Eret shrunk back – or would have, did Astrid not pin him against the wheel of the ship. Knobs from the helm dug uncomfortably into his back, yet he hardly noticed those under her piercing stare.

"We can't go back, don't you see?" he protested. Eret futilely tried to free himself from Astrid's grip. That only resulted in spinning the steer to the left and jerking the boat cumbersomely toward a floe of ice. Hands awkwardly reaching behind him, he hastily corrected the vessel, all the while incapable of leaving Astrid's scowl or freeing his back from where he was pinned. "The Vigilante takes no captives. We never see the face of anyone he - she - takes again – she kills everyone she captures."

With every word, Astrid jerked Eret forward and then pounded him back against the steering wheel. "Then. all. the. more. reason. to. rescue. him. before. that. happens."

Eret gasped, "Look, you don't get it, do you?"

"I think I get it," she hissed. "You're abandoning someone to save your own neck."

"Oh? And what if we went after her? What would we do? Get attacked and burned up by the dragons again? We're lucky enough to escape with the ship only half burnt!"

Astrid's eyes reluctantly left Eret to survey the ship's damage. One sail barely held its own in the wind, coloration more black than gray, while the other flax cloth sported tears, holes, and spots of fire damage itself. Half the railing on the ship's port side had been shred apart by a reckless dragon, while the deck area on which Stormfly crashed was highly splintered and sagging so greatly sailors stepped around the location, fearing they would elsewise break through the flooring and fall. Countless areas were charred. Most of the weaponry on deck was ruined. A number of ropes had been damaged beyond repair, though thankfully spares had been brought up from the lower levels of the ship and replaced. Their ship may have been seaworthy still, yet she floated through the ocean waters with a painful limp.

Astrid hated to acknowledge Eret's logic on the topic. There would be no way their ship in this shape could survive another beating from the Vigilante's dragons. Still, refusing to agree with Eret aloud, she retorted, "Say whatever excuses you want. I'd be flying off on Stormfly right now if her wings weren't injured."

"Look, I am very, very sorry about your friend," Eret said. "He always seemed like a good man. And I've seen more than my fair share of fellow soldiers taken by the Vigilante as well. I wish we could do something about it, but –"

"Well, we can, if you would just listen to me." It was a wonder Astrid's snarl had not bitten off Eret's nose yet. It probably would – intentionally – if he raised his voice in another protest.

"I'm listening, I just don't like your ideas."

Astrid pulled back her fist to punch Eret in the face, but then paused, lowering it only with extreme reluctance. Her voice remained completely hostile, however. "If you're not going to let me steer this ship after him, the least you could do is take me back to my village, talk to my chief, and get him and all of Berk to go after the rider."

"Look, that's exactly what your friend wanted to do. But he said the chief wouldn't listen."

Astrid, tersely, snapped, "Well, he's going to listen now that his son is kidnapped."

"Wait, that guy is the chief's son?" Eret blinked in disbelief. He almost choked on the final word of his sentence.

"Hey look, you can listen to me." Astrid released Eret suddenly, and he dropped flaccidly down to the flooring of the ship like a boneless fish. She thumped her axe firmly against the deck. "So take me to Berk. Now."

Eret hastily asked her to point the way and turned the ship starboard to correct their course. He hated the fact he could hear her murmur, satisfied, under her breath, "Works every time."