I Own Nothing
All Rights Reserved
Chapter 10
Leaving and Returning
The following morning Astrid woke up and found a note on one of the benches.
"I'm unexpectedly called away, so you will be on your own for today and possibly tomorrow. I've left instructions for your comforts, so enjoy yourself as you see fit but remember my conditions concerning your safety."
On the first day of his absence she kept to her room for the most part, as she did not feel comfortable getting nearer to the dragons without the King present, and she still had more thinking to do. It was not long, however, before she began to get bored and a bit tired of thinking, so she spent some time wandering around the tunnels. At one point she passed a section that had a large set of double doors. She wondered if that led to the King's room, and felt an impulse to go down it and look around, if only to confirm her suspicions. To her disappointment, however, she found the door to the room was shut and she could not find a way to open it.
After breakfast on the second day of the King's absence, she decided to spend the day exercising, something she'd been neglecting these past few weeks due to all her traveling. She left her room and made her way up the tunnel that led to the top of the crater. She'd intended to find a place to practice away from the dragons, but as soon as she began doing stretches dragons started coming over and watching her.
"What are you guys looking at?" she asked sharply. They just kept staring curiously at her. She tried to ignore their looks and kept at it, but then when she started doing pushups a Timberjack began to imitate her! When she tried to do crunches, some Gronkles started to do the same, but due to their thick bodies they could not curl up very easily, and ended up rolling down the hillside like giant boulders! And when Astrid went jogging a pack of Speed Stinger dragons decided to run with her, and when they realized that they could run faster than her they began showing off, either by running ahead and waiting for the slowpoke human to catch up or running in circles around her with smug expressions on their faces.
At first Astrid was surprised by this behavior, then amused, but then one of them began doing a kind of taunting dance as it ran away from her backwards. At that point her competitive instincts were aroused.
"All right, you asked for it!" Astrid shouted and took off as fast as she could. The Stingers were surprised when she caught up with them but they started running faster too, which prompted Astrid to push even harder. Down the trail they tore. Astrid felt her lungs screaming but she refused to stop. In her mind only winning mattered now. It was a contest between this island and hers, between Dragons and humans, and in both cases she was determined to win. Unfortunately, any hope for that ended when the leading Speed Stinger suddenly slipped and fell, and everyone behind it ran right into it. Astrid leapt over the first Stinger, only to land on another one and stumble. Before she knew it, a dozen Stingers had piled on top of her.
"Now here's something they'll never see on Berk. Astrid Hofferson stuck in a pile of Speed Stingers." She thought as she began taking deep breaths. She felt no reason to disentangle herself at the moment. The reaction of her workout suddenly struck and she felt too worn out to move. The Stingers seemed to be the same way, for they were only panting and making groaning sounds.
"So is anybody going to move first or should I?" She finally asked when her heart wasn't pounding at 10 times its normal speed.
"I'd say you should." She looked up and saw Toothless landing in front of her. The King hopped off the dragon and strolled casually over to the pile. "Having fun?"
"Tell these things to get off me!"
"Why? I'm rather enjoying this," the King laughed, "all right, guys, let her up," Very slowly some Stingers flopped off the pile and Astrid was able to stand up.
"So," she said when she reached the Dragon King, reminding herself to not act strangely, "where have you been?"
"Monitoring Drago Bludvist." At this name the Speed Stingers jumped to their feet shrieking and ran away.
"A lot of the dragons here do that when Drago gets mentioned."
"Remind me who that is again?"
"First, I have to apologize for what happened earlier."
"Oh, there's no need for that!" Astrid said hastily, "I mean…I shouldn't have pushed you like that, I didn't realize…"
"Maybe, but I should not have reacted like that either. I especially want to make it clear that I would never keep you a prisoner—what didn't you realize?"
"I—didn't realize the consequences of sharing all your secrets," she lied. The King took a posture that she knew by now meant he was deep in thought.
"So we're good right?"
Astrid suddenly punched him in the shoulder. "Never threaten me again if you know what's good for you!"
"Is this more of your communication?"
"Yep!"
"Oof, well the message has been taken." He gestured for her to follow him and he led her down a steep pathway that took them to the very bottom of the crater.
"So, Drago Bludvist. He's a Slav; a Slav with a violent thirst for power. You know Alvin the Treacherous?"
"Not personally, but I know him by his reputation." Alvin's treachery and banishment from Berk had happened a few years before she was born.
"Well, picture a man with more brains and brawns, more ambition, more ruthlessness, and less humor. He's been trying for years to make a dragon army, and we've been trying for years to stop him." The King abruptly sat down on a rock and began to adjust his prosthetic. "The Slavs live in regions of Europe to the east and south. They have a long history of warfare. A lot of the land over there isn't very fertile, so what is fertile has been hotly contested over, among other things. As it turns out, a lot of these places also had dragon nests. So you have families invading territory for their own gain, dragons and other families fighting back to claim what in their eyes belongs to them, and it just keeps escalating from there. I'm using the present tense because it's still going on. Anyhow, I don't know exactly what happened to Drago, but I do know he at some point found that he could intimidate dragons into servitude. This gave him an advantage nobody had, so the opposing tribes banded together against the common foe and defeated him through sheer weight of numbers and firepower."
"What stopped them from creating their own armies of dragons?"
"I imagine they've tried to. For one reason or another, nobody succeeded. It's not easy for a human to force a dragon to submit to your control—you Vikings have been fighting them for centuries and have never succeeded. And don't look at me—I don't force dragons to do what I like. They obey me because they want to. Anyhow, Drago was banished from the east and made his way over here, along with his plans to put a new army of dragons together. And the end result of it was, well…"
They were at the bottom of the crater now and beside the lake that filled it. She followed him along the path and she spotted more dragons. But these dragons were not like the magnificent majestic creatures she had seen so far. They seemed timid, hesitant, nervous, and weary. Many of them avoided the humans and turned away from them. Some approached uncertainly, as though they were afraid to look at them.
Astrid felt like she was walking among the wounded and dead after a dragon raid. The King had lost the animated spirit he'd had a few minutes ago. Both he and Toothless looked like their hearts were breaking.
"An inspiring sight, isn't it?" He said ironically. "Practically every dragon here was injured thanks to Drago and his dreams for conquest and power, his drive to control and dominate. That one over there in that cave—he's lost an entire wing and arm. He hides in those caves because he can't bear to see the sky and remember what he's missing and can never do again. I offered to try and build him a new wing but he avoids me and everybody else."
He gestured to other dragons. "She's blind. In the wild she'd be dead in days. He's had his claws pulled out one at a time—a form of punishment. He's lost his tail in the snare that caught him. She had her horns cut off and used for arrowheads, and then her wings were cut off as punishment and used for leather padding. That one over there…he had all of his teeth pulled out. A lot of the dragons down here have similar injuries, and worse. And then there are those dragons over there."
He pointed to another group of dragons on the far side of the lake. They were all just standing there idly, as if they had nothing to do while they waited for something to happen.
"What are they doing?" Astrid asked carefully.
"What they usually do—unless they're throwing fits for reasons we can't fathom. They're the ones who survived Drago's treatment only physically," he said sadly, "but the mental toll it took on them is irreversible."
"Why?" Astrid asked, "Why does he do such things?" She could not imagine really harming anyone on Berk. Sure, she beat up Snotlout and Dogsbreath now and then, but only when provoked, and she would never go as far as this.
"He bullies and beats them until they're obedient and broken. He makes himself in charge of them, and a lot of the ones that resisted most are before you." She could not see it but he had tears in his eyes. "And I can't do a thing about this. I can rescue them and I can try and put an end to Drago's efforts, but I cannot change what he has already done. Just look at them, Astrid! They'll never soar through the sky again, never play with their hatchlings, some will never see again or hear anything again, some can't even walk anymore and some…" he turned away and sat down. "Some don't even know it because their minds are unhinged after all Drago's done to them. I sometimes wonder if they're better off that way."
They watched in silence for a few minutes, and his words really struck her. This was like wandering around the village after a raid and looking at the injured, the dead, the destroyed homes and lives, and watching the smoke rise over the burning bodies and structures and feeling helpless. She imagined he got the same feeling in his heart while watching these dragons.
She wanted to get the subject changed a little. "So what is he doing out here? You said he was a Slav. Why is he in Viking territory?"
"Viking territory? That amounts to a place where a few tribes on scattered islands share a similar culture and still fight over it. There's no real unity between tribes and you know it. That makes them easy pickings for conquest. You heard Gort at the gathering of Chiefs. He wanted a coalition, and the other chiefs blew him off. Then there's the strategic reason. Because each tribe is on a different island, Drago could pounce anywhere he pleased and any intervention would be days away at the very least. Imagine the Bog Burglars were attacked and called for aid. You'd first have to get this news, and news is hopelessly slow and unreliable by sea. Then you'd have to prepare and then sail to their island. By that time, Drago's dragons could have reduced it to cinders, then flown away somewhere or wait to ambush you. You get the picture?"
"Clearly."
"That's what he was going to do, I imagine, but we got in the way and he decided to finish us off first. He'd give his false arm to get his real hand on the dragons here. We focused on freeing captured dragons, harassing his supply lines, and crippling his war machines. It drove him mad, I can tell you that. I remember the very first raid we did, against the dragon trapping ship Fjord."
"We don't kill," he added for Astrid looked at him questioningly, "no, we'd usually slip into the fort or ship and free every dragon. If confronted we'd give any humans the chance to stand down hold them hostage until we left. Then we decided to raid his Headquarters, Fort Fractured Skull. Ever heard of it? It's no reflection on you if you haven't, because the place doesn't exist anymore. We gave the soldiers a warning first and half of them ran off before Toothless fired his first plasma blast; so much for loyalty. As for the dragons, nearly all of them deserted Drago as soon as they could. Drago had to run for it, and—yes—he got away from us. So we destroyed Fractured Skull entirety. If you ever went to that island, you'd never know a fort had stood upon it."
"And now he's back?"
"Yes."
"He won't escape this time." Toothless growled.
"But don't worry Astrid; we'll take care of it." He pointed across the lake. "For their sake if for no other reason, we will take care of it."
"Do you want Berk's help?"
"That would be nice, but I think we'll make do. Besides, would Berk actually provide us with help?"
Astrid couldn't answer that, though she wanted to. Instead she asked, "Why are you telling me this? You do remember what I warned you about not saying too much, don't you?"
"What could you possibly do with this information? Besides, I know for a fact you won't use it against me because Stoick would never side with Bludvist, no matter how much he hates dragons."
"What makes you say that?" Astrid asked in surprise.
"Hasn't Stoick ever told you about the night he met Drago?" The answer was in the negative. "Well, I'm not the person to tell you about it, but I'll say this much: if Stoick sided with Drago after what happened that night, then he is the most forgiving, the most selfish, or the most stupid Chief who has ever lived. And I don't believe he's any of those."
They spent the rest of the day discussing the terms from Stoick. The King refused to answer the First point, which dealt with the location of the Sanctuary. The Second point, which asked to explain what he meant by 'nobody is allowed to kill dragons' he answered with "Save in self-defense, nobody kills dragons. It's as simple as that." For the Third, which asked for further details on integrating dragons with Vikings, he said he would answer that in full by talking to Stoick personally and only if Stoick agreed to his terms for peace, but gave a short answer of "dragons and Vikings living and working together in peace and unity. In short, you'll get new villagers, and they'll be dragons." As for the Fourth point, which asked for more information about him, he decided Astrid could pass on to the Chief what she already knew about him. She made a mental note to not obey that suggestion entirely.
"Does that cover everything?" He asked wearily. The questions themselves had been easy to answer, but Astrid had been taking notes and asking scores of questions, which had greatly lengthened the interview. "The sun set a long time ago. And Toothless has fallen asleep again. Lazy overgrown salamander."
"No, I think that's everything for now."
"Oh, 'for now,'" He groaned, "do you plan to think up more questions in your sleep and ask me tomorrow?"
"Speaking of which, how am I getting back tomorrow?"
"Oh great, she's already asked me another question and it hasn't even been a minute." He put his hands on his masked head. "Spare me, please!"
"Only after you answer this one," she replied with an evil grin.
"Ugh. Stormfly has offered to take you, only this time you'll be on her back."
"You're…going to have me ride…a dragon?"
"Would you rather swim?"
Astrid decided it would be wiser not to press the matter. In fact, the idea sounded a bit appealing to her.
"Astrid?"
"Hmm?"
"I know you've been opposed to it when I've suggested it, but there's no other way to get you back to Berk. You must have realized that."
"Yes, I suspected it,"
"You'll be perfectly safe; much safer than you would be in a boat. So," the King said nonchalantly, "what will you do when you get back?"
"Oh now you're asking me questions!"
"Yes I am." He replied proudly.
She laughed and shrugged, "probably what I was doing before I came here. Training recruits, helping out wherever I can, practicing my fighting skills, learning how to be a chief…"
"I hope you get that position."
She smiled. "I'm glad to hear it." She bit back the question 'wasn't it supposed to be his?'
"Of course, given how the other choice is Snotlout, it's a bit of a no-brainer." He added dryly.
"True." But was there not a third option? He did not seem to be too bad of a choice, now that she thought of it.
"Anything else you've got planned for yourself?"
"I think that's enough, don't you?" Astrid laughed again.
"Got any plans with your friends?"
Astrid stopped laughing at this.
"What did I say?" The King asked, "You do have friends, right?"
"I—well—err—look, being Chief is going to be a big responsibility; I need to be ready for it. My family's honor and reputation will be on the line. I don't want to let anyone down." As she spoke she wondered which of them she was trying to convince more. "You know about my Uncle Finn, right? I've heard lots of people talking about my Uncle Finn being a coward, and since they say he was a coward, that means all Hofferson's are cowards, and I've gotta prove them wrong."
"I know what you mean. Why is it when one person does something the entire family gets blamed for it? One man gets caught plotting against the Emperor and then everyone he's even remotely connected to gets exiled or executed for it; that's just wrong."
Astrid sighed. "I've never believed my Uncle was a coward. I just wish there was a way I could prove them wrong about it once and for all!" She looked at him, then suddenly picked up her charcoal pencil and threw it at the wall while shouting "And is Snotlout's family any better? You've got Snotlout, a jerk if there ever was one, the most pathetic excuse for a man this side of Valhalla, and the most self center muttonhead since—since—"
"Narcissus? He tried to kiss his own reflection."
"Sure! Then there's his father, now there's a nice guy to have around, he's more stuck up than a pig over a fire pit! I mean, they mock Uncle Finn, but what have they ever done?" She had been storming around as she shouted. Now she calmed down. "Of course, you've also got Stoick the Chief, whom nobody could accuse of being a coward or a rotten warrior. But I sometimes wonder if he focuses too much on Hiccup and his wife."
"Oh Hiccup had a wife? I didn't know that."
"No, I mean the Chief's wife! Stoick's wife! I know he thinks a lot about her, even though she's been dead for over 20 years!"
"Maybe he just likes to remember the past. A lot of people do," suggested the King.
"Yes, those days when he had big plans for Berk's greatness which never happened? I heard my parents talking about them a few weeks back. He wanted to make Berk the greatest place in the world when he was young. Then he found it a big enough job just maintaining it as it was." She had calmed down completely now. "I wonder if I'm the same; with big plans that'll get crushed once I actually get to work on them."
"If you've got the will, the time, and the resources, you can do it. I know you've got the willpower."
"You seem to be doing pretty well yourself out here."
"Well thank you. I try,"
"You know, I've been thinking about the past too, recently. And there's one thing that's been on my mind a lot," she went on, ignoring him, "it's about Hiccup—"
The King shifted his weight slightly. "What about him?"
"Well, you say that Toothless did not take him, which implies he's alive…"
"Does it?"
"Well, it just doesn't make any sense to me. If Toothless did not carry him off, than where is he?"
"Why do you keep bringing Toothless into this?
"Because who else could it have been? We know a black dragon, with an injured tail was in the same spot as Hiccup was right before he disappeared, and…" she gestured to Toothless's tail fin. "Well, what else can the Chief think?"
"I don't know."
"I just wish I could make things up to him, if he was still alive. If he was, I hope he'd found happiness at last." She turned to leave. "I let a friend down by abandoning him, and after all these years and having lots of time to think about it…if there was a way to make it up to him, I'd take it—regardless of what you might think. If Hiccup was still alive and happy, I would not take that away from him."
Astrid walked back to her room fully convinced of what she would do now. The King watched her go very thoughtfully.
After a moment he called after her. "Astird?"
She came back slowly. "Yes?"
"About Hiccup…did you mean that?"
"Every word,"
"Then tell the Chief this: technically, Toothless did carry him off. We were…visiting Berk one day—searching for imprisoned dragons and all that—and we stumbled upon him in the woods. He was really miserable and wanted to leave Berk, so we ultimately gave him a lift to France. I don't know where he's gone since then. He made me swear not to tell anyone, but I guess 8 years is long enough."
Astrid nodded seriously. "I'll tell the Chief. Anything else?"
"He was really happy the last time I saw him. And I imagine he still is very happy wherever he's living right now. And he said he hoped that his father won't try to avenge him."
Astrid nodded and left again.
Toothless opened his eyes.
"Nice story. But is he really happy?"
"Yes he is, Bud…except for when She-Vikings come to visit, and then he goes from being incredibly happy to being miserably confused. But maybe that'll comfort Stoick a little bit." He had been tinkering with that lie all week, trying to decide how much he should tell or should he tell it at all? He decided to then because the way Astrid was acting made him suspicious, but she also drove a point home to him. Stoick would always believe Toothless had killed his son because he could not imagine any other explanation. So he would give him one and hope Stoick would believe it.
"Or it might make him wildly desperate for more information,"
"What can I do, Bud? It's his own fault if he's become obsessed with revenge! Honestly, if he had thought more about his living son than his dead wife, none of this might have happened!"
"Maybe. So what happens now?"
"Tomorrow Astrid will go back to Berk," He said heavily. "She'll tell Stoick this news and we'll see how he takes it. Hopefully he won't blame us for Hiccup's disappearance anyway." He wanted to rub his eyes but his mask was still on. "Man, this situation gets more and more complex every day! First the confused feelings for Astrid, then Drago comes back into the picture, and now this! I almost think we should tell the truth now, except I know it is way too risky at the moment! No, no, we've first gotta see how Berk copes with Astrid's return."
"Were you aware of that temper of hers when you fell in love with her?" Toothless asked after a while. "I'm not sure I want you to mate with her if she's always like that. It'll keep me up all night."
"Keep you up all night?" The King laughed, "Do you need your beauty sleep that much?"
"Not at all." Toothless replied proudly, "I've got enough good looks for the both of us, and a good thing too. I'm just saying if you do become her mate, I want my own room."
"Right, I'll put that in marriage contract. 'Toothless gets his own room.' Do you want a private bathtub to go with it?"
"BATHTUB!"
"We'd probably need one anyway, given how much of a mess you make on bath day."
Toothless put his paws over his ears. "Don't say it, don't say it!"
"Don't say what? Bath Day?"
"AUGH!"
"Are you just behaving this way to make me feel better?"
"Pretty much. Is it working?"
"A little," he petted the dragon's head, "thanks, Bud."
"You know, we never did take her flying,"
"I was planning to, but circumstances go in the way. It's too dark outside to take her flying now: she wouldn't see very much. No, her first proper flight has to be something special…"
Astrid was woken up by Midnight at a very early hour the following morning. She ate her breakfast groggily and shuffled her way to the Main Hall. The King, Night Fury, and Nadder were waiting.
"So," she said, "I guess this is goodbye?"
"Yeah," The King said gruffly. She then noticed he was holding a long piece of yellow cloth.
"What's that for?"
"You."
"Excuse me?"
"Sorry, Astrid, but we're going to have to blindfold you, and you are not to take it off until Stormfly makes this sound." He nodded to the Nadder, who at once made a shrill whistling sound. "We've got to keep this location secret, you know that."
"You still don't trust me?" She raised her eyebrows. "Do you trust anybody with anything?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact. Perhaps too much. But in this case, what you don't know won't hurt you," he replied, "I know you're going to object, but remember what I told you earlier. Knowing the location of this island would get you killed—after Drago Bludvist tortured it out of you."
"A true Viking never cracks under torture."
"Sorry, Astrid, but I'm not taking chances in this matter." He handed her the blindfold. "Until it's firmly covering your eyes, you are not leaving."
Astrid reluctantly took the piece of cloth and, with even more reluctance went over to Stormfly. A stool had been provided but she kicked it aside and climbed up onto the dragons back without assistance.
"Is this good enough for you?" she growled when she'd put the blindfold on.
"Yeah…well, goodbye Astrid," he was about to give a command to the Nadder when he paused. "Astrid, about all this evasiveness…I'm really sorry,"
"I should hope so." She wasn't in the mood for apologies right now.
"I've been battling with myself all week. Heck, I've been battling with myself ever since I found out that you were coming here. I wish I could tell you everything…but I can't right now."
Astrid turned her head in his direction. "If I persuaded my Chief to accept dragons, could you then?"
"I hope so, except…" Except she was not the only person he was hiding things from.
"You know what? Keep your secrets."
"You watch your mouth," Toothless growled.
"Quiet, Bud. Astrid, are you saying you might reconsider Berk's opinion of dragons?"
"I might be,"
"That's…that's very good news and I'm glad to hear it. And in return, I'm not going to tell you everything now, but I will tell you this: when you get back, you might want to ask the Twins how much money they fired into the ocean, then ask Spitelout how much money was taken, and then ask Snotlout if his 'friends' will stand by him the next time he runs out of money."
Astrid was intrigued and wished she could see him. "What are you implying?"
"You'll find out when you get back. And one more thing. If you have any desire to communicate with me, leave letters out on the statue of Hiccup the First in the Village center. The Terrors will find them—though I'd appreciate it if you kept that between us for now. Oh, yes, and…sorry, one more thing again. It's about your Uncle Finn. He wasn't frozen by fear. The Flightmare sprays a kind of venom at its prey. Completely paralyzes it instantly. Your Uncle was frozen by the venom, not by fear. The Hoffersons have nothing to be ashamed of. Tell your people that. If they don't believe you, I happen to know a Flightmare that would be happy to freeze some of them for a demonstration."
Before she could respond to this the King made a growl and Stormfly ran off down the tunnel.
Riding blindfolded on the back of a running dragon is a terrifying experience by any standards. Astrid clenched her reigns so tightly her knuckles were white—not that she actually saw it, of course. The wind whipped around her face so much that she couldn't even open her mouth to scream: as soon as she did the wind blew all of her breath away.
And then the dragon reached the end of the tunnel and took off into the air. Without warning it began spinning and now Astrid really did scream.
"THOR ALMIGHTY, GET ME OFF THIS THING!" She instantly regretted opening her mouth, as she suddenly began to feel nauseous. Meanwhile the dragon kept spinning around and around and around and around and around and…
And then it stopped. Stormfly had spread her wings and was now gliding. As Astrid's stomach began to move back to its usual place and her heart rate began to slow down, she heard the shrieking call from the Nadder and carefully removed her blindfold.
The sun was so bright that at first she had to squint. As her eyes adjusted she realized they were flying amidst in a sea of clouds. Large, fleecy, and bright magenta cloud forms drifting lazily across an endless ocean of a golden tinged sky. Far below her the real ocean was nothing more than a deep blue sheet with faint white lines here and there. As the sun grew higher in the sky its warm rays poked through new gaps in the masses of cloud vapors, turning the magenta into a bright and vivid pink. Tentatively Astrid raised a hand and touched the cloud above her. It felt as though she was touching a mist. It also made her hand wet, though she paid that no mind. The implications of what she had just done suddenly hit her. She was touching the clouds. Once again she was doing something no Viking in existence had ever done before.
She looked around her once again and understood what the King had meant by his sunset dinner speech. She could go anywhere on Stormfly. They could fly over the clouds, touch the tallest mountains, fly down over the ocean, or go to places nobody had ever gone before. All anger at the King keeping secrets had vanished; any frustrations he had caused her were forgotten. She couldn't be angry with anyone right now, not even Snotlout or Dogsbreath, and she held the Dragon King in much higher regard then those two. She pushed such thoughts out of her mind. Now was not the time for them. The world was opened to her as it had never been before, and in realizing this she laughed excitedly.
"This is amazing!" She cried, "Let's never stop! Come on, Stormfly, let's touch the sun!" Knowing partly of what that effort would require, Stormfly sensibly didn't listen to her.
They passed over some islands, appearing to be little more than small green boulders from that height. Ships, which Stormfly took a particular care to stay away from, were merely toy boats in a gigantic pond; the people on them were little bigger in stature than ants. The wind began to softly blow, further messing up Astrid's hair without her realizing it, so engrossed was she in what she was seeing. For Stormfly, beautiful as the day was, there was little to distinguish this flight from others aside from having to carry Astrid, but she had been instructed by Toothless to make it a slow and scenic trip, and she was happy to oblige.
How long they spent flying, Astrid did not know nor care, but at length they began to drop in altitude and Astrid saw a village before them that she recognized at Berk. From the height they were at she thought she was looking at a miniature village of doll houses, carved by some ingenious toymaker. Stormfly did not go to the village itself, but headed towards one of the coves. Astrid guessed that Stormfly was trying to avoid coming in contact with Berk's villagers, and the thought made her sad. She would have liked nothing better than to land in the middle of the town square and casually hop off the Nadder's back while the rest of the population gaped at her, but she acknowledged flying near a village full of dragon killers could be dangerous.
At last Stormfly picked a cliff and went in for a landing. Astrid was very reluctant to get off. She wanted more. She felt that she had only scratched the surface of something incredible, and she wanted to keep going. Even worse, she had no idea of when or if she'd ever get another chance to fly with a dragon, and now it seemed that her first flight was too short. She couldn't help but feel envious of the King now. Still, she had duties to her family and the Chief, she reminded herself. Not mollified, but reconciled to the inevitable, she slowly got off of the Nadder.
"That was amazing," she told the dragon, "you're amazing too. Thank you."
The Nadder suddenly nuzzled her and Astrid put a hand on its beaklike nose and stroked it. It took some time before they were willing to separate, but Stormfly finally turned away and took off into the air. Astrid watched until the dragon was out of sight.
"What a ride," she said fervently.