Chapter 7 - Astrid
(Hiccup's POV)
I woke up and slightly growled at the bright sunlight striking my eyes. I blinked a few times, and waited for them to adjust before I started to get up. And for the first time ever, I actually found myself waking up before Toothless did. I was shocked to see that he was still asleep, and by the sound of his purring, he must of been having nice dreams, so I let him be. . .
Because, as everyone knows, never wake a sleeping dragon. . .
Snotlout found out the hard way, and his Nightmare almost accidentally killed him because he was in shock, (Which is why you never wake a sleep-walking person too).
But that was a Nightmare, so I was just plain curious with what happens when you wake a Night Fury. I didn't want to do it, for fear that Toothless might accidentally kill me, but my curiosity was winning the war over my intelligence, and I walked over to Toothless. . .
He was in a peaceful sleep, not jumping around or breathing hard, so he was obviously having pleasant dreams. And yet, I reached my hand out and poked Toothless lightly on the side of the head. I flinched away as I did this, but grunted when I saw the black dragon still sleeping. I poked him again, a little harder this time, and he was still in dreamland. I grunted again, then gently slapped his head and flinched away, and what happened next was something that I was totally not expecting. . .
Toothless' eyes shot open, and they looked very frightened, and he jumped up and looked around quickly. When he saw me, his eyes LOCKED onto me, and he began to move. I didn't even have enough time to move my foot backwards. It was just: eyes, tackle, ground. Three things that happened so fast, it really made my head spin. I was dizzy from this, but I shook it off, and saw Toothless pinning me to the ground, snarling.
I was pretty scared at that moment, because I knew that, in Snotlout's case, if you wake a sleeping dragon, it will go berserk because it thinks it's being attacked. And it will kill anyone who's close to it, unless, like Snotlout, the dragon recognizes you. If it recognizes you, then you're fine, but if it doesn't, then. . . .well. . .your dead.
So I lie here, staring into Toothless' big green eyes that expressed anger and rage, and I remember what was flying through my head during those heart-stopping moments.
"You IDIOT! You should have NEVER done that!" and
"Why did I do that?" and
"Am I going to die, by my best friend's paw?"
That last thought made me shudder slightly, since I did not want that to happen. And I was jolted from this massive attack on my thoughts when I heard Toothless snarl at me again. I thought I was going to die, so I turned my head, and closed my eyes, not wanting to see Toothless. . .
I heard more snarling, then silence for a second, and out of nowhere, I heard a happy/worried croon, but I didn't know if Toothless was gesturing me or something else. So I lie there, not daring to move or open my eyes because of the fear of what I might see. But, then I felt something wet and slimy go across my cheek, and that got my attention. . .
I snapped my eyes open, and looked at Toothless. He was still pinning me down, but he looked very happy, as if he wasn't even shocked. I looked at him and smiled.
"Hey bud, can you get off me?" I asked.
He obliged, and I stood up, remembering what I had to do today. I looked over at Toothless and thought,
"How am I going to get Berk to know the truth about you guys?"
I don't know if Toothless read my mind or what, but he basically showed me his idea. I won't go into detail so here's the simplest form of Toothless' plan -
Happy - Tackle - Lick
And I think he enjoyed it a bit too much. I don't know why he enjoyed it, I mean, it's not like us humans taste like fish. . .we taste like.. .well. . .human. But, besides that, I went along with the plan, and smiled at him, thinking about how smart Night Furies really are (very intelligent). But, before we left, I had to get my journal from behind a rock, since I left it there a few days ago. But as I was picking it up, I heard Toothless give a loud, and deafening roar. I jumped from the roar, ran out from behind my rock, and could not believe WHO I saw.
For there, coming towards Toothless with an axe in her hand, shield in the other, blonde hair waving through the air, life and vigor in her agile, yet strong body, and determination in her eyes, was the one and only Astrid. She ran up and tried to kill Toothless, but Toothless easily dodged it, and shot a sapphire-blue fireball at her. She heard the black dragon give off one of its fireballs, and attempted to dodge, but was too late. The fireball made contact with her shield, obliterating it into millions of pieces of wood, and she was left with the handle, and the metal stub in the middle of the shield.
She grunted, and threw down her shield (or, what's left of it), ran towards Toothless, and brought her axe down at him. I knew that I had to end this, or someone will definitely die. So, I screamed at Astrid, and it jolted her, for she did not know that I was here.
"Astrid! Leave Toothless alone!"
She paused, and looked over at me with surprise and shock, but she quickly snapped out of it, and focused on Toothless, who was strafing around her, scanning for her weak points. Astrid was strafing Toothless as well, matching his footing, and scanning for anything that would give away Toothless' preemptive strike. But, in the middle of all this, she perked up, then she said to me without even looking,
"Hiccup! Get out of here!"
I ignored what she said, looked at her, and was trying to figure out how I'll resolve the rift between her and Toothless, let alone Dragons in general. I had an idea, and I ran over to where she and Toothless were, but before I could do anything, her arm came out and hit my chest, stopping me. She looked me right in the eye, while keeping Toothless in her peripheral vision, and said,
"Hiccup! Are you crazy? This dragon will kill you, remember?"
And after that little attempt to try and get me to leave, she threw me back towards where I was, and re-focused on Toothless. I ignored what she had just said and done, so I ran towards the two again, but this time, I dodged her extended arm, and ran for Toothless. He wasn't even paying attention to me as I ran over to him. He was just glaring at Astrid, and occasionally snarling at her. Yet she would just do nothing, as if she didn't even hear Toothless snarling at her. But, once I made it to Toothless, I stood next to him, and patted his neck lightly, which he retaliated with him pushing his head into my chest purring lightly, but at the same time, not taking his eyes of off Astrid.
I smiled, and hugged his neck, which made him a bit happier, for he purred more, and pushed on my chest more, but it didn't change the fact that he was still not taking his eyes off Astrid. I opened my eyes in the middle of this when I heard Astrid say,
"Okay Hiccup, what the HECK is going on?"
I let go of Toothless, who gave me a small, gentle lick on my cheek, and focused back on Astrid. I too, focused on Astrid, then made introductions.
"Astrid, Toothless. . . .Toothless, Astrid."
Toothless snarled at Astrid, making her flinch slightly, and she looked at me. She gave me an angry and 'You're so busted' look before she ran off, obviously about to run off into the village to tell everyone about me and Toothless. I sighed, and in my peripheral vision, I saw Toothless give his 'You Fail' look, then walk off. I turned, and said to him,
"Toothless! We can't just let her go, she'll run back to the village, and tell everyone about you!"
Toothless stopped, lied down, looked at me, and pointed to his neck with his tail. I got the message, and I climbed on as he took of into the sky after Astrid. And for once in my life, I had actually figured out how to safely ride a dragon bare-back. I knew that Toothless loved it, since he wouldn't have to worry about saddles and such, and I didn't need one anyway. I figured out how to ride him, and yet still have the time of my life. Anyway, we were flying low to the forest, when I spotted her in her red, skull-dotted battle skirt, and her light blue battle-armored shirt. But there was still one problem. . .she still had her axe.
I looked down at Toothless and said,
"Toothless, we have to get her axe away from her."
And before I could say another word, Toothless shot a small sapphire-blue fireball at Astrid's axe, knocking it from her hands. She desperately scrambled for it, but Toothless was too fast for her, as he swooped down and picked her up with his right-front paw. She was screaming the whole time, and it was irritating me, and I know that it was irritating Toothless as well.
Toothless flew to a high tree, where he dropped Astrid on the highest branch, and landed on the top of the tree, making it bend horizontal from his weight. Astrid looked up at me for a fraction of a second and said,
"Hiccup! Get me down from here!"
"You need to give me a chance to explain." I urged. And she retaliated with,
"I am not listening to ANYTHING you have to say!"
"Okay, okay, I won't speak. . . Just let me show you." I urged again.
She looked at the ground, obviously calculating how high up she was, and how she would get down. I sighed slightly and pleaded,
"Please Astrid."
She looked at me and Toothless, then grunted, and hoisted herself up onto the branch. Once she was on top of the branch, she tried to maintain her balance on the shaky limb, and all the while not taking her eyes off of us. She reached her hand out to grab my hand, but Toothless gave her a warning growl. She looked frightened at first, but that was soon replaced with determination and courage. She looked at my hand, and swatted it away as she put her left foot on Toothless' left-front paw. I knew that he didn't like that, but he didn't do anything. She swung her body over Toothless' neck, sitting right behind me, and she told me,
"Now get me down."
I smiled at her, then said to Toothless while patting his head,
"Toothless, down. . .gently."
He spread out his wings and I turned to Astrid saying,
"See, nothing to be afraid of."
And at that, Toothless shot completely vertical, making me hold on tight, as Astrid grabbed me into a tight hug to avoid falling to her death. She was screaming during this, and I had no idea how to calm her down. But luckily for me and her, Toothless leveled out a few moments later, and I could tell Astrid was scared.
"Way to go Toothless." I said sarcastically.
Toothless then took a nose-dive right, and alls that came out of my mouth was "Oh no." as Astrid screamed for her life. We shot down at incredible speeds, and plunged into the water, and back out.
"Toothless! She is supposed to like us." I said, obviously having no affect on the dragon since he flew into the air doing a few barrel-rolls, and fall towards the earth. Astrid hugged me the tightest she's hugged me before, and said,
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry. Just get me off this thing."
And at that, Toothless leveled out again, but the rest of the flight was happy and peaceful. Astrid had the time of her life.
She touched the clouds, which I'm pretty sure is something she's always wanted to do, saw the Northern Lights from a close perspective, and realized the one crucial fact. . . That everything she, and the rest of the village know about dragons, is wrong. She hugged me tight for a moment before I told Toothless to land in the cove.
He obliged, and we landed a few minutes later. Astrid got off first, and proceeded to go home before it got dark, but she turned around to notice me hugging Toothless again. I looked at her, and she seemed almost. . .lonely. I smiled at her, and let go of Toothless, since I had an idea.
"Astrid, come here."
She looked at me confused, but obliged and walked over to me, until she was right in front of me. I handed her a fish, and she looked at it, then back at me.
"Uhh. . .Hiccup? Why did you just give me a fish?"
I smiled at her, then pointed at Toothless. He got the memo, and stared at the fish in Astrid's hands. Astrid looked at Toothless, then back at me.
"How do I know that I can trust him?"
I smiled a reassuring smile at her and replied,
"Trust me."
She shakily kept the fish in hand, and extended it out to Toothless. He sniffed at it, then walked up to Astrid. She was a bit nervous, but I could see that she was trying to hide it since I was standing right next to her. Toothless opened his mouth, and Astrid plopped it in.
Toothless ate the fish, and licked his lips, looking at Astrid. He then stuck his snout right in front of her face, and sniffed her, trying to acquire her scent. And after that, he gave her a small lick on her cheek, making her giggle before he walked over to his sleeping spot to catch up on some well-deserved rest.
After that, Astrid looked at me, and asked me a very serious question.
"Hiccup, we saw that you weren't in that cage, so we all knew that he ate you. So, then, how are you still here?"
I looked at her, then gave her a puzzled look before replying with,
"You know Astrid, I really don't know. He knocked me out because of my flailing around, and I woke up on the ground covered in disgusting goo that was probably from his throat and such."
She gave me a disgusted look before replying with,
"So, he did that to. . . .save both of your lives?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
. . . There was silence between the two of us before she recommended we go home before our parents get mad. I agreed with her, and after saying goodbye to Toothless, we both headed back to Berk for some well deserved sleep.
The next day. . .
Once I woke up, got ready for the day, and had breakfast, I walked out of my house towards the fish market. I bought the same amount of fish that I always do for Toothless, about 10 or 15, and every single time, people always eyed me and wondered why I bought so much fish, but I ignored them and didn't make eye contact with them. . .
I reached Toothless' cove by 11:00, and I noticed that he wasn't there. I knew that he must have been waiting for me, so that he could ambush me, but I was going to turn the tables this time. I set the fish down, pushed them over onto the ground, and hid behind a rock, waiting for Toothless to arrive. I sat there for not even a minute when Toothless came out from behind some rocks, and started to devour the fish. I smiled, walked up to him, and jumped on top of his back saying,
"Gotcha!"
He perked up, then at the corner of his mouth I saw a devious smile. I then found myself being launched into the pond, where I splashed into the water with Toothless laughing at me.
"Oh, you're so hilarious. Yeah, I forgot to laugh."
I swam to the shore, and walked out, dripping wet as Toothless finished eating his fish, and after the last one, he looked at me and smiled. I gave him a look that said 'Really?', and he just smiled more. I rolled my eyes and walked over to him, scratching his neck, which made him purr.
"I can't be mad at you buddy." I said warmly.
He purred, and pushed his head into my chest more, making me fall backwards. He stopped pushing on my chest, and pinned me to the ground, licking me in the face.
"Okay Toothless! Okay! Come on!"
And during this. . . event. . .I heard a giggle, and saw Astrid watching this. My body froze, and my cheeks glew a bright red. She looked at me and said,
"You busy right now?"
I nervously smiled at her, and pushed Toothless off (he mostly let me), and stood up, embarrassed. She smiled at me and said,
"I thought we could go flying again."
My eyes shot open, and I stared at her, baffled. I didn't know what it was I did, but whatever it was made her view of dragons change from hate, to curiosity and. . . . trust. I never thought that I would ever see that in Astrid, especially when it came to dragons, but yet here she is, standing here, actually asking me to go flying with Toothless, her sworn enemy, and the most powerful and mysterious dragon alive. But I snapped out of my amazement, and told her,
"Sure. I'm pretty sure Toothless won't mind. Won't you bud?"
He shook his head 'no', and I smiled at her. "Guess that's a yes." I said with happiness in my voice. I already knew that Toothless wouldn't mind, since he trusts Astrid enough, he loves to fly, and he trusts and loves me so much, that he would die to protect me. . . that is a true friend. So, I smiled at Astrid again and got onto Toothless, extending my hand out to her so that she would have an easier time getting on. She smiled back, and grabbed my hand, putting her leg over the other side of Toothless' neck, and giving me a conformation that she was ready. I smiled again, and told Toothless that we were all set, and at that, we were in the sky, flying careless and free. Flying had the most relieving feeling. It was like everything in life that was depressing you or pressuring you was instantly just. . .gone, as you saw the beautiful clouds that radiated different colors of the sun, and felt the air blow gently across your face. And to top that, you were flying on top of your best friend, enjoying this with him, and giving him a true friend.
I gazed around the beautiful sky, seeing the clouds and rainbows form, and I felt like I was just plain. . .free. Astrid also felt this, for I looked behind me, and saw her looking at the sky, and was fascinated with it. It's beauty was just indescribable.
We flew around for quite a while, enjoying this illustrious beauty, until we had to land for some Lunch. Toothless landed on a nearby mountain where there was, luckily, a stream with fish. Astrid had never eaten fish, so I decided to see if she liked it. . .
After I caught enough for everyone, I started a fire to cook mine, and saw Toothless wolfing down his fish as if he had never eaten in a couple of days, and also saw Astrid waiting for me to get the fire set, and once it was she asked me,
"How you going to get it started?"
I really wanted to do a face-palm since the answer was so obvious, but I didn't, I instead said,
"Toothless, can you do the honors?"
He looked at me and smiled before blasting a small fireball at the firewood, igniting it into a beautiful sapphire-blue fire. We didn't care what color it was, fire is still fire, and after we had all eaten, and I had put the fire out, we were all back up into the sky until night came, forcing us to head back to the cove. . .
Toothless landed in the cove at around 9:00, and we both got off of him as he walked back over to his tree to get some sleep. I too was tired, and was proceeding to walk back to my house, when I was stopped by Astrid. She looked at me and asked me a very critical question. . .
"Hiccup, how are you going to show your dad, let alone Berk, the truth about dragons?"
I looked at her, then replied with,
"Astrid, there's more to this story than this. . . You see, there's a huge dragon on the dragon island, and it controls the other dragons into doing whatever it wants them to do, and if they don't comply, it eats them. But anyway, the only reason we have dragon raids is because of it."
She stared at me, and realized that I was telling the whole and absolute truth. And she replied with,
"Wow. So. . .what do we do?"
"Well first thing's first. . . we're going to have to get Berk to realize this, then we'll have to figure out how to take that thing down. Last time, I lost my leg because of that thing."
She looked at me then raised an eyebrow saying,
"Last time?"
I looked at her, realizing my mistake, and tried to cover it up.
"Uhh. . .well, by last time, I meant a. . .dream that I had."
She gave me a long, and penetrating look before giving up and saying, "Alright."
And after that close call, I made a fake yawn and said,
"Well, I think it's about time I head back."
And at that, she agreed, and we walked back to Berk, not knowing what would await us tomorrow as we told Berk the truth. . .
"What will happen? Will Berk listen and change it's view of dragons, or will they continue to be stubborn? Find out next chapter!"
This was my longest chapter - 4,195 words! :) As always, please R&R! :D
P.S. Just so everyone knows, Hiccup was in a disguise when he came into Berk, so that no one in Berk would freak out about him being alive. :)