"RYAAAAOOOOOOOO!"
Astrid opened her eyes quickly; she had to move. Fast.
She was in the training arena, with giant slabs of stone standing everywhere in a maze-like fashion. Everyone was in a mad dash to run away from the dragon they were tasked to defeat today: The Deadly Nadder.
When Gobber had announced that the Nadder would be their opponent, Astrid felt her blood run cold. She knew that she would have to face one eventually, but now the opportunity was right there. Not sure whether she was angry, scared, sad or all of those combined, she readied herself to draw blood.
A large blue and orange dragon was perched atop one of the slabs. It shot a fireball at a frazzled Snotlout.
She quickly sprang into action, and ran after him. If the dragon wanted him as a target, then she'd use it as an advantage to take it down. She sprinted forward, and then tucked into a roll. While on the ground, she grabbed an axe lying on the ground.
"Gotcha!" She slammed the side of the axe into the Nadder's face as she made her escape.
'This time it's personal.'
Astrid hid behind a wall and waited. She saw Hiccup talking to Gobber, while ignoring the battle. She couldn't hear clearly, but Gobber yelled something that sounded something like, "Get in there!" and saw the boy run away from an oncoming Nadder strike.
"Remember kiddies, every dragon's got eh blind spot. Yeh've just got to find et!"
Astrid grunted to show that she had listened and was formulating a plan to ambush the beast. However, a certain love-struck Viking had called out to her.
"Astrid, hey!"
She rolled her eyes. Snotlout had the absolute worst timing in the world, and was way too stubborn for her liking.
"Man, isn't this so irritating?" He attempted to look nonchalant, but it didn't fool Astrid.
"Depends on what you're referring to." She swung the axe extremely close to the flirtatious teenager, to show she wasn't in the mood. Apparently the message was lost in translation.
"Trying to show off for me? Aw, you don't have to do that!"
Astrid shoved him out of the way. "Good, cause I wasn't."
Snotlout flinched at her harsh words, but didn't let them faze him. "Come on, I mean it'll always be me and you. Who else could you possible hook up with, Tuffnut?"
As if on cue, Tuffnut and Ruffnut appeared. The Nadder was already on the ground and trying to bite a chunk out of the twins. They were directly in front of the dragon's nose, and trying to stay in the spot right between its eyes. They were yelling something about finding another blind spot, and then they lost their footing and got in range of the Nadder's attack.
Shrieks filled the air, along with the scent of singed hair.
"Blind spot, yeah. Deaf spot? Not s'much..."Gobber deadpanned.
'Yeah, I'm guessing not Tuffnut...'
The Nadder squawked angrily as it took off towards Astrid. She was about to throw her axe, but felt herself being pulled away by the burly Snotlout.
"Don't worry babe, I got this."
He cleared his throat and swaggered towards the rampaging dragon. Lifting his arm, he took his hammer and launched it in the direction of the Nadder, missing horribly. Astrid couldn't help but chuckle and ran off, leaving Snotlout alone with the dragon.
"Aw come- The sun was in my eyes Astrid, do you want me to block the sun; because I can't do that!"
Astrid deftly swerved around every corner, eventually finding a spot sufficiently far from the action. She needed to regroup. As she crouched down low on the balls of her feet, Astrid backed into something.
"Oh, h-hey there Astrid!"
Hiccup seemed unable to look her in the eye, as if he were ashamed to be in the same spot as Astrid. She gave a quick look around before grabbing Hiccup by his fur vest.
"What are you doing here?"
"Am I not allowed to be here? Cause I could leave and go somewhere else…"
"You know what I mean! Why are you hiding? I haven't seen you make one move against that, that thing!"
Hiccup's face fell. He shrugged Astrid hands off and mumbled, "What does it matter, I'm just a screw up, right?"
"That doesn't give you an excuse not to try."
Hiccup scoffed. "This isn't me. I can't kill a bug, let alone a dragon! I wasn't even planning on going to dragon training!"
Boom.
A wall had come crashing down; not exactly the best time for conversation.
She heard shuffling footsteps and quickly grabbed Hiccup and dragged him away. The arena was now filled with the sounds of each stone slab collapsing on one another, eventually becoming silent. Astrid could hear raspy breathing. The dragon was out of energy, at least for the time being. She turned to the panicking boy beside her and angrily walked up to him.
"Why wouldn't you want to come here? This was the goal of our ancestors, to kill these beasts!"
Hiccup looked down dejectedly. He mumbled something incoherent.
"What was that?" No answer. She grabbed the front of his tunic.
"What did you say?"
"I said I know that! You think I don't know why we do this? I don't need you stating the obvious!" The moment that those words left his mouth, Hiccup's eyes filled with dread.
Astrid was shocked; no one had ever spoken to her like that before.
He continued, "I know that..." he whispered softly. "Our ancestors came to Berk to fight off dragons. That's why we named that cliff after their brave fight. That's why we do this, all this training. But I just don't think I can live up to any of that."
Astrid could hear the pure despair in Hiccup's voice as he spoke. It sounded like he wanted to cry. It was a rare day when a Viking was seen crying. It was usually after a death, or if they got too overemotional when they've had a bit too much mead. The pain in Hiccup's words pulled at Astrid's heartstrings.
"Do you know what it's like to be the Chieftain's son? To have people always expect you to be better than anyone else? To let them down because it's so damn apparent that you can barely lift a sword, let alone slay a dragon and to have an entire village of hopeful eyes suddenly turn cold and uncaring?"
Hiccup's voice grew louder, and began to waver. "You're the young prodigy of the village, you have everyone love you. Everyone looks at me like I'm some sort of disease."
All of Astrid's childhood had been littered with stories about Hiccup destroying things, making up stories or getting into trouble. Astrid thought Hiccup was nice, and couldn't understand why the village had such a low opinion of him. However, it wasn't long before a younger Astrid's look of pity and confusion morphed into the look of disdain that matched the villager's.
"I've accepted my fate as the town screw up." Hiccup's face was resolute, no emotions present in his eyes.
"I don't understand, you were completely gung-ho about slaying dragons until-"
'Until a few days ago.' she finished in her head. '…The day I caught him with the Night Fury.'
"Things change I guess."
"Hiccup, I-"
A large shriek was heard, and the Deadly Nadder rammed through the debris of the fallen stone slabs. Hiccup and Astrid ran away, but the dragon was too fast.
"Split up!"
Hiccup nodded and took off to the opposite side of the arena. The Nadder looked on in confusion for a moment, but then decided to take off after the boy. Hiccup took notice, but despite his best efforts, couldn't run any faster. Hiccup wasn't much for strength, but he was one of the quickest Vikings in the village. Running from bullies tends to work wonders on the leg muscles. Astrid heard the dragon's shrill cry and her heart stopped.
'Hiccup!'
Suddenly, she found herself on the other side of the arena, tackling the auburn haired teen to the ground. They skidded along the ground and slipped under their pursuer. The Nadder kept on running, unaware that its prey was behind it.
Astrid coughed and shook off the excess dirt. She grumbled and snuck a peek at the boy under her. He was breathing heavily, but he was safe. She sighed in relief.
'Wait, why do I care? This kid has been putting himself in danger all his life, and I've never cared. I could say that it was just camaraderie, but I didn't really care much that Tuff, Ruff or Snotlout were hurt.' But she trusted that they would end up just fine. Hiccup however, was much scrawnier than the others. He was defenseless. 'I have this strange urge to protect him that wasn't there before. Until we met that dragon that is...'
"As- Astr- A..."
Hiccup's face was beet red. Her left arm was wrapped under his armpit, clutching his back. Instinctively keeping low to the ground, there was barely an inch of space between them. Her legs neatly straddling his torso, she quickly realized just how close they were. His lips were mere centimeters from hers. She kept her eyes locked onto his green ones. They were full of fright and anxiousness. She couldn't feel the rise and fall of his chest, so he must've been holding his breath. She felt herself getting closer and closer. Her heart was hammering through her chest. Astrid closed her eyes and...
"Ooh! Look, love on the battlefield!"
Astrid quickly opened her eyes and saw that Tuffnut and Ruffnut were gawking at them. The male twin had a smirk on his face, while Ruffnut looked absolutely disgusted.
"He could do so much better than her." she spat as toppled her twin brother over in annoyance.
Astrid felt anger bubble in the pit of her stomach. 'What the hell did they care?'
Trying to save face, Astrid tried to pull away, but her axe was caught on Hiccup's shield.
"Get off, Hiccup!"
"Wha-"
"Stop being such a failure at everything! If you can't help me get this axe out, we'll both be killed, understand?"
Hiccup opened his mouth to protest, but seemed to change his mind and kept silent. His eyes lost any trace of emotion that was previously there.
Astrid felt the ground tremble. 'Oh great, the Nadder decides to NOW come charging?'
Try as she might, Astrid couldn't get her axe free. She stuck her foot on a non-moving Hiccup and pulled hard. Letting loose a few splinters, her weapon was finally free.
"Ayaah!" Astrid chucked her battle axe right into the Nadder's face, knocking it out. Her axe left a bruise on the dragon's temple. It would've done much worse, but a chunk of Hiccup's wooden shield stuck to the blade of the axe, rendering it non-lethal.
Gobber came down from the stands and gave her a pat on the back.
"Well done Lassie! Got that scaly beast good didn't yeh?"
She felt a surge of pride go through her, but looking at the dejected boy beside her, she felt shame as well. Hiccup stood up, rubbing his face. He and Astrid's eyes met again, only this time his eyes showed no emotion.
"Hiccup..." she began.
He turned and left, leaving Astrid's gaze to linger in his direction, oblivious to her fellow Vikings congratulating her. She saw as the Nadder was taken back into its cage. As the iron doors shut, it gave Astrid a mocking look. It grunted, stuck it's tongue out and was then hidden by the shadows.
Astrid did not take mockery lightly.
'That scaly bastard wants a fight? It'll get a fight.'
Night fell upon the island. The sky shone brilliantly with the stars twinkling above. The livestock were in their pens asleep, and the world seemed quiet and serene. The arena wasn't as quiet; the dragons were roaring and whining loudly. A loud creak was heard, and a certain Viking was seen opening the door.
"Come out you killer."
Astrid took a few steps back, sword in hand. The rusted gates opened slowly. The Deadly Nadder came out, looking quite disgruntled to say the least. The Nadder eyed Astrid and squawked angrily.
"I've got your dinner right here dragon, come and get me."
It was against the rules to have the arena opened late, but Astrid felt that this time the rules were meant to be broken. When the dragon growled menacingly at her, she growled right back. It rushed at her, and she sidestepped, leaving the Nadder confused. Then, she slashed her sword, but the Nadder jumped high and dodged. This stalemate of dipping dodging and striking continued for quite a while, with neither human nor dragon making any real contact.
Astrid took in ragged breaths, and glowered at her foe.
"It was one of you who killed my father. You deserve no mercy! Hiccup may have tried to befriend that dragon, but I won't be as merciful!"
The Nadder seemed to take in these words, but it rushed at the girl again. This time, Astrid met her foe without fear and met face to face with the Deadly Nadder. Its eyes, Astrid noticed, were not like the Night Fury's at all. These eyes were completely feral. It opened its mouth, showing rows of gleaming teeth. She shuddered a bit.
'It's now or never, Astrid.'
She slashed her dagger, which was hidden inside her thigh, at the Nadder's chest. It screeched, and flailed for a bit, then fell to the ground. Astrid inspected her work. It definitely wasn't dead, but it was barely breathing. Astrid sneered when she saw the dragon in agony. But not even a second later, her mouth quickly turned into a worried frown when the dragon wasn't getting up. She quickly ran to where she had cut the dragon. It wasn't too deep, but it was causing significant bleeding.
"No...What did I do?"
Tearing off her sleeve, she quickly pressed down onto the wound, but the blood was too much. She ripped off her other sleeve, and was patting the cut. This seemed to help a bit more. The Nadder warbled, and Astrid shushed it. She went around the Nadder, taking a look at how the dragon was doing, and her heart literally broke in two. The Deadly Nadder didn't look so deadly anymore. Its previous feral eyes were now replaced by empty, tired ones. She could see the tears form in its eyes. Suddenly a giant pair of gold-green eyes entered her mind.
'Toothless...'
She didn't know why that particular name came to mind when she thought about the Night Fury, but she was instantly reminded of the human-like eyes she saw for a brief moment that day.
A large clanging rang through the arena. Astrid turned and saw a Gronckle, a Monstrous Nightmare, and a Terrible Terror tackling the gate. The Viking shakily walked over and unlocked the other gate. Quickly, four dragons soared past her and crowded around the downed dragon. The Nightmare nuzzled the Nadder under its neck and propped it under its wing. The Gronckle growled at Astrid while the Terrible Terror hissed and made sure that Astrid made no move towards the fallen dragon.
By now, the girl was on her knees, her eyes expressing an array of emotions. She had fought dragons before, and although she hadn't exactly drawn blood, hammers and blunt objects were thrown with incredibly good accuracy. Those times she felt no remorse. But now that she had seen what could happen…it terrified her. And most shocking of all, it was that the dragons had immediately tended to the Nadder. They seemed almost…nurturing.
By the time Astrid had regained her senses, the door was closed; it was once again a silent night. She was in the arena alone and feeling absolutely horrible.
'That wasn't supposed to happen. That wasn't supposed to happen. I should've felt proud at drawing my first dragon blood, but now I feel like as if I cut my own mother. Th-the eyes that the Nadder gave me…they looked miserable and desperate. It didn't want to die. What…what…'
Astrid couldn't take the swirling emotions within her and took off. She had to get away from the arena, it hurt too much. Running as fast as her legs could take her, her head began to spin, and her eyesight was beginning to blur. Astrid looked at her hands' they were trembling. With complete uncertainty and fear, she managed a few words:
"What's happening to me?"
Everything around Astrid was spinning, and she fell unconscious. As she lay there, a young man with brilliant green eyes happened to pass by.
"Astrid? ASTRID!"