Astrid struggled to open her eyes. Her vision was filled with bright orange lights, torches, she deduced. She felt arms wrapped under her legs, and a sturdy back was keeping her upright. She couldn't tell who it was, but they were very warm. She slowly closed her eyes and allowed the stranger to carry her. She was too tired to do anything, and she felt no danger. Pressing her forehead on what she presumed to be his or her neck, Astrid felt some hair tickle her face. Somehow a certain fishbone entered her mind.

"Hiccup…"

Astrid woke up on her bed with a pounding headache. Groggily looking up, she noticed she was in her bedroom. 'Did I fall asleep here or something? Ugh, my head feels like a Gronckle was chewing on it…'

She stood up and walked out of her room. "Mother?" No one answered.

Seeing as no one was home, Astrid took it upon herself to get some fresh air and perhaps find a way to diminish the pain in her head.

As she made her way through the village, she noticed something strange going on. People kept asking her if she was fine, and if she remembered anything. Her look of confusion seems to silence them. When she asked what they meant, they only shook their heads and changed the subject. Shaking off the confusion, she decided to train in the woods. No axes this time, only agility exercises. The random branches and various other shrubberies made a great obstacle course.

As Astrid made her way through, she heard some bushes rustle. Quickly, she pulled out her dagger and tackled the bushes. She landed with a thud on something soft. Taking the leaves out of her hair and eyes, Astrid found herself face to face with a furiously blushing Hiccup.

'Why does he look so flustered?' Looking down at their position, she noticed that her legs were wrapped around his torso, and her face only about a foot away. Astrid quickly separated herself from the compromising position, face burning from their close proximity. Hiccup looked about ready to die, face deathly pale.

"Hiccup, what in Odin's name are you doing?" The green eyed boy ignored her as he was eying the area around them desperately. Astrid growled, she did not like being ignored. She tried to stand up, only to fall back down. "What the-"

There was a fish right where she had stepped. Hiccup grabbed it and quickly made his way past Astrid and through the trees without saying a word. Not one to leave things unfinished, Astrid went in after him.

'No way is he getting away that easily. I'm tired of waiting, I need answers now!'

To Astrid's surprise, Hiccup was surprisingly agile. Jumping over rocks and plants, he managed to keep Astrid at bay. Astrid knew where he was headed, and it was only a matter of time before she caught up. Astrid took a different route to the lake; one where she could observe the boy privately. Soon enough, Hiccup was out of sight, but the clearing to the lake appeared. Gasping for breath, she searched for a suitable hiding spot. She slid down to a boulder just below her and waited; there was a clear view of the entire area. Hiccup had not appeared yet, but Astrid scanned the fiend and water for any suspicious activity. Suddenly, she felt her heart stop when she caught sight of a black creature hanging from a tree branch below. 'Is this the Night Fury?'

"Hey, I'm back."

'Death wish, a desperate, SERIOUS death wish.' she thought.

Hiccup came into the clearing with the slightly bruised and dirty fish in hand. Astrid watched carefully as the Night Fury unfolded its wings. Its green eyes fluttered open and it yawned. 'So...it sleeps like a bat?' Astrid frowned in confusion; this dragon was an odd creature indeed.

The Night Fury carefully detached itself from the branch and slunk over to Hiccup slowly. The boy warily raised the fish so that the dragon could see it clearly. Pupils narrowed, it crouched on all fours and sniffed the air a bit. Unexpectedly, it sat down in front of Hiccup, with an innocent expression on its face. Astrid held her breath and could tell that Hiccup had done the same. The Night Fury's ear twitched as it looked at the boy.

Astrid crawled to the edge of the boulder to get a better look. It didn't look like the dragon was going to hurt Hiccup. 'It's just staring at him...' She took a closer look, '…and its eyes look normal, no slits.'

Hiccup cautiously offered the dragon the fish. Breathing silently, Astrid watched as the Night Fury slowly opened its mouth and looked at the fish, then at Hiccup. But there was something strange about this situation.

'Wait, what happened to its teeth?' Indeed, the Night Fury was all gums as it prepared to take a bite out of the tasty snack.

Hiccup frowned, "Toothless? But I could've sworn you had-"

Suddenly, sharp teeth appeared inside the dragon's mouth as it devoured the fish. It happily licked its lips.

"Teeth." Hiccup gulped.

Astrid nearly fell out of her hiding spot. 'It has retractable teeth? Where in the damn manual does it say that?'

The Night Fury came closer to Hiccup. The frightened teen backed up into a rock and sat down. "No, I don't have any more!"

Astrid readied her dagger. This creature was completely unpredictable. 'First it's totally nice, and then it's trying to kill him?' She slid off out from behind the boulder and landed on the grass below, about 20 feet away from Hiccup and the Night Fury. Astrid hid in the shadows and waited. She would not rush in and possibly get herself killed; no, she would wait.

Hiccup cringed and shrank back, while Astrid was positioning herself for attack. The Night Fury stopped and sat down on its hind legs. Its eyes rolled to the back of its head and it began to make a gurgling sound. Hiccup braced himself for the fire that was going to come. Instead, he found a fish head in his lap. Astrid was completely disgusted.She saw the dragon stare at Hiccup, as if it was asking him to do something. It gestured to the fish, and then to Hiccup. Astrid's eyes widened when it hit her, 'Oh please don't tell me it wants him to eat that!'

Hiccup looked at it with a grimace. After smelling it, he pretended to take a bite out of it and made approving noises, but he Night Fury wasn't falling for it. Hiccup took notice and sighed dejectedly. He slowly brought the saliva coated fish to his mouth and took a small bite. Astrid nearly lost it just looking at him and Hiccup wasn't fairing any better. The dragon noticed Hiccup wasn't swallowing, so it made a swallowing gesture. Hiccup's face seemed to scream, 'Oh come on!' The boy scrunched his eyes shut and swallowed. Astrid shuddered at just watching. 'This is a sick, sick dragon.'

The black creature made lapping noises. Hiccup took this as it asking if he liked it. He gave it a weak smile to be friendly. Astrid watched as Hiccup smiled at the dragon.A warm feeling welled up inside, and Astrid wasn't sure she liked it.

Suddenly, Night Fury's mouth pulled into a somewhat awkward and gummy smile. Much to Astrid's surprise, she found her mouth twitching into a smile as well. She watched Hiccup raise his hand gently to make contact with the Night Fury. The atmosphere changed completely.

The dragon was no longer smiling; it growled and narrowed its eyes at Hiccup. Then, Astrid saw it turn around to stare right at her. The Night Fury held its gaze for what seemed to be an eternity.

But the dragon just snorted and glided away from the area. Astrid's heart quickly restarted and released a breath she didn't know she was holding. 'That was close...' She saw the creature set fire to a small patch of grass and then made itself comfortable. 'Maybe it didn't see me; maybe it was looking at something else?'

She watched as Hiccup composed himself and stood up, practically unfazed. Unbeknownst to both Hiccup and Astrid, her fascination with the boy and the defiant dragon grew exponentially. This was something that Astrid would never let go of, regardless of where all of this would take her.

As she arrived to her hut, Astrid found her mother sitting quietly in the den. She had a stoic look, and Astrid was feeling a bit uneasy.

"Mother, is everything alright?"

Halldora sighed, "Where were you last night?"

A flashback from the arena popped into Astrid's mind. She broke into a cold sweat. Had someone seen her and told her mother?

"I don't know what you mean Mother, I was training." She attempted to keep her voice level, as not to raise suspicion.

"Do not lie to me Astrid Hofferson. What did that boy do to you?" Halldora's gaze was frigid.

"I told you Mother, I was…" Astrid froze. Had she heard that right? "Wait, what do you mean 'boy'? I wasn't with anyone!"

Her mother scoffed. "Oh, so the Haddock boy is no one now?"

Astrid was now absolutely lost. "Hold on, what does Hiccup have to do with anything?" This wasn't making any sense. The last time she saw Hiccup was in dragon training.

"Astrid," her mother began, "If I find out you have anything to do with that boy, if he is courting you…" Halldora's sentence hung in the air. "Astrid, you are meant for great things, just like your father."

Astrid cringed a little at the mention of Astor, but felt a little pride swell up as well. Her mother continued. "That Haddock boy may be the son of our chief, but he is nothing but trouble, and he will amount to nothing. You do not need that kind of influence in your life, not now. Not when you're doing so well in dragon training."

Astrid wasn't quite sure what she was feeling at that moment. Was it shame? Shame for associating with Hiccup and disappointing her mother? Or was it hearing her mother's words about Hiccup? She couldn't describe what she felt at that moment. Anger, confusion, sadness and guilt all swirled around in her head.

"Believe me mother, I was not with Hiccup. I was-" Astrid paused before she could go any further. Why was she hesitant to tell her mother about what had occurred at the arena? It wasn't as if she was afraid of telling her she had broken the rules and gone to the arena. No, her mother wouldn't have cared about that if she knew she had almost killed her first dragon.

'I almost killed my first dragon.'

The sentence sounded very odd in her head. There wasn't a sense of pride or entitlement following the statement. She felt…dirty. As if there was something to be ashamed of by trying to do what she had been raised to do, what all Vikings had been raised to do. The eyes of that Deadly Nadder that are causing all of this uneasiness. How can a monster have such human eyes? Eyes that stared at Astrid while she held the weapon covered in dragon's blood.

"I- I'm going to go to bed now." Before her mother could get a word in, Astrid was already In her room. Opening the window a few feet above her, she climbed up and jumped out, landing gracefully below.

Taking a deep breath, she let the crisp night air overtake her. The feeling of this cool night was a godsend and allowed Astrid to recollect her thoughts. Astrid began to walk at a slow pace, taking in everything that had happened. However, the action of thinking sent a sharp pain to her head and so she decided to let it go for now. As she looked out into the distance, the scenery was almost indistinguishable as the clouds were covering the moonlight. There was only the brght orange glow from the huts behind her. Suddenly, she noticed a singular glowing light moving around close to the cliffs.

"What the…?"

She made her way towards the light when she heard a distinct mumbling and a figure appeared in the darkness.

"Can't believe my dad would do that…deep sleeper…forgot…stupid door…"

"Hello?"

The figure nearly fell over and the lantern it was holding flew out of its hands. Quickly it scopped up the lantern and cursed to itself. The voice was oddly familiar, where had Astrid heard it before?

"Hiccup? Hiccup, is that you?"

Hiccup snapped around to look at Astrid. His eyes showed the same wild panic they always did. As he got up, he attempted to say something, but his stutter would not allow him a word in. Finally he managed a quick greeting before bolting.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Astrid took after the boy. What was his problem running away? He couldn't stand to be near her, was that it? After an astonishing about of effort, Astrid caught up to Hiccup and tackled him to the ground.

"Astrid! Oh I…I just…PLEASEDONTKILLME!"

"Why were you running?

Hiccup sighed, "I thought you'd be mad after what happened before…Your mom nearly took my head off."

This immediately caught Astrid's attention. She shoved him into the ground and put pressure on him, driving him into the ground.

"My mother is freaked out at me, and she said you had something to do with it, Haddock. What happened?"

Astrid's eyes bore into Hiccup's and he found it impossible to look away. He tried resisting, but eventually gave a look of resignation and sighed.

"Ok,. Here's what happened."