I'm sorry I'm a bit late with the uploading. Not a long chapter though. Good News, I finally made it into the editing club for the South Wirrel School Digest! (Okay I know that means nothing to you but still...)

Now, continue with the reading...

Of course it had to be Hiccup. Only he would have spent the best part of an hour, sitting on top of the cliff, drawing her, instead of hurling a battle-axe like a well brought up Viking. Not only that, he also dropped his pencil practically on top of the most dangerous creature known to man, and was now smiling sheepishly as she bore into him with her stare.

From what she could tell, he was alone. She would have smelled any other Viking a mile away. Hiccup on the other hand, had an uncomforting tendency to bathe regularly, and his natural scent was covered up by that of the forest. Speaking of scents, there was something else that she couldn't quite recognise.

'What is that divine smell…? FISH!' Astrid suddenly leaped up, startling the poor boy, who had been as still as death for the past minute or so. She could never remember having such a dramatic reaction towards fish before, even when she was starving. Then again, she had never been able to pick out the smell so clearly before either.

Hiccup disappeared over the lip of the cliff, apparently done drawing. She slowly padded up and sniffed the pencil. It was made of charcoal, and had a strong, burned smell to it. It reminded her of Berk, the night she was transformed, but she was quick to crush those particular memories. There was also a faint smell of sweat, somewhat complemented by the overpowering stench of fear. Of course he was terrified. She had practically roared his head off when he set her free. The only reason he had come back was because she had decided against killing him.

Wait, she had wanted this to happen, hadn't she? She had wanted him to come back with a force of warriors to put her out of her misery. She felt an ice cold chill run up her spine. The prospect of being surrounded and butchered whilst trapped in a rock prison no longer seemed particularly inviting. Even worse, she could be captured and used for dragon training. Her friends would no doubt have started by now, and she would be forced to…

No, it didn't bear thinking about. Hiccup wasn't here to hurt her, but he was still a threat nonetheless. Maybe if she could somehow convince him that she was harmless, he wouldn't tell his father about the most prized dragon in Viking history, trapped in the forest next door.

She would have to act as non-threatening as possible if she wanted any chance of living through the next few days. Maybe if she got him to trust her, if he was willing to get close her, she could show him who she really was.

She could hear him climbing down to the cove through a narrow gorge. If he was trying to be stealthy, it wasn't working. Her ears could clearly make out his constant cursing and protest as he nearly slipped, twice. He was getting closer, so Astrid retreated behind a large boulder to provide her with some concealment.

Hiccup paused at the gap in the rocks, a shield covering most of his body.

'A shield? Is he really thinking about fighting…?'

He threw a fish out into the open. It was all Astrid could do to stop herself from pouncing and devouring it. In her panic to escape the cove, she didn't realise just how hungry she was. She hadn't eaten anything since the transformation, and had been using up a lot of energy recently, what with her multiple near death experiences. She was no expert, but she was pretty sure that one of her ribs wasn't meant to be showing beneath her scales.

A loud scraping sound stung her ears and caused her to flinch slightly. Hiccup had managed to wedge his shield in the narrowest part of the entrance. Gods, that boy was clumsy even when his life depended on it. He advanced into the cove, fish in hand. He was slowly turning on the spot, scanning for the huge dragon that had already slowly emerged behind him.

'First things first' thought Astrid. 'I need that fish'

"Give me the fish, Hiccup". She spoke slowly and deliberately.

Hiccup had to stifle a yelp as he turned to find the creature that had almost killed him, just outside clawing distance. As she had expected, he didn't understand a word of what she said. But it didn't take dragon senses to know that he was utterly terrified, although the smell of fear was ruining the delicious taste of the fish. That and the signature scent of metal… wait.

Astrid's stance immediately became hostile. Her eyes slit and she lowered herself to the ground. When Hiccup reached for his knife she let out a loud growl. She couldn't believe it. He was not going to attack her. Not in her territory.

The boy slowly unsheathed the blade, holding it by the tip. He dropped it on the floor by his feet.

"Away", she growled, gesturing to the lake.

He kicked the blade away, and it landed the water with a satisfying plop.

'Get a hold of yourself Astrid, we're trying to make him like us. Or at least not kill us'

She made a deliberate show of calming herself, acting like a responsible, adult dragon. Failing that, she shrunk back and made herself look as small and harmless as she could, with her pupils wide and her ear flaps held erect. Some might have even called it cute.

Hiccup finally had the courage to step forward, holding up the fish. She wanted to make this as easy as possible, and met him more than halfway, mouth wide open for the fish.

"Toothless… I could have sworn you had-"

Astrid's instincts did the work for her once again. She didn't even realise that her teeth had the ability to retract until the fish was most of the way down her throat, and she was purring at Hiccup like a cat for more. Whilst taking a step towards the boy, he fell back against a rock.

"…Teeth. Wait, I don't have anymore."

Astrid fought for control of her body again, temporarily driving the instincts away. She felt suddenly sick. Her new stomach was having difficulty accepting food for the first time, but that didn't upset her as much as the thought that she had just eaten a raw fish whole.

She felt convulsions in her insides and in her throat. She could feel the fish get pushed straight back up her gullet, and she knew what was about to happen. She coughed, and promptly threw up half a fish onto Hiccup's lap. She shrunk back, thoroughly disgusted at herself. She had done some awkward things in her life before, but nothing came even close to this. There was no telling what the boy would do. She had emptied the contents of her stomach on to the only person who had a hope in Hell of saving her.

To her astonishment, he picked up the fish, and reluctantly took a small bite out of its raw flesh.

"No, no, you don't need to…"

He swallowed the fish, scales and all, and he did a better job of keeping it down than she had. If dragons could blush, Astrid would be bright red. Never in her life had she been more humiliated or embarrassed.

Hiccup smiled a toothy grin. Maybe Astrid could recover the situation if she smiled back. She concentrated hard, eventually finding the muscles in her face that controlled her dragon 'lips'. She tensed them until they curled up away from her toothless mouth, making sure to keep her pupils extra wide. She must have looked horrifying. Hiccup, however, was undeterred. He shuffled forwards, reaching out like he was trying to stroke her.

"Funny. You're so gentle, I can't believe that you're the one who killed Astrid"

She recoiled in anger, her smile turning into a snarl. How dare he. Accuse her of killing Astrid, and mistake her for the male who had carried her off and started this whole mess. The Vikings should be after him, not her. She hadn't asked for any of this. The very thought of betraying her village was maddening, especially when someone accused her of committing the crime. She was the victim here.

She stormed off to the other side of the lake and lay down, covering herself with her wings and tail. Hiccup followed behind, but she ignored him. It was fine, he should probably just leave now he'd given her the fish.

She sat, wallowing in anger and self-pity for a few hours. She would have fallen asleep if it wasn't for the constant threat of the Viking boy. Eventually, she got back up again, and Hiccup was still in the cove, sat near the entrance. She couldn't just stay this way forever. She needed Hiccup to like her if he was going to keep bringing fish, and she had no intention of starving to death.

'It's not his fault. He doesn't know it's me. All he sees is the Night Fury that carried off Astrid during a raid. If only he could understand me'

Hiccup was sat, his back to the lake, drawing pictures in the sand. It was getting lake now, and the cove had adopted a gentle blue hue as night began to slowly roll in over the horizon. Astrid came right up behind Hiccup, so close that her breath blew his hair over his face.

Hiccup, stayed where he was, not turning around. He used a stick to add the finishing touches to a Night Fury. She was amazed. Even with a stick in the ground he had quickly created a quite brilliant picture of her new figure. Had he always been this good at drawing? Nothing in the village came close. How could anyone be called a failure when they possessed such talent? Maybe they should have paid more attention to him. Maybe she shouldn't have ignored him for all those years.

But right now, she could use drawing to show Hiccup that she was intelligent, more than a beast. Holding one claw like a pen, she tried to draw a rough picture of Hiccup next to the Night Fury. She struggled. Night Fury's lacked the fine motor skills of their human counterparts. All she could manage was a shaky circle with some lines in the middle. Hiccup laughed, she laughed too, her deep, baritone warble completely contrasting Hiccup's adolescent giggle. She had to admit, her drawing was pretty terrible.

Suddenly, she had an idea. 'I'm an idiot,' she thought. 'I can just tell Hiccup what's going on'.

Underneath Hiccup's portrait of the Night Fury, she began to scratch some runes.

A-S-

She made slow progress with her limited control. The runes were large and rough, but they were at least legible.

T-R-

"Wait, what are you doing…?"

I-D

A-S-T-R-I-D

She pointed at the name, then the picture, and then herself

"Hiccup, it's me, Astrid".