Chapter 3

The scene resumes inside the gym of berk high academy where astrid is being interrogated by her teammates about her intimate relationship with scott jorgenson the quarterback but before she can speak up the door suddenly opens with loud thud and a tall blond girl walks in...

"Where is she, where's Astrid!" The girl frustratingly declares, she didn't shout but her voice was loud enough to echo through the nearly empty gym

"What now Ruff?... do you really have to do that?" She says while gesturing one hand towards the door

"Of course, it adds a dramatic effect, I got your attention right" smiling while walking towards astrid and her teammates. "Whatever..ruff" astrid plainly replies

"So.. You mind telling me why you're here, on a weekend" she says with one eye brow raised

"Same reason you're here, practice" while looking at her surroundings

"Practice? For what?" Shooting her a look

"Oh right, i haven't told you yet, i joined the soccer club" looking at the window trying to find something or someone

"Not this again.. just how many times are you gonna change clubs? You've joined AND quit 7 clubs already, can't you just pick one" astrid says with a tired expression

"You know exactly why I'm so picky, i haven't found the right guy yet, remember what i told you? clubs are one of the best places to meet new hotties" ruff answers with smug tone while still scanning the field through the window

"Meet new hotties? Aren't you supposed to be dating someone" astrid looks at ruff and pauses for a second "Don't tell me you broke up with.. What's his name? An ton? An dy? An?"

"Drew, his name was andrew... I think, whatever, he was boring, plus he liked the weirdest things, must be a weird fetish or something, like when he grabbed my-" ruff was about to imitate her ex's weird foreplay, but astrid had already heard enough and she didn't want nightmares to haunt her in her sleep. Astrid smacks her stomach "OK, too much info... i get it, do what you want, i won't stop you" she waves her hands signaling her sign of approval

After groaning in pain ruff answers "What're you talking about? I wasn't asking for your permission" then ruff gives her friend an evil smile and hits her chest as payback, astrid was surprised thus was not able to react in time Ruff's hand lands a direct hit to her right boob, hurting like hell "Ouch! Motherfu..." She winces in pain and looks at ruff with her infamous "I'll kill you" stare "so it's gonna be like that huh?" She lunges for ruff

"Bring it o-Oh crap..." Ruff evades astrids pounce, and escapes outside to the soccer field in hopes that somone in her new team would save her from the awesome wrath of astrid, meanwhile gobber is talking with none other than the skinny teenage boy that astrid bumped into...

"Augh.. Where is it? I saw it fly over here.. Or was it there? Augh! This is gonna take forever" he says while frantically searching for his soccer ball in the outermost part of the forest, while he was busy searching every bush gobber was busy eavesdropping on astrid and Scott's conversation when he just notices the rustling of leaves coming from the forest

"what are they talking about? I can't hear a thing, probably already going at i-.. What in the world was that? Must be another wild dog, on the loose... Huh guess i better go catch it, if any of my students get attacked on my watch, their parents will have my head" and so gobber briskly walks towards the part of the forest where he saw the dog.

wild dogs were always a problem in town especially when innocent citizens got hurt, most of the time they come out at night rummaging the trashcans, pooping on lawns, sometimes even hurting the people the police especially, but the biggest problem so far was the wild black wolf, the town was most famous for, the wolf even had its own name "nightfury", it was mostly the kids of the town that made it up but the adults thought it was a great fit so they stuck with it, the nightfury was almost never seen in daylight only flashes of its black fur and green eyes were spotted during the night, no one ever saw what the nightfury actually looked like so no one could give an accurate description, the only thing certain was that it was a wolf because it howled during full moons. The fact that it was a wild animal capable of killing a man, made the police decide to enforce a curfew, all civilians are not allowed to wander the streets past midnight and if ever bad luck hits you and you happen to come across the nightfury, then run and hope it doesn't find you or else.. Well you know what happens next.

"Ok.. Im sure it's-" he searches the big bush in front of him spreading its leaves appart "here.. Or not, huuh" he lets out a sigh as his efforts are put to waste but as soon as he turns around, he sees a large figure in front of him "Holy sh-!" He tries to step back but his feet got caught in one of the vines and ends up tripping, falling flat on his butt

"Hiccup? What in the world are you doing here?" He gives the boy a hook to hold on to and to regain his footing "I've been waiting for you all morning, boy.. and all this time you were here.. Collecting leaves? Hold on.. what ARE you doing?" He looks at hiccup with a puzzled expression trying to figure why he was in the forest in the first place, hiccup stands up and brushes his pants

"maybe a warning next time, gobber huh... I was looking for my ball, you know the one with black and red stripes" he then resumes scanning his surroundings "wait why are you here?" He didn't bother to look at his face and carries on with his search

"I thought i saw a dog so.. I went to go flush it out, but i found something a little less dangerous than what I had in mind" he looks at hiccup but hiccup doesn't look back

"And by something you mean me.. Well hate to break it to you but, disappointment is kinda my specialty, I've been disappointing people from the day i was born" he sarcastically says while still looking for any signs of his ball

"Don't take it personally lad, i just meant you weren't a dog, and i was really looking forward to trapping one" while shaking his equipment, he was like a viking complete with bite proof armor and trapping stuff, hiccup takes one look at Gobber's body and lets out a small laugh

"Yeah, I can see that, besides haven't you lost enough body parts already" he laughs while grinning and gesturing to gobbers hook and prosthetic leg

"Well someone's got to do it, and remember "this" can happen to you, that's life, so you should liv-" He raises his hook and starts to go on and on about life's importance and how we, as young adults should live them to the fullest and blah blah

"Oh crap, why did i even ask him?" He says to himself in a hushed voice "i got it ok, gobber, live life woohoo, I've heard that speech at least a 100 times now so hearing it for the 101th time won't make any difference, ..sigh.. so could you please just help me find my ball" he says with a whiney tone, he was so sick of Gobber's speech and what's worse gobber keeps repeating what he already said, he had a bad habit of repeating sentences when he's really into the topic, he doesn't even notice his annoying habit, he just keeps talking and talking

gobber is a close friend of hiccups dad so when he was still a kid gobber would often visit the house and obviously it's not the first time hiccup asked him why he was missing a few parts, of course back then gobber was making up stories left and right to make him look like a some sort of superhero or something, hiccup can remember gobber telling him that he lost his hand and foot while fighting a dragon, but hiccup wasn't much of a believer back then, even more so now and eventually gobber ends up telling hiccup the real reason and boy did hiccup regret ever asking the question to him, at first it was short simple but as he grew older the speeches grew longer with him.

"Fine, lad, where did you last see the damn thing?" He scratches his head and waits for Hiccup's response

"When did i last see it hmm.. That would be in the sky, flying towards here" he looks at gobber who gives him a skeptical look "what? You asked me a question, i answered it"

"let me get this straight, you're looking for something that landed here.. in the forest, without knowing exactly where HERE it is" he says while pointing to the forest around them, hiccup gives him a look but reluctantly nods "yeah.. That's basically it"

"Are you crazy hiccup? How in the hell are ya gonna find a tiny ball in this huge forest" gobber wasn't necessarily shouting but it was close, his voice was louder than usual, he stares at hiccup waiting for him to realize how completely idiotic this whole search is

"well what do you expect me to do, forget about it, j-just leave it here" he says angrily while stuttering at his last words, he turns his back against gobber and continues to search the bushes "gobber, listen.. i have to find that ball"

"Hiccup, can you stop this non-" but before he can finish his sentence hiccup looks at him with pleading eyes "please.. Gobber" gobber looks at hiccup and then averts his gaze, he lets out a big sigh

"Oi... You have until sunset, after that the gates will close, and you have no choice but to stop... Ok hiccup.. Why are ya so worked up over a ball, anyways? you can literally buy hundreds"

"It's not just a ball... It's priceless" hiccup calmly says "anyways thanks gobber.. I appreciate it" he smiles at gobber and shortly after, returns to his search

"Just don't forget, by sunset alright, i have to get back to the girls, you should to, the team needs a manager"

"Yeah.. bout that, guess i have to take a rain check on the manager thing" he scratches his neck

"First day on the job and already quitting? Hiccup, I know you're busy with your ball hunt but that's not a good enough excuse to skip your duties, tomorrow you're attending practice"

"I know bu-" hiccup tries to reason but gobber shoots him a serious look "no buts, no excuses, I've already given you enough chances, I'll be at practice tomorrow and i expect you to be there" he finishes the conversation and walks back to the direction of the soccer field.

as soon as he enters the field, two blonde girls running around chasing each other quickly catches his eyes, he recognizes astrid among the two. Gobber was confused but he pitied the girl astrid was chasing since he was all too familiar with Astrid's violent streak, luckily the two were headed his way, so he didn't have to give chase. Ruff spots gobber and was smart enough to hide behind him

"Woah!.. What's going on here, astrid calm down" he blocks Astrid's path and holds her shoulder grasping tightly, cause if he didn't she would've gotten past him in a second and reached her target

"Yeah, astrid lighten up a little" ruff grins and starts to feel safe especially since there was a teacher in front of her, but staying a fair amount of distance, just out of Astrid's range

"What're you talking about coach, I'm perfectly calm, i just wanna calmly talk to my friend over there" astrid points to ruff while forcing a smile "Calm my ass" ruff immediately replies

"Alright, stop this, let's all just relax.. astrid, we both know that's not what you're thinking, cmon can't you settle this like normal well-mannered ladies?"

"Yeah, lets settle this peacefully, no one has to get hurt, riight astrid?"

"There you go, cmon Astrid, be the mature one" gobber lets her go and coax her into making up with ruff astrid slowly walks towards ruff

"I am, see?" She smiles and hugs ruff, ruff flinches, she thought for sure astrid was going to hit her, she lets out a sigh of relief, and gobber just smiled as he thought he just solved a teen crisis

"Now was that so hard?, now let's get back to the gym the team's probably worried sick about me" gobber gestures for the two to proceed and he'll follow, he continues walking through the field watching the two girls talking and laughing in front of him and he was so proud of himself for resolving a teen conflict, he was such a good advice giver but beneath the laughter astrid was whispering to ruff

"Haha, you know I'm still gonna hit you right haha" smiling while taking short glimpses at gobber, she smiles at him then, goes back to laughing with ruff

"Haha Yeah, i figured as much, well then.. What are you waiting for don't hold back haha" she laughs all too loud gobber was too pleased with himself to notice that their laughing was way to forced and not at all natural, ruff braces herself waiting for Astrid's fist to make contact with her chest

"Relax, not right now, gobber ruined the moment, besides.. i want it to be surprise" she laughs genuinely and stares at her evilly

"You're some kind of a sadist, you know that?" Laughing while finally resting her arm on Astrid's shoulders pulling her neck along with her whole body closer, well looks like gobber really did solve their problem for now at least.

They all entered the gym, and after a an hour Ruff's coach finally arrives along with most of the football club, it turns out she was an hour early, she says farewell to astrid and her teammates and joins the soccer club practice in the field. After that the day went on pretty smoothly for astrid, practice was the same as usual, it was kind of boring but she remembered what scott said, his parents invited her for dinner she was initially happy since his parents were much more interesting than scott himself, but more importantly she now has a valid reason not go home. She then remembers another thing scott said, it's clear to her that they are dating and doing stuff like that are a given but the whole act was pointless to her sure sometimes it would feel good, not great just good, and that hardly ever happens. usually it feels weird, sweat everywhere, then a feeling of violation with a hint of disappointment and guilt then he climaxes and everything turns to just disappointment, but she'd still do it in spite of the way she felt. Astrid already knew what she felt for scott and it's not love, at least not anymore but what can she do? Scott was the only person left that cared for her even if it was mostly for sex he would still treat her nicely, in Scott's defense he's completely clueless, as far as he knows their relationship is as solid as a rock, little did he know the Rock's hard exterior was only a shield to cover up the truth, what lies beneath the covers are cracks ready to crumble at the slightest touch. Astrid erases the thought as she heads toward the showers and finally easing up and relaxing while cleaning her body after sweating like crazy, meanwhile in the forest...

Hiccup finds himself in the middle of the forest, still no sign of his ball anywhere, he's sweating heavily, beads of sweat roll down from his forehead to the ground, he's getting worried it was already 3:43 pm only 2 hours and a half left until the sun sets and still no progress, but one thing was clear to him, even if he ends up empty handed today he'll never stop trying he'll come back the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that and keep searching. He stops for a quick breather and sits on a stump, he looks up at the sky and starts a conversation with it

"...sigh... Hey, um.. Hi, mom it's henry.. Listen, i have bad news, remember the ball you gave me i kinda sorta lost it.. Can you help me out maybe make a trail of leaves or something.." He laughs at how crazy he must look right now talking to the sky and asking for a trail of magical leaves but he slowly stops and looks down to where his feet were

"hey, mom.. We really miss you, dad and I.. Were ok.. it's been 7 years since.. Since you left.. It hasn't been the same without you.." A tear escapes his eyes but he quickly wipes it away and stands up, "anyway...so, no trail of magical leaves then? Ok, don't worry mom I'll keep looking, I'll ALWAYS keep looking" he smiles and continues his search with a renewed drive, walking deeper and deeper into the forest...

End of chapter Three