Chapter 2 (Astrid)
I don't know what to think right now. It all happened so suddenly. One minute I was being yelled at by an angry Hiccup, the next I was outside wandering aimlessly. I don't remember much after that.
It was dark, and I saw a large figure appear in the sky. It looked like a dragon. The next thing I knew it swooped me up and I must have blacked out… I have no idea what happened after that. Then, I woke up, here. Tied to a chair in a dark room.
I don't usually admit to being scared. But now, I really am. I don't even know where I am, all I can see, for as far as I can see, is darkness.
I have made mistakes involving fighting with Hiccup in the past. The thing is, he is almost always right! I don't know how! But he is. I just don't know if he is right this time.
I gasp as I hear a door open. I am tied to a wooden chair in the middle of a room. A room full of one man, and one hundred dragons.
"Astrid Hofferson" the man says. He has beady eyes, like an eagles or a hawks. He is tall and skinny, wears all black, including a long fur cloak that hangs down his back. I recognise him immediately, but I don't know where from.
"What do you want?" I say through gritted teeth. He laughs. His laugh is almost like a mixture of a witches and a goblins, a combination, never welcome to dinner.
"What I want, my dear, is all the information you know of Ingrid and Magnus Hofferson." He did not just play that card.
"My parents?" I say, my voice trembling under fear and sorrow at the same time.
"Yes, Astrid, your parents." I take a deep breath, swallow and say "well, my mother and father were both taken by dragons when I was very young. Then I went to stay with my uncle." He pulls his eyebrows together. As if he knew nothing about my parents' names and where I was and how to find to find me. Like this is all a surprise to him. I smile a little, it's amusing to me, on how little he knows about me, yet he had to kidnap me.
"All of us here, on Beasts Bounty, thought you died along with your parents, or shortly after. We weren't sure which."
I twitch the corner of my mouth.
"Well, I'm here. Disappointed?" he steps closer to me, looks at the ground beneath him, looks at me, straight in the eye, and says.
"A little, you would have made this job a lot easier for me." I frown and look at the ground.
"What do you mean? This job? You mean you want to kill me?" he laughs.
"No, no, no. why would a self-respecting man such as myself wish to burden myself with the guilt of murdering an 18 year old innocent girl?" I grin a little and look at him.
"I don't know. You tell me." I say. He doesn't know what to say. So he says nothing except
"you better hope the rest of your island cares about you. Or you'll be here a long time." The sound of his voice makes me shiver, she words that come out of his mouth make me gag.
The last thing I did was fight with Hiccup, he won't want to come and get me.
And I am here, possibly will be forever, with this madman.
Who is he?
And how does he know my parents?
I stare at him for a while, unable to find the words to say. After a while he smirks, nods, and leaves, closing the door behind him.
There I am, left in a room, tied to a chair with the only light being that of a dragons flame.
I try to break free of the rope. But I can't. This would be a good time to have Hiccups blade, the one he can hide up his sleeve or in his boots.
It's been hours. I have almost given up hope. When I hear the door bang. It opens ever so slightly and all the hope I had, disappears. Its madman again. What does he want now?
"Still here are we? You must be ashamed of your tribe. Aren't you?" I bring my eyebrows together into a scowl.
"I don't doubt that they will come for me" every word is a lie.
"Oh, I see, and, how do you expect them to find you?"
"They will"
"I very much doubt that"
I am furious. I could kick him in the stomach and kill him. One: if I could get out of this stinking chair! And two: if I wouldn't be punished for murder.
"I thought you should know the truth Astrid"
His voice is deep, bitter.
"What?" I say. I am nervous to speak. In fear of him lashing out, or telling me something I don't want to hear.
"do you wish to know why you were brought here Astrid? Do you wish to know who brought you here?" he says. Staring me right in the eye. As if he expects me to cry or something. But I am far beyond crying. I am more at the point of screaming.
"yes." My voice is un stable. I'm worried I am crying, so I blink really hard, and no tears come out, thank the gods… man that would have been embarrassing…
"you were brought here to find out the truth" the madman seems cunning.
"the truth?" I say, beginning to doubt what people have told me.
"Poor child…" he sounds like he is planning something, like he is trying to break me to a point where I begin to beg. But I don't. I keep my eyes trained on him and say.
"what, happened, to my, parents?" saying each word, slowly and clearly.
"Astrid, my dear, deprived of mental orientation…you see, child, you are so caught up in the truth you seek, that you have not considered the truth you need…"
"I, I don't understand?" I say, soon after,
"Your parents were found dead, on this island. Am I right?" he is smiling now.
"To my knowledge, yes..." that's what I was so afraid to tell Hiccup, he would have made me stay because, well, of this…
He sighs, "well, at least they got one thing right."
I swallow, take a deep breath and say "what are you trying to tell me?-" I'm cut off by his laughter.
"Yes, Astrid, I am trying to tell you something very valuable to you."
I am crying now, I can feel the burning water rolling down my cheeks. My eyes getting redder by the second.
He walks around me, which is annoying because I can't see him due to the darkness and the chair I am strapped to.
"Do you know where the Deadly Nadder, originally, came from?" when he comes into my view, he is grinning, a creepy grin, the kind you have night terrors about, or the kind your parents tell you about when it's story time.
I think about it… I know this, I know everything there is to know about them. "Yes. Beasts Bount-" oh my gods… "Wait? Stormfly?"
A figure appears from the glowing flame of the dragons, I can recognise her immediately, I don't even need to think about it.
Stormfly lowers her head as she walks towards me.
"Free her" the creepy madman says and two men whom I did not notice before appear from the back of the room.
Once I am cut free I spring up and put my hand out to touch Stormfly, but she retreats. So do I, without even realising.
Stormflys eyes are as wide and desperate as mine, as Hiccups when I last saw him.
My eyes flit around the room. I knew my parents were killed by dragons, but I never knew they were killed by, my dragon, Stormfly. My best friend.
"Stormfly, I, I'm sure, you, you didn't mean it." I ease the words out, trying to make her understand.
Stormfly keeps her distance, but looks at me. I look at her.
"I'm not going to hurt you Stormfly, I just-"
I don't have much time to process everything because a door slams, and the door to the room I am trapped in opens. And through it, comes, Hiccup.
Stormfly quickly retreats to the back of the room, hidden by the darkness.