Day 28 - Persistence

"Astrid," Snotlout greeted pleasantly as he landed next to the blonde viking and her dragon. The beating of Hookfang's wings caused her bangs to whip across her forehead, and he grinned at the pretty sight. Ever since her sixteenth birthday, she'd started wearing her braid differently, letting her hair fall around her face. He'd made sure to let her know he noticed things like that.

Unbuckling his saddle, he slid off the Monstrous Nightmare's neck and sauntered over to Stormfly's head to give her a scratch. The dragon tilted her head and clicked with confusion, but happily accepted the affection. Then his gaze slipped to her rider. "You looked pretty good out there."

Astrid— who'd been celebrating her third consecutive victory at the dragon races by feeding Stormfly fishy treats— smiled with pride. "Thanks, Snotlout. I really thought Hiccup and Toothless almost had us at the end there." It wasn't often that the dragon master himself competed, but it always added an… interesting challenge to the race.

"Nah, I knew you had it," he disagreed, putting his elbow on Stormfly and leaning against the dragon. She nipped at his vest, irritated, but he brushed her off with a wave of his hand.

"Thanks," Astrid said again, the corner of her mouth quirking upwards at the interaction. "You guys did great, too."

Snotlout shrugged with what looked like modesty and sighed. "Yeah, well, I don't really think it's fair for us to go all out. So Hookfang and I just like to participate. Let everybody else get a chance to win."

The blonde glanced at him, her expression falling flat, but then shook her head and went back to petting her dear Nadder. Licking her thumb, she rubbed at a smudge of paint on the dragon's horn.

When Astrid didn't reply, Snotlout took a step closer. "Besides," he sighed, leaning in and dropping his gaze. "When I'm behind, I get a nice view of this."

The moment Snotlout's thick fingers brushed the back of her spiked skirt, he felt an iron grip close around his wrist. So quickly he barely had time to register her darkly violent expression, she wrenched his hand away and twisted his arm behind his back.

"Ahh!" he yelped, "I'm sorry!" But his apology was cut off by a blow to the back of his kneecaps, making him sprawl across the grass. His shoulder burned in protest, but Snotlout was more distracted by the knee pressing sharply into his spine.

"This will be the last time I say this," she hissed in his ear, her plait tickling the back of his neck. "I'm with Hiccup. I've never had or ever will have any intention of changing that. And if you ever touch me again, I will ensure that you require a prosthesis to procreate."

Astrid dug into his vertebra. "Got it?"

"Got it," he squeaked.

"Good."