000
No. Stupid wasn't good enough to describe him. Harebrained? Maybe. Senseless? Close, but not there yet. Suicidal? Oh yes. That perfectly described his tendencies to keep setting her off. She just didn't know if he wanted to die by getting caught, or by her own hands.
She quickly glanced back to her students, breathing a quick sigh of relief at the sight of them still in their huddle, paying no attention in her direction. She rounded back on Hiccup, who let out a little squeak when she marched towards him, suddenly wishing the wall behind him would swallow him up. "N-Now I-I k-know this-this isn't how I-I should have-have d-done it...but-" Hiccup stammered as she pinned him to the wall and bore daggers into his soul.
"You know, all you had to do was tell me you had a death wish. That way I could have organized a show-and-tell class today." He never realized how terrifying she could be speaking in a calm tone, coupled with a small smile. Oh, he really was toeing on the edge of her sanity this time. He might have preferred her yelling at him and beating him senseless as opposed to this calm, deadly demeanor. "Showing off a Jormung and telling how to properly gut him while keeping him alive." Yep, he definitely didn't things through. He could already hear Toothless laughing. He had warned him not to pull this stunt for the simple fact it could kill him. "So please, tell me why in the name of Odin's all mighty beard, that I shouldn't make a show out of killing you in this arena right here, right now?" All of a sudden, a Screaming Death seemed less terrifying than the five-foot nine inch, fiery Viking in front of him.
"Uh...because you're starting to like me?" It was a dumb response. He was certain she'd just decapitate him right there. But the formulated answer he prepared to give her simply vanished from his mind the moment he saw how mad she looked. "Please don't kill me." He begged. The seconds that followed felt like hours. He didn't think she'd laugh at that response. But it was a long shot. She dug her fingers into his shoulder, crushing the nerve in it. He immediately held onto her arm, knowing full well he could stop her but he allowed her to take out her anger. She had every reason to. But he was really starting to lose feeling in his arm as she tightened her grip. "Uh-A-Astrid..."
"Yes?" By Jormungandr, he never knew a sweet voice could sound so bone-chilling.
"Losing...feeling...in my arm...Ah!" She covered his mouth with her other hand, suppressing his yell as she had a full death grip on his shoulder. This was definitely a lot worse than when an adolescent Monstrous Nightmare had bitten him particularly hard on his other shoulder a few years ago.
"Be grateful it's just your arm." She hissed as she released him, and he slid to the ground, clutching his numb arm against his body. "Do you enjoy putting both of our lives in danger?! What if someone had seen you come here? What if my students saw you talking to me!?" Her students. It must have been five minutes already. She hurried over to the edge and breathed a sigh of relief. They had just broken their huddle and turned in her direction. And from their perspectives, it was as if she had never moved from that spot.
"We're ready Ms. Hofferson!" Elaine said, with agreeing nods from her peers.
"That's great! Fortunately for you there's something wrong with the lever, so you get an extra five minutes to hash out your strategy while I fix it!" Their eyes lit up at the mention of extended time and immediately convened once again, giving Astrid some extra time with her favorite Jormung. Hiccup was still on the ground, rubbing some feeling into his arm when she rounded on him, arms crossed, waiting for a proper explanation this time. "You have five minutes to convince me not to permanently kick you off this island."
"I just wanted to watch how you train your students. And see what dragons you keep in your pens."
"Why would you want to watch me train kids on how to kill dragons? Doesn't that go against your ideals of dragon killing?"
"It does." He got himself to his feet, and leaned back against the wall for support, still recovering from the harrowing experience of staring death in the face. At the same time, he kept an eye on the other end of the stands, watching for potential visitors to the ring. "I'm just curious about the way you train them. Plain and simple. I was planning to watch from my usual vantage point up on the cliffs but I wanted to get a closer look."
"You ever heard the phrase 'curiosity kills the cat'?"
"Here and there." He grimaced at the hundreds of times he'd hear it from Ripper and others back in the village, not counting the thousands of times Toothless probably said something similar.
"And why couldn't you wait until the dead of night to come and socialize with the dragons?"
"I wanted to observe the behavior of your dragons first. Considering they're being kept under lock and key, used for training, and actual fights, I wanted to be cautious in this instance, instead of coming right up to their pens and knocking on their doors. I might be half-dragon but even dragons are cautious around other dragons."
"And what if someone saw you right now? You do know you can't just sneak in here like you've done it a hundred times, right?"
"I snuck up on you didn't I?" She bent down to flick his ear hard, enjoying his grimace.
"Congratulations! You snuck up on a Berk warrior as she was in the middle of supervising her students and worrying about what could possible go wrong in this session as they go up against a fire-breathing dragon. Yes please forgive me for not worrying about a Jormung who's dumb enough to just waltz right into this dragon killing arena without a care in the world." It was like she was lecturing a kid!
"Well, I took your advice and am learning to be more aware of my surroundings. I would have heard anyone approaching this ring from the bridge, and I would have picked up on their scent. I'm familiar with yours so I wasn't too worried when I heard you walking here."
"My scent?" He nodded. She blinked a few times. He was familiar with her scent? Had she really spend that much time with him, enough to easily recognize it and not worry? Of course he remembered. She was almost definitely the only human he's come in contact with on a regular basis as of recently, and with his dragon traits, he'd pick on giveaways like smell and hearing. "Either way, you have another two minutes."
He had to think quickly. She wasn't going to forgive this stunt so easily. He had to offer something, anything, that she couldn't pass up on. That's when it clicked. "I can help you train students in ways that will keep them and the dragons from harm." He let out a silent thank you when she raised an eyebrow. Good. He had her interest again. She made a head motion for him to continue. "I know almost everything there is to know about dragons. I can tell you how to properly incapacitate them without harming them, while making yourself look like a master trainer."
"That's going to bring attention to them. Which will inevitably lead back to you."
"Then how about just you? You already know how to...kill...a dragon, so if you take down one without harming it, your people will be even more amazed and think nothing of it."
"Now you're just making assumptions."
"But am I wrong?" He wasn't. They would question her but she didn't necessarily have to tell them. She could just attribute it to experimenting with the dragons, looking for newer, safer takedowns.
"Time's up. Wait here." She said as she went back to the edge. "You guys ready!?" She yelled. They all answered with firm 'Yes Ms. Hofferson!'s. "Alright, good luck! And begin!" She pulled the lever, and watched her students split up down the different pathways. She watched the Deadly Nadder take a few cautious steps out of its pen. As always, it looked up, seeing the familiar iron bars keeping it and the other dragons trapped within. It briefly made eye-contact with Astrid, its eyes conveying a bored expression. It then shifted its focus on the three different paths in front. This was a regular training session, so it took in a deep breath, and went down the middle path, ready for another day of being used as a slave in this environment. Hiccup also crouched over to the edge next to Astrid and peaked over to see the Nadder.
Astrid scoffed, and promptly shoved his head down below her student's potential line of sight. "Do you ever learn? I need to watch them to make sure they don't die down there. I can't keep worrying about someone walking in here and seeing you standing right next to me."
"Right. Sorry." He apologized sincerely, as he brought his knees to his chest and looked guilty, sitting out of sight by her legs. By the Gods, he was the same age as her but acted the child sometimes. But considering he was half dragon, he had a tendency to follow his instincts and spur of the moment choices. Which is why whenever he thought of something, he'd just go with it first and think about it after.
"Listen." He looked up, seeing how she was still looking at her students. "I'll come by your camp after I'm done with this training session and then we can talk about your proposition. And if you really want to watch that badly, I can't stop you if you fly up to your perch and spy on us from there." She smiled when she glanced back down at him, seeing his face had light up with joy. "You better get going fast. Before I change my mind."
000
"And you were worried she was going to kill me." Toothless rolled his eyes as they flew to their usual perch above the kill ring.
"Oh yes. I didn't at all notice your wobbly legs as you climbed back down to me. I was half concerned you'd just slip and I'd have to catch you." He said as he landed softly on their little lookout spot away from the kill ring.
"Okay, she might have been a little ticked off."
"The first time you tried something like that was with her family and she nearly decapitated you. The only reason she didn't do anything close to that this time was because one, she was teaching a class, and two, showing up covered in your blood after their lesson would have raised questions."
The two settled into their spots, with Hiccup going prone and folding his hands underneath his chin to get comfortable as he focused his eyes on the ring. Toothless curled up beside him, also watching the ring and the ensuing fights happening inside. "I'm surprised she's using a Nadder. They're agile, shoot poisoned spines from their tails, have the hottest flame known to Vikings, and are quite prideful. I don't think she'll take too kindly to being duped by a bunch of teens." And on cue he saw the tell-tale light from her attacks highlighting the top of the constructed maze. However, judging from the relaxed stance of Astrid up near the railings, the kids weren't yet in immediate danger.
"So how did you convince her to let you off with no more than a numb arm?"
"Well we haven't hashed out the details yet but, I offered to teach her how to subdue dragons my way."
"What?"
"I know, right? I honestly didn't believe she'd even entertain the idea." He watched the Nadder hop onto the top of a wall, head darting around, tail at the ready. "So she'll be coming over to the camp tonight. We should probably make something in case she hasn't eaten." Hiccup mused.
"This is a proposition Hiccup, not a date."
"I know it's not a date! Still doesn't hurt to be prepared." He blushed. He just wished Toothless would cease his teasing of his growing infatuation with Astrid.
"But if we are preparing something, I'm thinking we could do salmon then? Don't you have a few herbs in your chest?"
Hiccup watched Astrid yell something to the kids, and if her eye-roll had any indication, she was growing tired of their shortcomings, as could be told from the two students who had joined her up top. "Yeah, I can work some magic with that." Maybe he could convince her to show him the dragon pens tonight itself. During his nightly flights, he always scoped out the arena from above, looking out for sentries; How many of them? Any shift changes during the night? Much to his surprise, he only ever spotted one guard lounging by the bridge's entrance to the isolated ring, who only did one or two rounds of the arena every now and then. Clearly, sneaking in would pose no challenge with that kind of security. But then again, what kind of villager would even want to train with dragons in the dead of night unsupervised?
"You really think she'll allow it?"
"She will. Because I've already got a dragon picked out of her."
"Oh yeah, I can't wait to see her reaction to that." Toothless looked back down on the ring. Most of the walls had toppled over and there was just one student facing the Deadly Nadder, trying desperately to stay in its blind spot.
"You know, it wouldn't hurt being supportive of my ideas every now and then."
"Supporting your ideas makes me an accomplice. This way I can deny I had anything to do with it."
"You're still helping me carry out my plans."
"To make sure you don't die." Their banter was interrupted when they heard, thanks to their superior hearing, a scream from the last student. Elaine had had her foot trapped under a toppled wall with the Nadder almost upon her. Hiccup got into a seated position as he paid full attention, watching Astrid immediately leap into the ring while the rest of the teens could only watch in concern for their friend.
She grabbed a discarded shield on the ground, and promptly started banging it with her axe's handle. The Nadder ceased its approach on Elaine and turned in the direction of the new sound, laying eyes on an all-too familiar Viking, charging her at full speed. It bared its tail spines instantly and fired a volley. With the time she's spent training in this ring, countering a Nadder was almost second-nature to her. Without missing a beat, she easily blocked the spines perfectly with the shield, and flung it right at the dragon's jaw, before it could fire a second spread. The shield made good impact, knocking its head to the side, briefly stunning it. She continued to close the distance, knowing that the next attack would be a breath attack.
The dragon raised its head, extremely annoyed at the projectile. With an angry huff, it reared up to its full height, took in a deep lungful of air and let loose a bright, magnesium flame, right at her. Astrid slid forward, feeling the immense heat of the fire shot pass inches above her, leaving a now molten crater of white hot flame where she was only a second ago. Her timely and well trained slide brought her directly underneath the Nadder's head. Not exactly in its blind spot but that was not what she was going for. The dragon attempted to catch her in its jaw, but she rolled forward, bringing her within striking distance of its neck. At first Hiccup thought she was going to bring down her ax on the Nadder's neck, but was intrigued to see her grab onto a spine of the Nadder's crown, catapulting herself over its neck, twisting it and driving its head into the ground as it lost its footing and the rest of its body toppled over, while she landed with all the grace and poise of a dancer next to it. With it briefly incapacitated, she rushed to retrieve her shield and made her way closer to the open dragon pen, all the while keeping her eyes on the recovering dragon. The Deadly Nadder on the other hand was growing increasingly frustrated. It was slow to get back on its feet. Before it could turn its attention back on the trapped student, Astrid banged her shield again, forcing it to keep its attention on her. Very annoyed at being bested once again, the Nadder threw all caution to the wind and charged the female Viking.
It truly was remarkable watching how calm and calculated Astrid was. Here was this seven ton, fire breathing, poisonous spine shooting dragon charging her and she calmly took a few steps backwards, reducing the distance between her and the pen. Even her students were all kinds of quiet; not one of them shouting in concern. They were just watching in amazement and awe just like he was. She waited until the dragon was no more than a few feet in front of her. She dodged its massive jaw, rolling to the side while the dragon, unable to stop its momentum, crashed into the wall of its pen. She quickly pulled the emergency lever right by the door, and watched them safely shut the dragon back in.
And just like that, the chaos that had been happening for the last few minutes ceased, giving way to calmness and order. And probably a stern lecturing from Astrid later on. Doing one final lookover at the doors, making sure they had closed properly, she made her way to Elaine, using all her strength to lift the wall a bit, enough for her student to pull her leg out. The rest of the teens had also come back down and were helping their friend up while sporting smiles and gleamy eyes, bombarding Astrid with praises and questions. She waved off the questions and ordered them to take Elaine to Gothi and have her leg checked out. And as they were carrying her out, their backs to her, she quickly glanced up in his direction. And even though they were hundreds of feet apart at different elevations, each were sure their eyes met.
He never really saw her in action during the raid he had interfered in. But seeing her in action here, facing off a Deadly Nadder while protecting her student, she had complete control of the situation from the moment she leapt in. Even though she probably could see it, he smiled.
She was more than ready at getting her own dragon.
000
Astrid was exhausted by the time she left the Great Hall in the early evening. After the training fiasco, she had gone to see Elaine's mother first, informing her what had happened, and quickly giving her the peace of mind of her daughter's well-being. She had then gone over to Gothi's hut to check up on her and was glad to see she was happily chatting with the rest of her friends. From what she could gather before she entered, they were discussing about what each of them did wrong, what they did right, and how they could better improve themselves and coordination. She smiled at their dedication and drive, giving a brief knock before entering. Turned out it was a bone bruise, which would mean she'd be unable to participate in their training sessions for at least three weeks. Astrid gave her strict orders to listen to Gothi and take the necessary medication she'd be given, and reassured her that she'd still be able to sit and watch their regular training.
After bidding them goodbye, she made her way to the Great Hall. Or to be more precise, the council meeting room inside the Hall to take part in the weekly meeting. Thankfully, there wasn't as much debating and arguments on this weeks' duties, planning and dispute settlements. However, the issue of new tribal alliances had been the main topic of the day. Apparently a few tribes were reaching out to Berk, negotiating if they could plan a visit and discuss political matters. Stoick had no real reason to deny them from visiting since they all demonstrated a willingness to be amicable. It was just a matter of discussing with the other council members on when would be a good week for each party to visit. She figured it'd be nice to have new people visit, even if they were just more Vikings. Any reason for Berk to get festive was a good reason in her book. After the meeting, she gave her goodbye's to the council and her father, opting to have a quick slice of bread, with yak meat and butter, before heading off into the woods to see Hiccup.
It would be a much welcomed break from today's events. However, when she reached his camp, she was surprised to see, what looked like quite a few fish roasting over his fire with a large blanket of sorts laid out on the ground instead of the usual logs she had sat on. Toothless was busy lounging next to his rider's tent, gorging on a sizable pile of fish, paying her no attention. She saw Hiccup walk out of the tent with a loaf of bread in one hand, and two mugs in the other. He beamed when he saw her.
"Looks like you're eating good tonight." She remarked, sliding down the gradient, wiping her hands of the dust from the stone, and strolling towards him. "What's the occasion?"
"I figured you'd be pretty tired out after your heroics earlier today." She watched him place the bread in a little basket on the blanket, in between two plates.
"Please tell me you didn't pinch this stuff from someone's house here."
"Of course not! I flew to a small trading outpost a few hours flight from here and scavenged it. The bread however, I did have to borrow from the bakery. Sorry." Well, at least he looked apologetic about that. His guilt aside, he beckoned her to come sit.
"I thought we were going to discuss about how to train a dragon your way?"
"We can do that over dinner. You haven't eaten have you? Please help yourself!" He gestured to the spread in front as he sat down, patting the spot next to him where her plate was. She felt her stomach growl at the modest spread in front of her, and suppressed a rising blush tinting her cheeks, because he obviously heard it, but didn't show it. She couldn't really count what she had from the Hall as a meal. More of a snack. She thought this was going to be a short little discussion, and then she could make a quick stop back by the Great Hall to have a proper dinner. And the smell of the roasting salmon garnished in a variety of spices did smell magnificent. He had clearly gone through considerable effort to arrange this spread. And it was obvious he enjoyed her company and always sought out any reason to spend time with her. She admired his persistence. She should at least humor him for his hard work.
She sat down next to him, folding her legs underneath and leaning back while he took her plate to serve her. He cut a sizable fillet from one of the salmon, placing it on her plate, adding a slice of bread too. The skin looked nice and crispy and the meat was a brilliant pink. "You don't do this often do you?" She asked, taking the plate from him and taking a huge waft of the meal, her stomach growling in anticipation.
"It's been a good minute since I had someone else to eat with."
"Toothless doesn't count?"
"His dinner routine just involves stuffing his face with fish and then passing out into dreamland." She chuckled, taking a bite of salmon and her eyes instantly grew wide. Hiccup grew a little concerned when she stayed silent, fork still in her mouth, staring down at her plate. "Something wrong with it?"
"No-No! It's really good!" She exclaimed, quickly taking in a few more bites with a piece of bread. "What did you season it with? I never had salmon that tasted like this!"
"Oh, that must be the honey." Hiccup said nonchalantly.
"You seasoned it with honey?"
"Yeah, I cut a few strips into the salmon, and poured in some honey and stuck a few garlic cloves inside with your salt and pepper."
Astrid knew that stuff wasn't easy to come by. For him at least. He would've had to stolen those items from villages and traders. Heck, he even flew out earlier in the afternoon to get the plates and blanket. It might not have seemed much to him, but flying all around searching for ingredients after she told him not to steal from anyone on Berk. "You really shouldn't have gone through all this trouble, Hiccup." Maybe she'd make life easier and sneak in a few extra purchases at the market stalls for him. It would save him the trouble of flying all over and stealing from others.
"Don't worry about it." He said with a mouthful of fish and bread. "I just wish I had some veggies on hand to go with this." She smiled, learning another side of him, seeing how much it made him happy to be sharing a meal with her. Sadly this setting would maybe happen once a month at best. She couldn't keep wandering off into the forest under the guise of training for her Hunt. Considering it was still quite a ways away.
"So, what's this about me training a dragon?"
She watched Hiccup raise a finger, indicating to give him a second as he finished chewing and gulped down some water. "Well, the next step to learning about me is interacting with dragons like Jormung do."
"Oh so I haven't been interacting with Toothless?" Said dragon raised his head, one eye raised in a skeptical manner while munching on another mouthful of fish, getting a laugh out of the both of them.
"Hardly. I'd say it was more forced tolerance with each other."
"And what dragon are you going to help me train?"
"The Deadly Nadder from today's class."
"Really? A dragon that's been kept under lock and key and used for training purposes, that I've used for training purposes? I know I'm new to this whole world of gentle fire-breathing dragons but even I can see how dumb that idea is."
"Is it really?" Hiccup thought about it. "Even though you and the Nadder have fought probably hundreds of battles, you two are familiar with each other. You obviously know how to handle a Nadder in a fight. And I saw the chemistry you two have."
"Chemistry? A dragon and me?"
"Yeah. You don't see it because you're a Viking and you don't look for it. Me on the other hand, I know when a dragon and a Jormung, or Viking, will make a good pair with a dragon." He helped himself to some more salmon. Astrid just realized he had scarfed down his meal pretty quickly. He must have been really hungry. She dug into another bite before continuing.
"So how are you going to train me then?"
"Well, we'll only be able to train you and the dragon if there's no one else anywhere near the ring, and that includes the bridge."
"You know about the guard at the bridge?"
"I did a few survey flights and spying. You really keep only one guard to the ring?"
"Well usually, no one's stupid enough to go training with dragons on their own in the middle of the night where no one can help them when something inevitably goes wrong."
"Point taken. And are these guards set, or do they change every day?"
"Every few days."
"So why don't you volunteer to guard the ring for about a week?"
"Hiccup..." She sighed. He took her plate, seeing that she had finished what was on it and served her a smaller portion with more bread. "I personally know that most Vikings won't think twice about my new responsibilities, but there will be some who will question my sudden changes in routine. It may not seem like it, but I'm going to exhaust the 'training for my Hunt' excuse within the next couple of weeks if I keep meeting you every other day."
"Hunt?" She rolled her eyes, refusing to believe that he just let everything else she said fly over his head. "What's this about a Hunt?"
"Hiccup, focus!"
He flinched under her hard gaze. Taking a quick peak, he saw her frown, unamused at his carefree attitude on this specific topic. He nodded once he returned her plate. "Right. Right. Staying on topic." He as he took his own plate to serve himself a third plate of food, but keeping his attention on her.
"If I continue sneaking to the forest to meet with you under the guise of training and spending longer hours than usual, people close to me will start raising questions about why I'm training so hard, when I already have daily routine."
"People close to you?"
"My family for starters, probably my Chief and a few members of the Council. Heck, even if my friends aren't the brightest bunch, they'll start suspecting something's up eventually."
"So limit our meetings?"
She didn't miss the hint of sadness in his voice. He was trying his best to hide the disappointment on his face too but was doing a piss-poor job of it. Honestly, she didn't know how he had earned a soft-spot from her. She's probably only known him for a full five days at least and had let him worm his way onto her good side. "Oh don't look so defeated." She chastised him. "It's not like we'll be meeting once a year. Twice a week is good enough for now. That will give you ample time to train what I've taught you and for you to teach dragon training."
"Still..."
"Hiccup." She grabbed his plate out of her hands and put theirs aside, much to his protests. "Why are you so Hel-bent on showing me the other side to dragons? And don't bring up the time we first met. If that was the case, there must have been other Vikings who peaked your interest just as much as me. So why me specifically?"
"I-" He paused. He wasn't the best of liars. Not that he could lie to her any good. Because he wore his emotions and expressions on his wrist around her, she'd pick up on a lie or half-truth instantly. "I don't know." The truth was the safest bet to go with. And she did deserve it if she was going to risk her own safety and position in her village to just socialize with him. "I guess I thought you were different when you first ordered me to not move instead of trying to attack me, knowing you had the advantage."
"That doesn't explain much at all."
"I'm also trying to figure this stuff out, Astrid. This is a first for me too. It's not like I have an island full of Vikings whom are just ready to make friends with me. I just saw the chance with you, and I guess I was too eager to not let it slip away."
"You still haven't answered the question, Hiccup. Why me?"
He looked at her this time. Really looked at her. Why was he so persistent with her? Was it really because she chose to initiate conversation with him instead of going in for the kill? Because she continued to spare him no matter how many times he invaded her safe space? Even when he saved her sister from the fire, was it because it was the right thing to do, or just because it was her? Would he have done it had it been for another family? Most probably. He didn't like to think of himself as someone who'd play favorites in life-or-death situations but he did feel a greater drive to save her sister after hearing her cries. "Because you're the first, genuine human connection I've made. You were never scared of me, in the short time we've been around each other, you never honey-coat things, you always speak your mind and you always entertain my banter." He felt glad when she smirked at that. "Plus in the time you've known me, your perception on dragons has already changed."
"How so?" She leaned closer.
"When you were saving your student today, you never tried to hurt that dragon."
"That's because I would've angered it further."
"Uh-huh, sure." Hiccup smiled. "You only used your shield and your years of training to handily trap the Nadder back in its pen without leaving a single scratch on it despite having your ax in hand."
"Ugh, there's no sense in arguing with you when you've already set your mind on something, be it a task or theory."
"You're just annoyed because you know what I said is true."
"Keep dreaming." They chuckled, only realizing how close they were when they made eye-contact once again, sucking the air out of the small space between them. Hiccup was the first to pull back, turning his head the other side to hide his blush.
He coughed a bit. "So twice a week is good. When do you want to meet up for your first class of dragon training?" He quickly muttered. Astrid shook her head, amused at his embarrassment of close proximity with her. "How about a week from now? But we can meet up day after tomorrow for your second day of combat training." He rounded back on her, a beaming smile adorning his face.
"Great! I can't wait to show you my progress!"
And in a way, she was looking forward to that too.