Chapter Text
Astrid woke with a start, the sudden clattering shocking her awake. Catia appeared at the top of the staircase, a torch in one hand and a rope in the other. Astrid could only wonder what she planned to do with the rope. Maybe Hiccup had already come and upset Catia, and she planned on hanging her. But no need to think negatively, well, more negatively.
Catia’s appearance was much fiercer today. Her simple gray sleeveless dress had covered replaced by a leather, metal plated skirt and a leather cuirass. Several leather straps held two curved blades on her back, though what weapon it actually was, Astrid didn’t know. Her hair was pulled into a French braid, her overgrown bangs piling up at the top of her head. A thin, short cluster of hair fell just in front of each ear. Her dark lashes delivered an almost cat like look.
Her bare feet we now clad by a thin animal hide shoe that laced all the way up to her knee. A thick shoulder guard rested on her left shoulder, a smaller one covering her right. She reminded Astrid a good deal of Heather; quiet, fierce, and bold.
“Get up,” Catia commanded, taking the metal cuffs off Astrid’s wrists. A bruise remained in place of the heavy iron. She obeyed Catia, wanting nothing more that to go home.
Catia tied her hands behind her back, so tightly it hurt the bruised area. She removed the chains around Astrid’s ankles, and wordlessly led her out of the dirt room. Astrid’s knee began to ache as the two marched back to the beach.
Hiccup and Toothless were waiting for them. Both seemed to share the same unreadable expression, they simply watched as Catia walked out onto the sand. Hiccup’s face never changed when he caught sight of his friend, but his eyes visibly softened. “Send her over,” he demanded firmly.
Catia eyed him, he look showing loud and clear that he needed to stay in his place. “If we are going to do this,” she replied just as firmly, “we do it my way. Send the dragon first.”
“How can I be sure you won’t keep both of them?”
“You can’t.” She pulled out her knife and held it lightly to Astrid’s neck. “But you can be sure of one thing. Unless you do as I say, I will kill her.”
Hiccup swallowed to maintain his composure. He motioned to Toothless to go to Astrid, and the dragon reluctantly obeyed. Catia looked the dragon over briefly, deciding whether or not he was acceptable.
Apparently he was, and Catia roughly pushed Astrid toward Hiccup so that she could grab the dragon. Toothless flinched, but went with her when Hiccup reassured him of what to do.
Catia whistled and turned to leave, but paused to give a whistle. Shifty came running, as did Stormfly.
“Take the Nadder and go,” Catia told them, “and I don’t ever want to see you again.”
Hiccup nodded, and drawing his knife, he cut Astrid loose. “Is your knee well enough to fly?” he asked shortly motioning for Stormfly to squat down so they could mount.
“I think so,” she replied quietly. “What about you? Is your arm okay?”
“It’s fine,” he told her, though he grunted in pain as he pulled himself up on the dragon. He had taken the sling off, but it seemed as though his shoulder wasn’t healed well enough yet. He offered her a hand, and pulled her up onto Stormfly’s back. He gave her a swift kick to get her moving. The dragon squawked in surprise, as Astrid never used anything more than a nudge to tell her to go.
“Hiccup, that was a little rough,” Astrid said protectively, wondering why he would treat her dragon in such a way.
“What was?” The unfamiliar gruffness in his voice startled her a little.
“You kicked Stormfly, and you only needed to nudge her at most.”
“She’ll get over it.”
Astrid’s jaw dropped. “What has gotten into you?!” she demanded angrily.
“Nothing,” he mumbled, steering Stormfly toward a large sea stack, and landed in the center of it. He slid off the dragon’s back and helped Astrid down.
“Something has gotten into you,” Astrid persisted. “What’s going on?”
Hiccup ignored her and fished a jar of water out of his bag. He passed it to her wordlessly. “Let me see your knee,” he said finally, dumping out some medical supplies.
“My knee is fine,” she answered defiantly, “but clearly you aren’t.”
“Astrid, I need to make sure you’re knee is okay. Tov- Catia removed a piece of the bone. Just let me check on it.” Astrid did not like his tone one bit.
“No! I want to know why you’re being so grumpy!”
“Good Thor, you are so stubborn sometimes! Just let me see your knee!” His voice was even more frustrated.
“No! Not until you tell me what is going on!”
“Will you knock it off?! I’m trying to help you!”
“Stop yelling at me and tell me what you’re so upset!”
“Just shut up, Astrid!!” His anger was getting out of control, but Astrid no longer cared about his attitude.
“Don’t you DARE ever tell me to ‘shut up’ again!! I am trying to help you!”
“FOR THE LOVE OF VALHALLA, SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!” Hiccup roared, his words growing steadily more hurtful.
“NO!”
Hiccup’s hand flew up, ready to slap her in furious rage. She shrunk back, her eyes wide.
The look of terror and betrayal that passed across her face as he stepped toward her woke him out of his angry state. The horror of what he’d been about to do spread down to his stomach, the guilty anguish making him physically sick. His hand dropped limply and he glanced up at Astrid, her eyes brimming with tears and her lower lip quivering.
Oh, gods above…he had been about slap Astrid.
The realization in itself almost made him vomit. He had almost slapped her. “Astrid, I-… I’m sorry.” He couldn’t say anything more, the look in her eyes was too much. Astrid quietly turned away from him and walked to her dragon plopping down on the edge of the sea stack. Stormfly curled around her, eyeing him warily.
Hiccup’s head spun, dizziness, guilt gnawing at his stomach. What if he hadn’t stopped? What if he had actually hit her? He knew he occasionally lost his temper, but that was with the twins and Snotlout! He had never been this angry with Astrid before. What was wrong with him?! For the love of Thor he had threatened to slap her! Stormfly felt it necessary to protect her from him!
He sat down on the opposite cliff, breathing heavily. Guilt tore at him from every angle, and he couldn’t stop reliving the terror in Astrid’s eyes. She used to look at him with such trust, and that fear broke his heart. He sat there for what felt like hours, tearing himself apart with quilt and self accusations.
He suddenly heard footsteps behind him, and he tried not to look up as Astrid sat down beside him. she sat for a minute, as if waiting for him to speak. When he didn’t she said quietly, “I think it’s about time for you to admit how right I was.”
Hiccup finally looked up. “What?”
“There was definitely something wrong with you.”
“Yeah,” he muttered, utterly floored that she was even speaking to him.
“Mind sharing what that might be?”
“I wish I knew.”
“I think I have an idea.”
“Enlighten me, then.”
Astrid sighed and scooted a little closer, leaning forward so he could see her. “You’re stressed. Simple as that.”
“Astrid, that’s no excuse for…for what I just did. You don’t deserve that.”
“You’re right, I don’t. But you don’t deserve to have the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
“Why are you excusing what I did?!”
Astrid gripped his shoulder, turning him to face her. She met his gaze, her eyes more beautiful than ever. “No,” she replied, glancing down. “Not excusing in the slightest. But I realize why you reacted the way you did. Hiccup, you’re killing yourself with all this work. You’re taking all of the problems on yourself, and you don’t need to. You have us for support, but you never take advantage of that. And the results aren’t good ones.”
How did she know these things? He was beginning to wonder if she had some telepathic superpower.
“We’ve all seen how much you’ve changed within the past year, Hiccup. It’s not a good change, either. You smile less and worry more. We all know you stay up all night planning missions. We know you act like it isn’t hurting anything. You’re exhausted. You need to rely more on everyone else. We want to help you.” She smiled, showing her sincerity.
“Why are you doing this?” he asked, shaking his head as he glanced away. “I just treated you like garbage.”
“Because that’s what friends do,” she replied simply.
“Some friend I turned out to be.”
“There are way you could make it up.”
“Such as?”
“You could start by showing me how gentle and sweet you can be when you try.”
Hiccup raised an eyebrow.
“I want a hug, stupid.”
Hiccup chuckled and wrapped his arms around her, somewhat surprised that she wanted to be near him. She leaned her head down on his shoulder, obviously just a comfortable as ever. Pride slowly replaced the guilt as he realized how quickly she was willing to forgive him.
“I’m so sorry, Astrid,” he said again. “I never should have treated you like that. I was just worried sick about you. I wanted to make sure you were okay, and the fact that you wouldn’t let me just pushed me over the limit, I guess.”
Astrid squeezed him. “Just promise you won’t do it again.”
“Nothing on this earth can make me do it again. Will you forgive me?”
“On one condition.” He could feel her smiling.
“I want a massage. I slept on the ground last night, and my back hurts like crazy.”
Hiccup agreed without hesitation.
. . .
Night finally came, draping the island in its dark curtains. Hiccup, Astrid, and Stormfly packed up and headed to the mainland, keeping a wary eye out for Catia. They crept slowly into the woods, trying to avoid the thick undergrowth. The island was silent. The only sounds that could be heard were the soft, dull noises of their feet hitting the ground, and their anxious breathing as they frantically searched for Toothless.
There was no sign of him. No tracks, no claw marks, not even a sign from Stormfly that the dragon was around. The moon cast eerie shadows throughout the trees, making it impossible to tell which way they were going. Everything looked different at night.
Both glanced around nervously, waiting for something to jump out and kill them. Neither had a weapon, as Astrid had washed up without an axe and Hiccup had obeyed Catia’s orders to come without a weapon. The only defense they had was Stormfly, and they weren’t sure that she would protect them from someone she completely trusted.
A dreary rain began to fall, splattering on the leaves and chilling the soft breeze to a bitter cold. Thunder rolled overhead, indicating that a storm was approaching. Hiccup sighed at their luck.
Then the moaning started. Over the past few weeks, they had grown used to the sound, but now they felt as if they were living in a nightmare. The sound seemed to grow closer as they moved on, and other noises were suddenly unfamiliar and frightening.
The a new sound arose from the chaos of noise—crying. Hiccup turned toward it, recognizing the human origin. Both crept through the trees, hardly daring to breathe as they closed in on whoever it was.
Hiccup moved ahead. He could now see a form within a clearing, sitting on a log, crying. He could now see that it was Catia, Shifty at her feet and Toothless beside her. He wanted to go on, but her tears stopped him where he was. He held up a hand to stop Astrid from going any further.
“Oh, Shifty, what have I done?” Catia whimpered, burying her face in her hands. “They trusted me. They were my first chance to get away from here. How could I have been so stupid?”
Hiccup’s curiosity was peeked. What did she mean; her first chance to get away?
“I thought at first they could help us. I thought that I could trust them. Why did they have to bring someone here?”
Why did she care if they brought people?
Catia sniffed and looked at the dragon, attempting to stop her crying. “I must be crazy to think they would help. We have such a big price on our heads they wouldn’t think twice about taking us back.”
Take them back where?
Toothless nudged her, brushing his cheek against hers. He clearly trusted her. Catia smiled a little, scratching under his chin. “I never should have brought people here,” she muttered to no one in particular. “People only want to hurt other people.”
She paused for a minute, as if bringing a thought to mind. She suddenly burst into tears again, babbling incoherently in what seemed like another language.
Hiccup stared at her sobbing form, realizing she wasn’t as cruel as they had thought. For some reason, she refused to trust anyone. He couldn’t reinforce that belief by charging in and stealing his dragon back. He couldn’t break whatever trust she might still have in them. She clearly wasn’t hurting Toothless, and besides, maybe he could help them learn more about her.
With a wave of his hand, he told Astrid to turn back. He hadn’t formed an alliance with Mala by starting a war, and he certainly didn’t plan on starting one now.