Chapter Text
Hiccup urged Stormfly on as they raced toward the island shown in Astrid’s message. The morning air was cold, and their speed caused his eyes to water. He noticed a few sea stacks below them, a sure sign of nearby land. It was hard to make out objects in the distance; the fog was thick today.
A small island came into view, and the two picked up speed. Knowing that there could be dangers, he circled around the island to make sure there were no ships present. Flying low, he could just make out a single pair of footprints leading from the water’s edge to the wooded inland.
The two landed and Hiccup unsheathed his inferno, unsure of what lay ahead. A strange, almost sweet, scent greeted them as they stepped into the trees. He clicked the trigger, and it snapped across the flint, creating just enough spark to light the blade. He used the sword as a torch to guide his was in the dark forest. Other than the footprints, there was no other sign of life on this island.
“Astrid,” he called out warily. “Astrid? Where are you?”
There was no reply. The back of his spine prickled uncomfortably. Something wasn’t right. He didn’t know why, but every fiber in his body was screaming at him to get on Stormfly and fly away as fast as he could. It was only the thought of finding Astrid that made him go on.
“Astrid! Are you there?” His voice shook slightly. He glanced back at Stormfly, who seemed perfectly calm.
The sound of feminine coughing came from somewhere in the distance. Stormfly obviously heard it too, and she squawked softly.
“Astrid?”
“Hiccup?” It was so faint and weak he almost missed it.
“Astrid! Where are you? I’m coming!” The words he spoke made his spine tingle. This wasn’t right, in fact it was very, very wrong, but Astrid might be out here somewhere, and that was why he couldn’t leave.
The coughing came again, but there was no answer.
“Astrid?” He stepped into a grove of trees, mud squelching under his feet. He caught sight something in the trees, and glanced behind him at Stormfly. She appeared to have vanished.
Now he knew something was wrong. Stormfly would never disappear without a sound. He was about to go look for her but the coughing came again, this time much, much closer.
“Hiccup?”
Hiccup glanced back to the tree line, and was just able to make out a form laying limply on the ground in the pale morning light.
“Astrid!” He rushed over and dropped to his knees beside her, gathering her into his lap, pausing to stick his still lit inferno into the ground for light. She groaned as he moved her. “It’s okay, I’m here now. Are you hurt?”
She nodded, her eyes remaining closed, as if opening them would make the pain worse. With a grimace she pointed to her knee, which was wrapped in a bloodstained blue cloth. He realized she had torn the bottom half of her shirt off the cover the wound, and her exposed belly was chilling her whole body. She had to get out of this cold.
“Okay, I’m going to get you home,” he told her gently. “But I need to find Stormfly first.”
“Good luck,” Astrid replied, no longer sounding weak and in pain. He voice didn’t sound right, either.
Hiccup stiffened and loosened his grip on her. The strange, uneasy feeling in his stomach returned. “What?”
“Good luck,” Astrid repeated, this time louder. Her eyes were still closed. She didn’t sound a thing like herself.
Hiccup drew back even more, slightly pushing her out of his lap. “You aren’t Astrid.”
The girl’s eyes snapped open and an evil, almost seductive, grin passed over her face. Her brown eyes glowed maliciously in the light of his inferno.
Hiccup pushed away from her and backed away, though still eye level with her. “This is a trap.” The unwelcome words came out with the realization that he had been played all to easily.
The girl sat up and leaned toward him, walking two fingers up his chest and started to play with the hair behind his ear. Herconfidence stuck a weakness in him, and he was suddenly too terrified to move.
“Your right, Hiccup.” Her voice was smooth and silky, it seemed to hold him captive, or perhaps that was just fear. “It is a trap.” Her nails pricked his chin as she traced his jaw line. “And you walked right in.”
Hiccup glanced around, finding every way of escape cut off by a burly soldier. He didn’t recognize their uniforms. How had he fallen for this?! He knew something was wrong, right from the start. Why had he stayed?
As he searched for an alternate way out, he was suddenly pushed backward on the ground and found the strange girl on top of him. Her lips were suddenly crammed down on his, and the repulsion that flooded his stomach made him want to retch.
He pushed her off, but a guard pinned his shoulders to the ground, and she sat down heavily on his hips.
“Tie him up,” the guard instructed gruffly.
The girl scowled at him. “Oh, come on,” she said, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Let me have a little fun with him first.”
“You’re lucky I don’t hit girls,” Hiccup snarled at her, his eyes narrowing.
“Oh please.” She laughed; it was a high-pitched giggle. “I’m nowhere near innocent enough to be a girl.” She gave him a sleazy smirk, and attempted to push her hands up and under the hem of his tunic.
He grabbed her wrists and glared at her. “Don’t.”
She jerked her hands free and started to caress his face again. “You’re cute,” she muttered. “I don’t get your type very often.”
“Alright, get off him!” the guard ordered, clearly annoyed.
She held out her open palm. “Money first.”
He grumbled something and fished a sack of coins out of his pocket and slapped it into her hand. “Now go back to whatever tavern you came from!”
The girl stayed right where she was as she counted out the money, and finally stood giving Hiccup a wink. “Nice doing business with you,” she smiled, strutting off with her hips swinging.
Hiccup swallowed the urge to call out several rather vulgar names after her. They were fitting, of course, but it wouldn’t help the situation one bit.
“Stand up,” the man above him ordered, releasing the death grip he had on Hiccup’s shoulders.
Hiccup obeyed, knowing it was his best and only option. He stared at the ground, realizing he was done for. There was no way out. He still felt sick from being kissed, and without thought he wiped his lips off. He knew he should probably give some thought to what the guards were discussing, but the growing emotion of failure and despair stole all of his attention.
“We’ll do you a favor and make this quick,” the man chuckled, giving Hiccup a quick but certainly not friendly pat on the shoulder.
Hiccup heard the twang of a crossbow, and pain almost instantly exploded through his left shoulder. He grunted as the arrow lodged itself in his flesh, and he staggered forward, slipping in the mud.
He had tried and failed. Deep down he’d know Astrid couldn’t possibly be alive, but it had eased the pain in his heart to think he might see her again. He had just wanted his friend back. She was dead, and soon he would be, too. He would just go missing, and no one would ever know what happened to him or Stormfly. It was a terrifying thought.
But the thought was cut short as something hard slammed into the back of his head, the dim light in front of him slowly began to tunnel. A whooshing noise filled his ears, and he stumbled a few swaying steps before his world went black.
. . .
It took two days for Astrid and Dagur to convince Tove that riding Deathcrasher was safe, and even when they finally did, she demanded to come with them. The adolescent dragon could at best only carry two of them, and they had to waste several more precious hours finding and training another Gronkle. Astrid insisted they should give it an appropriate name, and Dagur reluctantly settled for Honeysuckle.
Tove didn’t seem to understand that they were trying to get home, but communication was limited, and the two simply decided that it was good enough that she would let them go anywhere. It became very clear that she thought they were coming back when she put some cabbage leaves over some hot rocks to steam.
They tried to tell her that she could stay, but she shook her head and came along anyway. With great difficulty, Tove explained that there should be an inhabited island close by and that they should go there first.
They set off just after lunch, Dagur on Deathcrasher and Astrid and Tove on Honeysuckle. The female Gronkle had been very easy to train, and took great interest in Tove. It was obviously not mutual, but she wouldn’t step foot near a Dragon with the word “death” in its name, so she mounted behind Astrid.
The threesome flew rather slowly, and Astrid felt rather bad for poor Tove, who was clearly terrified to be on the back of a dragon in flight. She clung to Astrid and refused to look down.
They finally came across the island, but it was far from inhabited. It had, at one time, hosted human life, but that could have been more than three or four decades ago. The buildings had crumbled and the well, or what was left of it, was dry.
A large number of overgrown grave markers could be spotted off in the woods. Astrid stooped to pick up a small, cloth doll, preserved through the years under a pile of rocks. It was torn and dirty, and the wall of a house had collapsed on it snapping the wooden frame. She could just make out another piece of cloth hidden by a large piece of the wall, and she gestured to Honeysuckle to move the stone.
The dragon pushed it over with ease and stepped back, revealing what had been beneath it. Astrid clapped a hand over her mouth, stifling the scream that came out. Her eyes fixed on a tiny skeleton, halfway ground into the dirt. A few locks of brown hair clung to the skinless head. A pink dress, so faded it was almost white, hung limply around the tiny body. Small furry boots still remained on fleshless feet.
Astrid stared, horrified, at the body of the little girl, death suddenly becoming real to her. The child had died in this spot, and her body had most likely laid here for over twenty years. No one knew about her hidden grave. She had probably been just an ordinary three year old, wearing her pink dress and carrying her doll, when her life was cut short, and no one would ever know how or why. She had her own story, a story that would never be known.
Perhaps she had a family and siblings. Perhaps she loved to sing and play. Perhaps she had died unhappy. Perhaps she was a princess, and would someday rule her village. There were so many things that would never be known about her, like why she was buried in rubble, her tiny fingers clutching a doll.
A hand suddenly gripped Astrid’s shoulder, making her jump. She turned, breathing out a sigh of relief when she realized it was only Tove.
“Sickness killed them,” Tove signed, her eyes sad.
Astrid nodded numbly and turned away, able to bear the sight no longer. It wasn’t the bones that bothered her, it…it was the death, and the finality of it. Death could take anyone at anytime. It didn’t seem right. Old people died, warriors died, but not innocent little children. This could be the fate of someone she knew, maybe even her own family.
She limped through the village, her head hanging. She noticed a few crates with what appeared to be the dragon hunter symbol, but the boxes were just too old to tell.
A familiar squawking could be heard from her place in the streets, and she followed it to the edge of the woods. The sound grew louder, and more incessant. Astrid was sure she knew that sound. She wandered through the trees, trying to decipher where the sound came from. The call came again, but this time she knew immediately who it was.
“Stormfly!” she shouted with joy as her dragon came barreling toward her. The Nadder squawked happily and pushed her nose against her rider. “Oh, Stormfly! I’ve missed you so much, girl!” Astrid flung her arms around Stormfly’s neck and held on as tightly as she could.
But the moment was cut short as Stormfly pulled away and ran back into the woods. She stopped and glanced behind her, as if to make sure Astrid was following. She squawked again, more urgently this time.
Astrid’s smile faded, and she cocked her head, confused. “What is it, girl?” she asked softly.
Stormfly bobbed her head up and down and took a few more steps. Astrid followed as quickly as she could, begging her dragon to slow down.
They came to a patch of dirt and mud, and lying face down in the mud, was a body. An arrow stuck out of the left shoulder, blood dripping from the wound and mixing into the mud.
She approached quietly, curious. Her eyes widened as she recognized the thick shaggy brown hair and leather armor. She could only manage to squeak out one word, horrified by what she saw.
“Hiccup!”