I remembered this time! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own any original content from How to Train Your Dragon or its spin-offs. I only own this storyline.

I know this chapter is a lot longer than the last one, but a chapter is a chapter! Please enjoy!

Chapter 2

Astrid went straight home. Stormfly, who was sitting in front of the house, stood up and chirped to greet her.

"Hey, Stormfly," Astrid sighed as she patted her head.

She ran up to her room, put on her leather work boots, grabbed her hood, said bye to her parents downstairs, and headed off to her Aunt Rowena's farm with Stormfly. Her aunt had sailed away again – as she did every several years – to pay tribute to Odin at the edge of Midgard. By Mrs. Hofferson's prediction, she would be back from this latest attempt in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, her daughter Rowenna was responsible for the farm. Unfortunately, Rowenna wasn't really one for toil, and her mother had a huge radish crop. She insisted that the work was too much for her alone and begged the Hoffersons for Astrid's help during the harvest. They reluctantly agreed – Mr. Hofferson wanted her out of their hair -, so, for the second day, Astrid trudged uphill through the grey mist to her aunt's farm.

As she came up the path, Rowenna appeared in the doorway of the house.

"Hello, cousin," she called.

"Hello, cousin," answered Astrid as she reached the top of the incline.

"Would you mind bringing my tools for me, too?" asked Rowenna, pointing in the direction of the shed.

"Sure," Astrid said, but glared after Rowenna looked away.

As she walked off, she heard Rowenna say sweetly, "Hi, Stormfly!"

Astrid was disgusted. She wanted to yak. If Rowenna wasn't six years older than her, she would definitely have taught her a lesson by now.

"Lazy half-troll. Tryn'a boss me around. Acting all nice to my dragon. Makes me sick. And Hiccup, being a total munge bucket…Ugh, I'm so done with today."

She grabbed two large buckets and spades and brought them back.

"So," Astrid began as she handed Rowenna her tools, "Are you gonna help me in the field today?"

"'Course I am. I did yesterday, didn't I?"

"Yeah, a little. But I mean, are you going to stay with me today?"

Rowenna raised her eyebrows in an innocently quizzical way.

"Astrid, you know I have to sort through them."

"Yeah, but can't you do that, like, tonight, or something?"

"Astrid, we've been through this. If we just pile them up in the back, then there'll be too many to sort in one evening, and then the boars will come for them. Now, unless you want me to fight off a whole pack of boars by myself, then I suggest we just do what we did yesterday."

"Well, why don't we do shifts, then? I pull, you sort; you pull, I sort."

"Astrid," Rowenna said, putting her hands on her hips, "You know my mom is very particular. I have to be the one to go through them. I'm sorry, but it's the only way this can work. Now, stop arguing with me, and let's get going."

She turned and walked toward the field, which was right beside the house, leaving Astrid glaring hatefully at her back. Stormfly croaked empathetically and nudged her. Astrid smiled and rubbed her head.

"Thanks, girl," she whispered, "I'll try to keep it together."

Rowenna helped Astrid pull up radishes until the wheelbarrow was full, then she took it around the back of the house to a trough of water, dumped out the contents, and wheeled it back for Astrid to fill again. For an hour straight, Astrid was bent over, pulling and digging up radishes, filling the buckets, and emptying them in the wheelbarrow, which she pushed to Rowenna behind the house. Her only comfort was that if she saw Rowenna for a brief moment every fifteen minutes, then she only had to resist the urge to punch her four times an hour.

After coming back from emptying the fourth barrow-full, she leaned against the fence to take a breather. Her back was sore. Stormfly came around and sat behind her on the other side of the fence. After a couple minutes, Stormfly suddenly stood, screeched excitedly, and walked toward the path.

"What is it, girl?" Astrid asked, standing up straight.

But Stormfly just turned, chirped at her, and ran down the slope. Astrid frowned curiously. Now, Stormfly was out of sight, but she heard another, louder chirp, which was followed by a cheerful, rumbling growl.

She immediately knew who it was. Her initial reaction was pleasure, but she quickly swallowed it with annoyance. Stormfly and Toothless bounded up the hill, followed by Hiccup, who waved at her. She waved back, but then crossed her arms and leaned back against the fence. He'd probably brought Toothless so there'd be a witness.

Hiccup slowly approached the fence and leaned against it, resting his crossed arms on the top rail.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey."

He looked over the field. She'd done about one-fourth of it.

"Busy?"

"Very."

"Do you need some help?"

She thought about it. He was obviously looking to pay penance, and she'd been working her butt off.

"Sure," she said, "Take this – "

She handed him a bucket and spade.

" – and go over there."

She pointed to the far end of the field.

"Ok," he mumbled as he came in through the little gate.

Really, she was glad that he came. The work went exponentially faster. She sent him to go dump out the wheelbarrow once – a mistake she didn't make again after he was late coming back, and she went around to check, only to find Rowenna making some stupid attempt to flirt with him. After that, she emptied the wheelbarrow herself, although it was more dangerous for both Rowenna and her.

By sundown, when the harvest was a little more than halfway done, Rowenna finally stopped them, declaring, "Honestly, you've given me so much radishes, I don't know if I'll be able to get through them all before the sun goes down! Hiccup, don't be surprised if I wake up your father tonight because I'm being attacked by boars."

"Just put them inside," Astrid said sharply, "C'mon, Hiccup."

She grabbed his hand and pulled him away.

"Thanks, Astrid!" Rowenna called, "Thanks so much, Hiccup! Bye, Toothless, Stormfly!"

Astrid loosened her grip on Hiccup's hand as they reached the path, but she didn't let go of it.

"I can't stand her!" she grumbled.

Hiccup shrugged.

"Yeah. Family. What're you gonna do?"

They trudged along in silence for a minute before Astrid muttered quickly, "Thanks."

"Anytime."

Another minute passed, then she asked slowly, "Soo…How bad does yaknog taste to you?"

He glanced at her with wide eyes.

"Uh…I don't like it…"

"I know you don't like it. But how bad do you not like it?"

"Well…I don't like it…at all."

She sighed.

"Ok. Let me ask you a 'yes' or 'no' question. All those times I've given you yaknog, was I essentially torturing you?"

Hiccup was silent for several moments.

"Essentially?…Yes."

She punched him.

"OW!" he yelled as he jumped four feet away from her, clutching his arm, "Gods, Astrid! I thought you wanted me to be honest!"

"I want you to be honest, not blunt!"

"You asked me the question!"

"Well, yeah. But I thought you would, like, moderate it or something…"

"Ugh," he grunted as he rubbed his arm, "Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you."

She frowned as she watched him grimace. Then, sighing, she reached out and rubbed it too.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"Yeah," he grumbled back.

They started walking again.

"Hey, Toothless," she called, looking over her shoulder at him, "You're in luck! Hiccup doesn't want the yaknog anymore (or, rather, he's admitting that he doesn't), so you get all of it to yourself!"

Toothless, who was several feet behind them with Stormfly, crooned enthusiastically.

"So, you're gonna keep making it?" Hiccup asked.

"Sure, why not? Just 'cause you suck doesn't mean your dragon has to suffer."

He laughed.

"Y'know, Hiccup," Astrid began shrewdly, "In the saddlery, when you were talking, before you said what it was actually about, I thought you were going to say something completely different."

"Oh, yeah? What'd you think I was gonna say?"

"I thought you were going to ask me to marry you."

Hiccup froze. He looked at her, then away, opening his mouth and closing it.

"Uh…" he said.

She giggled.

"It's ok," she said, grinning, "We'll never speak of it again."

Hiccup still seemed to be having some difficulty, though. He looked like he was trying to work something out, but Astrid laughed again, shaking her head and dragging him into the village.

THE END

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- EN