Pain, an impact that slammed Astrid out into the open air, a moment of weightlessness darkened by the knowledge that it would end. A screech of shock, surprise, not from her, from somewhere close above her. It was hot and the air smelled rancid, like rotting things mixed with the stench of sulfur.

"Leaving. Let's pack up, it looks like you and me are taking a little vacation... forever."

His voice was resigned. Of course, he was talking to himself, as per usual. Did he really think no one noticed? It was the subject of debate among certain more suspicious circles in the village; the fact that Hiccup Haddock, the sudden star of dragon training, might be going crazy or just getting a little eccentric, or maybe receiving messages from the gods.

Personally, Astrid was leaning towards the 'eccentric' side of the debate, though she rarely got involved in pointless speculation. No, Hiccup was weird, but not crazy.

So she was very, very unhappy with him because he had to know he was stealing her future from her. Sure, winning dragon training didn't mean much in the long run, and no matter what she would still get to fight, to do what she was training for, but this was supposed to be her moment of glory, not his. He didn't deserve it.

That was how she knew something was going on. He didn't deserve it, yet he was getting it somehow. He was surpassing her. That was good for him, she supposed, but if he was somehow cheating, she was finding out. Now.

If he wasn't cheating, if he was training, actually working at it... she would figure out her response to that if it happened.

He still hadn't seen her, despite walking right by the boulder she was sitting on. Where was the perfect trainee now? She had known for years to always be alert no matter where she was. He had let his guard down the moment he passed through that odd crack in the rock that led down into this hidden cove as if no one else could come here.

Foolish. She had found this place, and she had watched from atop a low rock as he entered the cove, carrying an unidentifiable bulk of leather and wearing some sort of vest. It almost looked like something one would store knives on, straps crossing his chest, but he didn't use more than one knife, so she saw no reason for him to be wearing it.

Even now, as he set the bundle on the ground and sighed, he didn't see her, though she was sitting atop the rock in plain sight, her ax across her knees, waiting.

She ran the whetstone she had been idly holding across the blade of her ax, the noise loud and distinct, a metallic scrape.

"Ah!" He stumbled backward. "Uh, uh, uh, what are you doing here?" Nervous, guilty.

Good. If he sounded guilty, he was guilty... of something. Hopefully, something that meant she could not be so easily surpassed by anyone who tried.

That, she gave him. He was the only one who tried, cheating or not. Snotlout was too proud to learn, the twins were always tripping each other up in one way or another, and Fishlegs only cared about surviving. Hiccup, though... she didn't know what his motivation was aside from the obvious, but he tried.

"I wanna know what's going on." She used the hilt of her ax to push herself up, hoping the sight of her weapon would unnerve him further. He had to know she could and would use it if provoked. "No one just gets as good as you do. Especially you." As she spoke she walked forward, forcing him back. "Start talking."

"Uh, uh-" Hiccup was stuttering. She had no patience for that.

"Are you training with someone?" The most honorable possibility. She wasn't sure if she wanted the truth to be an honorable story, but that was the first thing that came to mind.

"I, uh, training?" He kept backing up.

So, it wasn't that. Good. "It better not involve this." She grabbed the odd leather armor he was wearing by his collarbone, lifting him slightly.

Gods, he was so light! How in the world had he managed to beat her? She could lift him with one arm! She was sure he could not say the same of her.

"I know, this looks really bad, but you see this is, uh-"

A noise to the side. Her training kicked in, and Hiccup's voice became nothing more than an annoyance, one she ignored. Something was nearby. Close, very close.

Or maybe she was imagining it. But that had sounded like a-

"You're right, you're right, I- I'm through with the lies," Hiccup continued, catching up to her as she approached the bushes and shadows the sound seemed to have come from. "I've been making... outfits. So, you got me."

A hand on her shoulder. He was distracting her. He should know better than that.

"So, you got me, It's time everybody knew. Drag me back, here we go," he continued, grabbing her hand and putting it to his stupid vest. He was hindering her.

She abruptly tightened her grip, wrenched his hand back and forced him to the ground, all the while keeping half her attention on their immediate surroundings. She needed him out of the way until she was sure there was nothing worse than a blustering runt to deal with in this cove.

"Aaaauuggghhh! Why would you do that?!" Hiccup moaned.

"That's for the lies," she asserted, feeling vindictive. They were probably alone, because if there was a wild animal around it would have done something by now. That meant she could deal with Hiccup without distraction. She dropped the hilt of her ax, bouncing it off of his lower stomach, eliciting a yelp. "And that's for everything else." For taking her glory, for lying about it, and for just being frustrating.

Then she heard a low growl. They were definitely not alone. She looked up towards the sound...

To see a sleek black dragon, spitting mad, and coming their way.

Training as strong as instinct took over, and she knocked Hiccup out of the way, entirely ignoring his feeble objection. "Get down!"

Then she thought better of that, pulling out her ax and facing the beast. "Run!" She could hold it off if she wasn't defending dead weight, and he had no weapon that she could see, so that was all he'd be.

"Run!" she repeated after noticing that he hadn't moved, staring with a strangely resigned expression.

The dragon pounced, leaping forward, and she readied her ax-

"No!" Hiccup rushed between them, holding a hand out at her, and suicidally doing the same to the dragon that was about to kill him. "No. It's okay..."

The dragon pulled up short, skidding a little in the sand to avoid running Hiccup down.

"She's a friend," he finished, speaking as if it knew what he meant. The black beast looked from Hiccup to Astrid and back again.

"You just scared him," Hiccup said, now speaking to her.

"I scared him?" she asked, incredulous. This whole scene was impossible, and ridiculous besides. But she was getting a very bad feeling about how it was happening. "Who is him?"

Hiccup shrugged uncomfortably. "Astrid, Toothless." He looked to the dragon, who was still just watching with angry eyes. "Toothless, Astrid."

Introductions. A ridiculously inaccurate name for one of their greatest enemies. She stared at him.

Then she bolted, running straight for the slit in the boulders that would let her out of this cove. Someone needed to know what was going on. This was bigger than cheating, bigger than who won dragon training. This might actually be treason.

A dragon that obeyed Hiccup's beck and call. It sounded utterly ridiculous, but she knew it was reality. Somehow. How?

It didn't matter. Someone else could deal with it. She just had to make it back to the village, and Hiccup was no runner, so she was safely away-

A dark shadow passed over the trees in front of her, one that was startlingly fast. She almost pulled up short, only at the last second weaving to avoid any strafing. There was none, but it was a good response. Because that black dragon was chasing her, and it could definitely fly faster than she could ever hope to run.

Hiccup had sent his dragon after her. To kill? Definitely to kill. That was all dragons did.

She continued to weave, making sure to run in the thickest parts of the forest. Tree cover would keep her from being hit directly if the beast decided to start firing. She didn't know why it had yet to do that, but it was going to at some point.

How far from Berk was she? At least another ten minutes at this speed. There was no way she was going to make it.

She leaped a fallen tree, wondering where the shadow of her pursuer had gone-

Only to feel claws gripping her shoulder through her pauldrons as she continued to move forward and up, picked off at the height of her leap. She dropped her ax in shock, a terrible mistake she instantly regretted.

Astrid screamed, long and loud, because this was the end. It was going to drop her or tear her apart, and there was nothing she could do. "Oh, great Odin's ghost, this is it!"

Higher and higher, and then it came. She screamed again as she fell, dropped to her death-

But there was a tree under her. She desperately latched onto the branch she had been dropped on, gripping with all her strength as the tree leaned and shifted, the wood groaning under her weight. It held, if barely.

She glanced up at the black dragon, wondering why it was playing with her before killing her-

And saw Hiccup on its back, staring at her. Not angrily, almost pleadingly.

Astrid caught a glimpse of the one who had doomed them, her mind working to slow down these final seconds. It was purple and green, a Zippleback fleeing in terror. It had crashed into them in its frenzy, blindsiding Hiccup's dragon as it tried to get them out of the volcano. Throwing both passengers off and leaving the Night Fury without an operator for half its tail.

The dragon, at Hiccup's prompting, landed near where she dangled, putting even more weight on the branch. It would not hold for long.

"Hiccup, get me down from here!" she half-ordered and half-pleaded, hating the fear in her voice even as she frantically tried to figure out how to survive a fall from this height. Any way down was better than that, but of course, he wouldn't just take her down.

"You have to give me a chance to explain," he called down, his voice desperate.

So he still thought he could just explain away all of this? Well, with a dragon at his beck and call, as it seemed... maybe he could. If he had the right reasons...

No. "I am not listening to anything you have to say!" she shouted defiantly. He would not convince her of anything.

"Then I won't speak," he retorted. "Just let me show you. Please, Astrid." He offered her his hand.

To be brought into the saddle, instead of carried... to not fall to her death. That choice was obvious, and if he was so desperate to explain, she could get him to bring her back to the ground. Anything to not be dangling from this tree.

She pulled herself into the saddle, studiously not thinking about what she was sitting on, or who she was sitting so close behind. It was a good thing nobody important could see this.

"Now get me down," she ordered.

"Toothless, down. Gently," Hiccup commanded, though his voice lacked any sort of force beyond what she would expect to hear in a polite request from anyone else.

The dragon spread its wings obligingly, and the wind began to lighten its weight, the branch beneath it slowly coming back to its normal shape as the pressure was lifted. In moments they were hovering over the tree, unattached to the world.

"See? Nothing to be afraid of."

With that, the dragon exploded into motion, launching them straight up, gaining speed at a tremendous pace. Astrid leaned forward and grabbed onto Hiccup, utterly terrified of falling off. She was screaming in his ear, but at the moment the only thing passing through her mind was pure fear, so it wasn't intentional revenge so much as a coincidence. They went up and up, not slowing, actually gaining speed as they moved, leaving the world behind.

"Toothless!" Hiccup shouted. "What is wrong with you?! Bad dragon!" He half-turned in the saddle to look at Astrid, far calmer than anyone strapped to an insane flying reptile had any right to be, looking more embarrassed than anything. "He's not usually like this."

If she could, she would have laughed at that, but at the moment that was the furthest thing from her mind.

"Oh no," Hiccup continued, looking utterly annoyed. What? The climb was just leveling out, and she felt strangely weightless...

And then they were dropping like a stone towards the unforgiving ocean below. She couldn't breathe very well, but what air she did pull in went to screaming.

The dragon continued to plummet until just above the surface, flinging itself and its passengers through the froth, soaking them both. Astrid stopped screaming, preoccupied with not choking on the cold water being thrown in her face, though Hiccup's body in front of her blocked most of it.

"Toothless, what are you doing?!" Hiccup demanded as they headed back up just as quickly as before. "We need her to like us!"

Then the dragon tilted, moving in a new way that Astrid did not like at all.

"And now the spinning," Hiccup deadpanned, still impossibly not afraid. "Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile."

Astrid covered her eyes, unable to take the sight of the world turning in every direction. The feeling was far more than enough to make her sick.

It was too much. She gave up her last shred of dignity. "Okay, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Just get me off of this thing!" At this point, she might have preferred it to just drop her and be done with it!

Astrid twisted in the air, looking down. She refused to die with her back to fate. The Night Fury was beside her, also falling, and Hiccup...

Far below. He had been struck directly, flung down as opposed to sideways. His eyes were closed, his head streaming blood from a cut, his body limp.

Below him, below all three of them, was nothing but yellow fog and the smell of sulfur. But Astrid knew what had to be down there, what had streamed off of the monstrosity that lived here, molten rock, the blood of the world. There would be no surviving this.

Hiccup did not respond to her plea for mercy. The dragon did, leveling off so quickly she almost didn't notice, and then heading up at a far more relaxed pace, slowing and flying steadily beneath the massive clouds lining the sky as the sun set.

They flew like that for a few minutes, getting closer and closer to the clouds. The dragon beneath her was flying so smoothly it felt like she was motionless, the wind moving her hair of its own accord.

They got so close to the clouds that she could touch them. She did, wondering what it would feel like. Would they be solid, or coarse like wool?

No, they were just like mist, insubstantial and vaguely wet. She smiled wonderingly. This was as amazing as the rest of the flight had been terrifying.

It was still terrible... but she could deal with all of that later. For now, Hiccup wanted to convince her, and as long as he thought he stood a chance, she could safely enjoy being somewhere no Viking could ever go. She had not wanted to be here so it was not treason, and this might be her only chance.

So she said nothing, letting the moments linger and pass. The sun disappeared below the horizon and the dragon took them up and through the clouds, leveling out again just above them as night fell upon the world. Through a break in those clouds, she could see lights.

Berk, far below, looking small yet strong, even from this far up. Another sight nobody had ever seen before-

Nobody but Hiccup. This was his place. He was the explorer; she the passenger. The dragon was his noble steed.

Not noble; dragons were not noble, and not faithful, because it had totally ignored his frustration in that terrifying flight, but it was his steed nonetheless. She did not understand how or why, but she understood the result.

"Alright, I admit it," she said quietly, "this is pretty cool. It's... amazing."

Her thoughts turned back to the dragon. What had Hiccup done? Dragons were enemies, but somehow this one was not anymore. It was calm, now at least, and seemed content to fly with them on its back...

If it could fly without Hiccup. She recalled the glimpses she had gotten of its saddle, and the odd contraption Hiccup worked with his foot. Of the asymmetrically-colored tail.

It was a cripple, and Hiccup was the only way it could regain the sky. Maybe that was it. That didn't feel like the whole answer, but it was probably part of it.

"He's amazing," she realized, tentatively touching the dragon's side with her hand. Amazingly different. Would it be like this with any other dragon, or was this one unique? She didn't know. Later. Questions like that could be asked later.

They turned from Berk, flying out over the sea.

Some questions could be asked later, but one, in particular, was beginning to bother her. Hiccup worked with this dragon, and at some point, he had to have had the chance to kill it. If it was worth more to him alive than dead...

He had never even struck a dragon in the arena that she could remember. Oh, she had always assumed that was what had happened when she rounded a corner and saw her target sprawled out and mostly unconscious, but she had never seen it.

He didn't hurt them. She did not pretend to understand why. That was another question she could ask later. But... "What now?"

Hiccup sighed, somehow catching her meaning. Then again, his victory in dragon training was probably fresh on his mind. His view on what was and was not possible had not been shattered in the last hour.

"Hiccup," she continued, "your final exam is tomorrow. You know you're going to have to kill a..."

Actually, she probably shouldn't be so loud about that while on the back of a dragon. She lowered her voice. "Kill a dragon."

"Don't remind me," Hiccup groaned.

She felt a flash of frustration. What, did he think he was going to avoid it somehow? But before she could continue on that line of conversation, a strange sound began to grow in the distance, as if it was approaching. She realized with a flash of fear that they were far from Berk, out over the ocean. She didn't know where they were.

The dragon's ear plates rose, and it looked around, appearing panicked. It dipped beneath the top of the clouds, hiding the world from sight... or hiding from something.

A Night Fury was hiding from something. Astrid felt a strong flash of fear at that realization.

"Toothless, what's happening?" Hiccup asked, far too loudly in Astrid's opinion. "What is it?"

The dragon barked at him as if to tell him to be quiet. Silence descended upon the three of them, making the oddly chaotic hissing sound surrounding them the only thing Astrid heard. What was it?

Then a familiar silhouette was faintly visible to the right. Hiccup noticed it first, only moments before to became entirely visible. "Get down," he hissed at Astrid, hunching over in the saddle. She followed suit. The Nightmare drifted closer, becoming more visible.

Another dragon appeared out of the mist on the other side, boxing their dragon in. A Zippleback, with something large and limp in its clutches.

"What's going on?" she asked, whispering furtively.

"I don't know," he replied. "Toothless, you've got to get us out of here."

His dragon hissed at him. The clouds began to thin-

Astrid held in a gasp of utter fear as it became clear they were surrounded by scores, maybe even hundreds of dragons. That was the noise; the constant tumult of hissing and growling as dragons jockeyed for a position in the massive flock. It was a terrifying scene, and they were stuck in the middle of it.

The one responsible for all of this, the monster that was apparently the root cause of the entire war, wasn't even visible now. It had eaten another dragon and receded into the sickly yellow fog. That did not help. They were going to die without its interference anyway.

In the seconds they spent plummeting down, Astrid tried to make peace with the fact that she was going to die here. It was a warrior's death, and at the nest no less. That would offer her a place in Valhalla as long as she faced it without fear.

As they flew, trapped in the middle of a horde of dragons, Astrid nervously looked around. All of the common species were present, and most carried some sort of animal. Sheep, cows, large Tuna, smaller fish of other varieties...

Hiccup understood what that meant. "It looks like they're... hauling in their kill."

"What does that make us?" she asked even more nervously. How under control was the Night Fury beneath them?

Before Hiccup could answer, if he even had an answer to give, The dragons all banked and dove in formation, plummeting through the thickening fog and weaving between towering, craggy sea stacks. They emerge at the base of a massive volcanic caldera glowing with rivulets of lava.

The flock of dragons fell into rank, funneling through a crack in the side of the caldera, all headed to whatever lay on the other side. Astrid instinctively ducked a little further down as the dragon carrying her and Hiccup passed through the crack in turn. A moment of nightmarish darkness passed all too slowly as they zipping through an oddly straight tunnel. Eventually, the claustrophobic passageway gave way to a vast, steamy inner chamber, tiered with pocky shelves. Dragons of all breeds lay about, nested in hordes. The further down Astrid looked, the less occupied the ledges were, and at a certain point, the yellow sulfuric fog obscured her view of anything further, a deeper red color tinging the fog directly below them.

Then, even as she looked, something fell into the center of that fog. A dead sheep, by the looks. Then a tuna.

She looked up and noticed that all of the dragons were taking turns dropping their food into the pit. What was the point in that?

"What my dad wouldn't give to find this," Hiccup murmured.

The Night Fury veered away from the other dragons long before it became time for it to drop its own cargo, much to Astrid's relief, landing on a mostly-obscured ledge. It was hiding again, though this time she felt that it was hiding Hiccup more than itself.

Not her. Did it care about her? Of course not, Hiccup was its master. She was just... whatever it saw other humans as. She really didn't know. Honestly, for all she knew there was a chance it would follow anyone's orders through some quirk of its nature, and Hiccup had just been the first one to notice that. That was very unlikely, but she couldn't rule it out.

Later. Now was not the time to think of whether the one definitely friendly dragon would listen to her. Now was the time to worry about all the less friendly dragons.

And, apparently, to worry about the stupidity of said dragons. Hiccup was leaning forward in the saddle, watching the pointless waste of food continue. "It's satisfying to know that all of our food has been dumped down a hole," he remarked sarcastically.

"They're not eating any of it," she observed. If they didn't eat what they stole, what did they eat? And why steal in the first place?

As she tried to remember if she had ever seen any dragon actually eat anything, the procession wound down, the last few dragons dropping their offering. Last in line was a fat and sluggish Gronckle, which did not seem to be carrying anything. It bumbled out over the center of the pit and proceeded to open its mouth and drop a single, pathetic scrap of fish. It scratched itself and turned to go, apparently satisfied with that.

Then, with absolutely no warning, the volcano erupted. Or at least that was what Astrid thought for a split second before seeing and understanding the far more terrifying truth. A dragon covered in lava had lurched up from the obscured depths, snagging and swallowing the delinquent Gronckle whole without a second thought.

"What is that?" she whispered, terrified for what felt like the tenth time tonight. This thing was far worse than any guess she had ever heard as to what resided at the Nest. It was not in the book of dragons. Bork the Bold would have sworn off of investigating dragons forever if he had ever seen this.

The monstrosity turned, its massive nostrils dilated, its beady eyes searching. Then it saw them.

A tremendous roar shook the volcano, and dragon rose in flight, swarming in their haste to leave. It had seen them, and it was not happy, to the point where the other dragons wanted no part in its anger.

"Alright buddy, we gotta get out of here," Hiccup remarked hurriedly even as the Night Fury spread its wings and the monstrously large dragon leaned closer to their ledge. "Now!"

A sharp pain in her arm, jerking upward and tearing at her, latching onto her bone. Astrid screamed as much through shock as pain, looking back, time still feeling sluggish and slow. They had not yet passed through the yellowish fog that meant sure death.

The Night Fury's claws dug into and through her arm, a grip that tortured her in this final moment. It had grabbed her.

But it was not looking at her, not even as its wings flared, as their fall slowed and turned into a dive in a slanted direction towards the walls of the hollow mountain. It was not looking at her.

She turned back to follow its line of sight. There was Hiccup, out of reach and even now disappearing into the fog.

They could not get to him, not even if the goal was simply to grab him before all three of them plunged into lava or smashed into unforgiving stone. It was so very impossible that she knew it instinctively. There was no saving him.

His eyes still closed, Hiccup disappeared into the fog below.

Her arm was in agony, but Astrid grabbed at the paws torturing her with her other hand, holding on as the Night Fury dove for the wall, for the ledges and caves that dotted it. They might get out-

Impact, the air driven from her as she hit and rolled, slamming to a stop against stone. Pain, so much of it. Had she thought training and taking bruises from sparring partners hurt? This was the real thing, and she knew better now.

But it was over for the moment. She let her eyes close, trying to just calm down. Death avoided for the moment.

For herself, anyway. Hiccup had gotten unlucky. He was gone, without a shadow of a doubt. There would be no miraculous survival, no near-miss such as hers. He was dead.

Her arm throbbed and her head spun, but Astrid sat up anyway, forcing herself to quickly assess if there was anything she needed to do now. Now, because she was pretty sure once the adrenaline wore off she would be out of it for a while. Enough stories of warriors fainting after the battle was over gave her a reason to suspect that would be the case here.

Her arm. She brought it up into view to assess the damage, having to use her good hand to pull it up.

It was bad, so bad. Torn to shreds, dripping blood. She could see a little bone in some places, and the pain was curiously dull and distant now. She pulled off her tunic and tied a tourniquet around her upper arm, hopefully keeping the rest of her blood inside her. It hurt, in a distant way.

Anything else? She glanced down at herself, but aside from a multitude of cuts and bruises, there were no other injuries. That, at least, was going her way.

Next, she needed to take stock of her location. A ledge, one with a few caves off to the side, facing out into the terrible hollow mountain. That monster was down there somewhere, down in the yellow sulphuric mist and smog. At the moment there were no dragons, but they might return.

Her mind was slowly derailed by the depth of the pit in front of her, her careful, practical analysis of the situation fading as she stared.

Hiccup was gone. That could have been her. Might still be her, in some way very soon.

But he was gone, leaving her to figure out everything on her own. Her and...

She looked back, fully registering the black, bleeding mass over to her right, slumped against the wall. The Night Fury. If it was even still alive.

One question slowly materialized as her vision darkened. She had just enough presence of mind to lay down before the dizziness hit, her mind fading.

Why had it saved her?

Author's Note: This story was not an easy one to write. Not because of angst; I'm okay at that, and there's actually not much to be found here. Astrid, or at least this Astrid, torn from canon at this time, is not one to mourn all that much, and we're only going to get her perspective.

The plot was also not a difficult one; it flowed and changed as I wrote, improving itself almost spontaneously. The hardest part was actually Astrid. I'm not sure how good I am at writing her character. There's just something about her that I find difficult to write. Not impossible, and it's doubly satisfying when I get it right, just difficult.

Also, a more general note. I have, as with all of my stories, written this entire thing already. It's done. So there will be no abandoning it, no adding to the sad collection of 'promising but perpetually unfinished' stories on this site. I hate that, more than almost anything. So don't worry, come Hell or high water this story will update regularly (which is also why I held off beginning it until I was back in a place where I can once again post reliably). I am still entirely open to editing or correcting things, though.

On the subject of guest reviews… I try to respond to those down here, but if it's just a 'great story' take this as my blanket 'thanks!' for all such reviews. I only respond to guest reviewers, or normal reviewers, if I have something to say. (And really, I'd greatly prefer people to have accounts, as I can actually hold a conversation that way, instead of shouting into the void).

On a more meta note that might interest some of you, I actually wrote the flashback scenes with the aid of a copy of the script I have for some reason saved as a text file. It's the 2010 final edition… and still contains a few lines of dialogue that didn't make the final cut, apparently. Such as a few 'Hiccup introduces his neighbors' lines from the opening spiel. I can't be sure that's actually legit though, simply because I have no memory of where or when I found it and apparently copied it to a text file.