More Than a Servant (Cinderella AU)

Chapter 6

"She was the one dad, I swear!" Hiccup argued as he paced his father's study. "I don't get why she ran off like that!"

"Well what makes you think she's the one, son?" Stoick asked, rubbing his head. "She obviously doesn't know how to treat dragons, she hit yours with a glass shoe!"

"I could sense a connection between us! And we bonded in the garden too!" Hiccup tried to explain. "I know her name and I want to return this back to her." The prince pulled out a small glass slipper from his coat pocket and held it up. "I don't know where she even lives, but if I can find her then maybe...I don't know."

"And then what are you gonna do, marry her?" Stoick asked, sounding a little too hopeful.

"No, at least not yet dad. I wanna get to know her well, I seriously doubt after one night she'll want to marry me." Hiccup responded, shaking his head. "At least I know her name and what she looks like so I won't have to search so much."

Stoick noticed that look in his son's eyes when he was talking about the girl. It was that same look he had in his eyes when he was telling his father the reasons he wanted to marry Valka Holgate, a simple village girl instead of princess Eleanor who was an acquaintance of his at the time. While tradition called for a prince or king to marry a girl of royal status, who was he to try and stop his own son from following his heart if he had done the same many years before?

"Then go find her." Stoick said rising from his seat. "Find your princess and bring her her here. And take your friends as well."

"Must I?" Hiccup groaned. "Snotlout's gonna be blaring a trumpet and yelling out, 'WILL A BLONDE WHO IS A SIZE FOUR AND GOES BY THE NAME OF ASTRID PLEASE COME FORTH!', I am not gonna let him come along."

"Then you won't go." Stoick says with a shrug. "You either take your cousin or let Eret do the finding."

"Fine! But I'm bringing Dagur along to keep an eye on that mutton head!" Hiccup groaned.

~~~~~

"She could have been wearing a wig for all we know." Snotlout said as they were departing from the castle on their dragons. "I mean, it's possible and she could be wearing a mask and be way older than twenty."

"She was not wearing a wig or a mask Snotlout, I know that for sure." Hiccup groans, trying to resist the urge to turn around and smack his cousin.

"Well we just gotta look for a blonde with a size four left foot." Eret said patting the satchel where the slipper was being kept. "That pretty much narrows down the search a bit."

"Plus she could have lied about her name." Tuffnut added. "I would have lied about my name so no one would know who I was exactly."

"For once can you all just shut up?!" Dagur yelled from the back. "Let the poor guy find his girl without you all putting in your idiotic two cents!"

"Thank you!" Hiccup said with a sigh of relief. "Now let's start searching through the village shall we? Look for a twenty year old girl with blonde hair, sapphire blue eyes and size four feet, and who possibly goes by Astrid."

As the men went through the entire village, they attempted to slip the glass slipper on the foot of every girl. Twice someone nearly broke it while trying to pound it into their foot, but Hiccup was quite sure that the shoe was made of something sturdier than glass.

"I don't think this is glass, it's not see through." Tuffnut announced as they continued their search. "I think it's ice."

"No way it's made of ice." Snotlout snorted. "It would have melted!"

"Remember that one kingdom in the north that owned an ice dragon?" Eret asked. "The shoe looks like the same material of the dragon's ice."

"Are you saying that Hiccup fell in love with the queen of Arendell?"

"No idiot, they don't even look the same!" Dagur retorted. "What Eret is trying to say is that she owns a Bewilderbeast and the slippers look like it's made from its ice. Perhaps our mystery lady is a friend of the ice queen and the slippers were made and given to her as a gift."

"If they are, we can go visit her and ask if she's given anyone shoes like this." Fishlegs suggested. "That is, if we can't find anyone here who fits it. And I'm sure queen Elsa wouldn't mind giving us a hand in searching for who owns the slipper."

"We'll find her." Hiccup assured them. "She's close, I just know it."

☆☆☆☆

Astrid was humming softly to herself as she was mopping the floor of the grand hall. As she hummed, she pretended the mop was Hiccup as she twirled between the columns of the house. She could still hear the music that played in the ballroom that night, the swell of the violins and the soft flutes that guided their dance steps, and-

"Girl!" Astrid stopped dancing as Alvin stormed into the room. Oh gods what did he want now?

"Yes sir?" She asked, gritting her teeth and gripping the mop tightly.

"Finish up this room, the prince and his court are coming!" Alvin said pushing past her briskly.

"Why?" Astrid asked.

"Last night a girl ran from the ball and left behind a glass slipper, and whoever fits the slipper shall be the prince's bride!" Ruffnut said as the entered the room with Heather. "Man that girl is so lucky!"

"But father if the prince's court is coming with him, two of them would recognize me and Ruffnut. We danced with two of his court members so we probably won't get to have the slipper fitted." Heather pointed out and Ruffnut nodded.

"I don't care! You two better get yourselves ready!" Alvin barked angrily and turned to Astrid. "And I expect you to be out of the room when they come, you're looking very offensive at the moment!"

Astrid looked down at her torn dress and leggings that was covered in soot, her dirty apron, and her holey boots and frowned. Wasn't her fault that her clothes got dirty and torn whenever she cleaned up the house. She was a firm believer that if her work clothes weren't covered in dirt and dust by the end of the day, she hadn't tried hard enough with her cleaning.

"I'll be in my room when I'm done." She said rolling her eyes and started mopping again.

"Oh you should have been there Astrid, it was such a wonderful ball!" Ruffnut gushed. "And Heather got to dance with the cutest looking man of the prince's court!"

"Eh, he was okay." Heather said blushing a bit.

"Well I'm sure the boys you danced with will be happy to see you two." Astrid said giving her sisters a pleased smile. "Too bad I won't be in here to see the shoe fitting."

"Well what I heard was that any girl could try on the shoe that was thrown at the prince's dragon, so maybe you could try it on too!" Ruffnut suggested and her sister nodded in agreement.

"Yeah! Besides you deserve a chance even if you weren't at the ball." Heather adds with a hopeful smile.

"Thanks, but if I can I will try to have my foot fitted." Astrid said giving them a smile. "Now get going and make yourselves look pretty, I have to make this floor look so shiny the prince could see his own reflection!"

As soon as her stepsisters left, Astrid began thinking of the prince. So that's who Hiccup was. And she had the nerve to throw her shoe at his Night Fury. What an honor it was to dance and talk with him!

'Maybe if I get my work done in time before he comes, I could clean myself up a bit so he could recognize me.' She thought and gave a sigh. 'I just hope he remembered my name.'