Mauled

3: Reset

3: Reset

"AGAIN!" Hiccup snapped, panting hard, sweat trailing over his flushed face. Astrid backed up, also breathing hard, her axe raised.

"You're exhausted," she argued. He growled and lunged at her, forcing her to defend herself urgently as his sword clanged over and over against the blade of her axe.

"You don't get stronger by resting!" he growled at her. His voice still wasn't back to normal but the moment he had been allowed from the house he had gone flying on Toothless-and then started practising with the sword. She could read the pain from his half-healed wounds in the shadows under his eyes but he refused to listen to any protests and had pushed himself harder than any of them. Astrid backed away, seeing him lunge again before spinning and slamming him back with her axe. She was astonishingly strong for a woman and she could match him for strength-but he was stronger than his lean shape suggested, from years hanging onto a Night Fury in a thousand crazy stunts and working in a forge. But she could see that certain movements hurt him and because she cared for him, she wouldn't cause him pain. So she went easy on him-and that just seemed to anger him. He threw his sword down.

"You have to fight me!" he shouted at her and she blinked, lowering her axe.

"Excuse me?" she asked, her eyes narrowing. He glared at her.

"You don't have to treat me like some pathetic loser!" he snarled.

"Ha! As if!" Snotlout said too loudly and Hiccup turned on him furiously. He marched up to the shorter, stockier young man, his blazing emerald gaze boring into the shocked face.

"You have something to say, Snotlout?" he growled, the fading bruises across his throat moving as he breathed hard. Snotlout paused-and then his eyes narrowed in unjustified superiority.

"Yeah," he said unwisely. "I mean, would a proper Viking warrior be so easily captured by five different people?" Hiccup stiffened and glared.

"Get out of my sight," he hissed. "I'm sending you back to the Edge!"

"Hey," Snotlout protested. "I want to spend some time with my family and..."

"Back. To. The. Edge!" Hiccup roared and Snotlout backed up, his eyes shocked and drifting to his fellow riders for support. Astrid stared across them, reading uncertainty and hurt. And fear, she realised. This wasn't their friend, the Hiccup they knew. So she lowered her axe and walked calmly towards him.

"Hiccup?" she began but he turned on her.

"When I ask to spar, I expected you to take it seriously!" he accused her sharply. "I know I need to improve-or I will remain a liability..."

"You're not a liability," she assured him but he took an abrupt step towards her and she found herself almost backing up a pace. When did he get so intimidating? she asked herself.

"Now who's lying?" he sneered. "I need honesty off you, Astrid. And I need your help." She nodded.

"You know-I would do anything," she assured him, her expression gentler. He closed his eyes for a second.

"Take them all back to the Edge," he said firmly. "Check the defences and make sure all the watch towers are in good order. I don't want the Hunters to wreck our base while we're here." She looked into his face, the bruises fading but still obvious and the thick collar of bruising across his throat still purple and hard.

"Are you sure?" she asked him gently but his face fell into a scowl.

"Why-you think I can't make my own mind up?" he asked her sarcastically. But it wasn't his normal good-humoured sarcasm: this was bitter and pointed directly at her. And she found herself wilting a little under his scornful glare.