Knight's Honor

Dinner, Speech, and Revelations

A/N:

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For the next two days, The Black Knight continued to show Astrid around the different parts of the Island. He'd even offered to take her for a flight on a dragon, but she declined. She wouldn't deny that her feelings about dragons were changing, but she wasn't comfortable with the idea of riding one. Astrid even asked if he could spar with her, he declined. She fought all the other Knights and was easily beaten, but she wanted to see The Black Knight's fighting skills.

Among other things, they often spent time watching Stormfly's hatchlings or wander around and talk. She'd learned some more about the other places he had seen and at one point, refusing to believe there was a creature called a rhinoceros.

Other times during the day he would vanish for hours. Usually, she would stay in her room or make conversations with the other Knights. What The Black Knight did during those moments she had no idea. He might be flying, attending to the Island, and she even heard him hammering away at the forge. During her spare time, she spent some time writing down her own observations to present to Stoick upon her return, The Black Knight provided her with charcoal and parchment.

What interested her the most was The Black Knight himself. It wasn't that she was greatly impressed by his ability to live in harmony with dragons, nor his knowledge of the world she would never have imagined. Rather, it was his behavior. She still couldn't shake the feeling that he knew something that she didn't, yet ought to. The way he would move around her at times felt disquietingly familiar. Even after the first day, he stopped discussing his life, minus the details of his travels. Astrid did respect his privacy, but it didn't lessen her curiously about him. She even hoped he would show her his room, but he didn't.

Another thing she found suspicious was that her guide never ate in her presence, only all the other Knights did. Whenever they stopped for a meal during the day he would watch her but ate nothing, and vanished around breakfast and supper time. Astrid only assumed that he was unwilling to take his helmet off. Which raised another question; what exactly is he concealing? This further fueled the sense that she knew him from somewhere. He also seemed to know a lot about her and Berk, whenever she mentioned it, he would just shrug and mumble about being informed. Astrid wasn't entirely convinced his spy network or whatever he used is his sole source of information.

Looking at the helmet and wondered what it concealed was greatly frustrating to her. She seemed to know more about the Island, the Order and the Knights who built it, but less she knew about their leader. By the fourth day there she even considered confronting him about it and even thought about getting close to him and taking his helmet off. However, The Black Knight seemed to be aware of this and intentionally kept an arm's length away from her.

She was in her room compiling and organizing her notes for the day when a letter was carried in by a Terror. Its contents asked her if she would like to join The Black Knight for a sunset dinner.

She hastily wrote yes on the parchment and handed it to the Terror. The prospect of having a meal with him suddenly calmed her curiosity, hoping he would answer all of her questions. A small part of her wondered if there was more to this meal, but she didn't want to look too much into it. That didn't stop her from trying to look as attractive as she possibly could and spent more time arranging her hair.

As evening fell she made her way to the Main Hall, where he was waiting with a basket and a blanket tucked under his arm. She instantly noticed he wasn't wearing his helmet nor his armor. Instead, he wore clothing that was colored in a dark gray that appeared to be made out of linen or perhaps silk with the Dragonrider insignia, he wore black leather boots and gloves, a black cape that went down just below the back of his waist, and mask that covered his face but didn't cover his mouth.