I'm Leaving Forever (a HTTYD Runaway Fanfic ~ Book 1)

7 - Accepted

Astrid quickly bolted away from the entrance to the arena when she saw that Hiccup was about to walk out. Keeping her eyes on him, she couldn't get what she had just heard out of her head.

Ever since Hiccup had first appeared back on Berk, alive, her curiosity was begging her to get answered to the questions that kept her from sleeping properly. The return of her best friend since childhood, even if he didn't know it later in their teen years, after he was presumed dead was not something she could just brush off and she spent all of last night yearning for an explanation as to what happened that day. Now, after her curiosity lead her to follow Hiccup and Stoick to the arena, she got it.

Hiccup decided to run away to prevent killing the Monstrous Nightmare. And everything in the ring during Dragon Training had been little cheats he had learnt from spending time with the Night Fury he befriended.

Many other Vikings would consider this an act of treason and the move of a coward, something that would strip Hiccup of his honour and birth right immediately, and from a practical standpoint, she could agree. It was an act of treason and a cowardly move to run away, but she refused to see him as a traitor or a coward. She couldn't. 

Now that she had gotten the full story, one of her long time questions had been answered, but now what. What would she do with that information? No, she wasn't going to tell anyone about what she had just heard, but she felt like she needed to confront Hiccup about it. She was only able to pick out the main points of the story, but she never heard his thoughts and feelings about the whole situation. Maybe if she could talk to him, she could be able to get a better insight. 

Quickly running the direction Hiccup went it, Astrid found herself surrounded by trees. There was hardly any light coming to the forest floor due to the dense, green canopy, and that did hinder her from trying to find Hiccup. She figured that wandering around aimlessly wasn't the best plan in trying to find someone, so she began to pinpoint locations as to where Hiccup could be. Clearly, he was distressed, and needed somewhere to calm down, and the first place that came to Astrid's mind was the cove. So that's where she went.

Approaching the cove after 5 minutes, Astrid unintentionally began to recall memories of what her time was like in the cove. She had never taken frequent visits here, before or after Hiccup's disappearance, but there were some periods of time where she remembered spending nearly her entire day here. One time period after Hiccup had been presumed dead, and the other was when she had first met him. It seemed odd to be thinking about these things now, but she recalled how as a child, she was curious about the scrawny boy that didn't look like anyone else she saw. Like she was doing now, she saw him go into the woods and followed him to the cove. That was where they first talked and became friends. Astrid was thinking that that same curiosity was coming back. She didn't think Hiccup was the same anymore, but she wanted to get to know him and this time, she would make better decisions not to leave him again.

Astrid came down onto one of the rocks that was piled on top of each other up the wall of the cove and crouched down so she could see Hiccup, sitting by the edge of the lake, looking up at the slightly cloudy sky above. She didn't think Hiccup noticed her, so she ventured further down into the cove, slightly unnerved that Hiccup hadn't even shown any acknowledgements to the faint sounds she was making as she jumped down from rock to rock. He didn't even move his eyes, the only thing that was moving was his hair and that was just due to the gentle breeze passing by. Eventually, when Astrid had set foot on the ground and was several metres away from Hiccup, she called out to him.

"Hiccup?" The said Viking turned his head to look at her in surprise. May he really didn't notice her until now.

"Astrid? What are you doing here?" Hiccup was even more shocked when Astrid came to sit next to him in the same position he was in.