Prince Meets Peasant (Hiccstrid) (On hold)

Chapter 4

Astrid's P.O.V.

When I'm changed, I walk out before looking around in confusion. "Mother, where's my cloak?" I ask as I hand her the dress.

"Hidden under a gallon of deer blood," she says before showing me that it was in her bag. "I'm going to give it a scrub before you wear it again," she explains.

"Mother," I whine but she shakes her head. "Fine," I sigh before kissing her cheek and walking outside, Hayden annoyingly on my tail. I leave Stormfly to rest as I continue about the village, Hayden still bugging me about my name. "Excuse my rudeness in advance but must you continue to be a nag, your highness?" I ask him as we walk to the baker.

"You could make me stop with four simple words," he says.

"That depends if you're including last name," I tell him.

"Which I am not," he replies. Suddenly, I'm tackled to the ground. "Crap," Hayden hisses.

"Get off me, Benny!" I giggled as said girl started tickling me. After a minute of torturous finger jabbing, I get the strength to over power her and pin her to the dirt. "How many times have I told you that brute force always wins against affection?" I ask and she rolls her eyes. She pushes me off her and I extend my hand to help her up. We dust ourselves off before she swings her hands behind her back.

"So, I'm bored. Do you need company in running your errands?" she asks.

"I'm afraid all my company spots are filled," I sigh and point at Hayden who was staring at us in confusion. She sees him for the first time and jumps behind me with a shout of surprise.

"Oh! My Thor!" she shouts as she grabs my shoulders. She didn't really have a knack for the royal family either.

"I'm starting to wonder how many people in this village hate me," Hayden says.

"We're pretty much the only ones. So don't worry, your reputation still stands strong...unlike my father," I muttered the last part under my breath. I was determined to hold that against him.

"So this is what he looks like up close?" Benny asks as she looks at him. "I'm use to seeing him with a bunch of hearts surrounding his face. I hate living with those two," she finishes with a shutter. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were her step siblings. I let a snicker escape my lips. "They've started hanging posters of him in my room because their walls are too full!" she complains, making me laugh harder.

"It's ridiculous how much they idolize him!" I laugh, clutching my abdomen.

"You know it's rude to speak of someone as if they're not here," Hayden says and we pause to look at him.

"We aren't asking you to be here," Benny says. He rolls his eyes but doesn't move.

"So, we've spoken our peace. You can either go back to the tower, Rapunzel, or you can continue to hear us talk like this," I tell him and Benny nods before we continue to the baker.

"Rapunzel?" she asks with laughter in her voice.

"He needs a haircut," I tell her before we laugh.

"So where's Stormfly?" she asks as we walk into the baker.

"At the tailors," I reply.

"I didn't know you were taking her to the galla!" she jokes and I roll my eyes.

"I'm letting my mother ride her home," I explain and she nods.

"Well, well, well. It's the barn rat and her minion," a voice snears and we turn around to see Heather smirking at us. We ignore her and turn back to inspecting a loaf of bread. "I saw you hanging out with Prince Hayden a few minutes ago. Just wanted to let you know that there's no way he'd go for a bunch of princess-wannabe's," she continues and I can't hold my voice anymore.

"Thanks for the tip. But I don't think we're the ones who need it," I say as I pull out a hand mirror and hand it to her. She smiles as she takes it and smashes it on the table. She then took a shard of glass and jabbed it into my hand. I gave her a cool stare as my muscles tensed in pain. She took her hand away and wiped my blood on my sleeve before walking out. When she's out of sight, I fall to my knees and grab my wrist tightly, trying to stop the blood flow. Benny got down with me and took out the glass before wrapping my hand in a towel. Tears didn't blur my vision but I was still breathing heavily and hissing as the pain stung my entire arm.

"Come along," my friend says as she helps me to my feet. Villagers in the baker started murmuring worriedly as we left and started for Benny's house. When we get there, her mother stitches my hand and wraps it before we hang out in her room. We of course barricaded the door so the Nuts wouldn't get in. "So how long has Hayden been following you?" she asks as she sits next to the window.

"Since we met in the forest this morning. It's the first time I've been off the farm since Stormfly came back," I say, "Why?"

"Because he's next door," she says.

"What?!" I shout before running for the window and following her gaze. "Oh ha, ha," I laugh sarcastically as I see she was joking. She flops down on her bed, laughing her lungs out. "You know, he is so annoying! I hide him from one stampede and he suddenly needs to know everything about me," I say in exasperation as I take her seat.

"Wait! You hid him?!" she asks. I freeze as I realize what she was thinking.

"Oh, man, I'm screwed," I sigh.

"You take the bed. I've grown used to the floor," she grunts as she gets up to go to her closet.

"Tank q," I say childishly and she nods as she pulls a blanket and pillow from her closet. "You know what. I'll take the floor. I find your bed a tad on the soft side," I say, taking the things from her.

"Okay, Goldilocks," she sighs and I roll my eyes. A knock sounds on the door and we immediately shut our mouths.

"Benny? Astrid?" Benny's mother's voice calls. We unbarricate the door and let her in. "Honey, how many times have your father and I-" Benny cut her off.

"He's not my father," she says in exasperation.

"How many times have we told you not to block your door?" she finishes.

"But the Nuts are complete annoying jerks!" Benny whines.

"What if there's a fire? We don't want to risk you two getting hurt. Now please keep this door unblocked for the rest of the week," her mother says and she nods grudgingly. After she leaves, we start to make the floor up for me.