When I Come Back

Not YOURS

Astrid

  I had had a normal patrol, I just needed to check the caves in the cliffs at the edge of the forest. All of them seemed to be normal, until I came to a cave that had a flickering light catch my attention.

  I motion to Stormfly that something was there and that we needed to be stealthy. So we land on the side of the cliff, next to the cave entrance. I hopped off of Stormfly and crawled into the cave lightly, Stormfly mimicking my movements.

  The cave was fairly lit by the flickering light at the end of the tunnel, making my job easier. You can't be stealthy, if you don't know where anything is.

  Stormfly and I were getting close to the end of the cave, when something growled.

That's Toothless!

  I abandoned my plan and quickly ran the rest of the way into the cave yelling his name happily. Little did I know that he had a friend.

  As soon as I see Toothless, I see him, the man I saw earlier in all leather armor, a fire in the middle of the cave, a bunch of old raggedy clothes laid on the ground, made to act as a bed, a bag full of his belongings, a candle next to a few drawing, two pencils, a journal, a pile of Night Fury scales, and a few leather cut outs of body armor peices.

  I raise my axe, "Step away from the dragon!" I saw in a warning tone.

  He crosses his arms and leans against Toothless, who was still growling at me, "Or what?"

  "Or I'll take this axe and shove it-" He interupts me...

  He stands back up on his own two feet and takes a few steps away from the Night Fury, "Alright, alright. I can do without the vulgar language. You do realize that the dragon has a name right? Or did you forget that too?"

  "My what language?!?" I shake my head, "Look, I don't know who you are, but what I do know is that is NOT your dragon and I can care less what you named him!"

  "Wow!" He said, acting suprised with arms crossed, "Who knew you'd get more aggressive as you got older?"

  "What?" He knew me when I was younger?

  "Doesn't matter," he snaps me from my thoughts, " It time for you to go."

  "Excuse you!" I exclaim, enraged, "This is not your island and that is not your dragon! So it's time for YOU to leave!"

  He shrugs his shoulders, "Maybe, but are they yours?"

  "Yes!"

  "Oh really? So this is your island and he is your dragon?" He asks dryly.

  "Well..." I start to explain, but he yet again cuts me off.

  "That's what I thought. This island belongs to the cheif and Toothless belongs to the chief's son, Hiccup. In fact, this island belongs to me more than it belongs to you. So like I said earlier, it's time for you to go."

  Before I could react, he motioned something to Toothless and he blew out the fire, seizing all light from the cave. I had only been in the cave twice before, the walls and corridors were unfamiliar to me. The darkness in this mysterious cave made it seem like it could stretch in any direction for as long as I could walk.

  A hissing sound brought my attention around to a certain direction in the endless field of black, but shortly after the hissing had started, a familiar yet unpleasant scent filled my nose, clouded, traveled to my head and filled it with black as well.

                                                       ***
  Color slowly starts to reappear in my confused and overcrowded head. It's as if my thoughts hadn't vanished, but instead were just simply covered by the gas. Zippleback gas!!

  My closed eyelids that made it easier to focus on my thoughts, snapped open, blinded by light, and throat stinging from the acids within the gas.

  When the coughing finally seized and my eyes adjusted, I recognized five faces looking at me. Concern covering their faces, distracting them from their reports of the things they had encountered throughout the day.

  I looked around, but the many wheels in my brain had yet to start turning, preventing me from recognizing the familiar place.

  "Where am I?"

  "The Great Hall. We found you washed up on shore and decided to take here next to the biggest fireplace of Berk. " Heather reported.

  "Washed up?" I asked, not recalling ever being near the sea.

  "Yeah, you were soaking wet and just a few inches from the water when we found you." Responded Fishlegs.

  "So I was on a beach?" I asked.

  "Yeah?" They all said in unison, trying to figure out what thought was repeating in my head.

  "Which beach?"

  "The Southern beaches. Why?" asked Snotlout, growing impateint.

  I bring my hand up and press it against my forehead, "This doesn't make any sense..."

  "What happened, Astrid." said Heather, concerned.

  "I was at the North of the Island the entire time. In the forest I saw the figure, it a guy, who is skilled in fighting, he's tall, wears amor made of yak skin, a cylinder thing that I think emits the Zippleback gas that he keeps using on me, and the dragons don't see him as a threat at all...." I continued telling them about both my encounters with him today and how he keeps talking about my youth and how I don't remember things about him that I should.

  "Who could this be? This doesn't make any sense at all." Fishlegs said, pacing back and forth with his hand behind his back.

  "Oh come on!" Tuff exclaimed "Isn't it obvious who it is?"