Battle Scars | Book 1 (DISCONTINUED)

Ch. 9: Confrontation

It was still night, and only 30 minutes had passed since Alice told the truth about her past. Astrid and Hiccup were still conflicted; the girl had been lying to them the moment she arrived on the island, and they felt that they should be mad about it. But after hearing her reasons, it seemed pretty understandable why she did.

"If she is telling the truth... Then what should we do?" Astrid asked, leaning on one of the work tables. They had gone into another room to leave Alice alone for a few minutes before they decided on what they should do.

Hiccup was silent for a moment, then he spoke with an unsure tone. "I think... maybe we should confront Alice's chief and see if he'd be willing to negotiate." he answered. "We can't just throw ourselves into war without trying to stop it."

"Are you sure?" Astrid questioned, the memory of what happened last time Hiccup tried to talk sense into a maniac. "What if we just end up causing another Drago situation?"

Hiccup sighed, running his hand through his hair to try and calm himself. "We don't have time to decide. Now that Brenna knows more about our defenses.... We need to leave for Alryne immediately. Gather the riders, we're heading out."

"Wait- now?! We can't just leave now!" Astrid argued. "We don't have a plan, or any idea what we're walking into- shouldn't we at least wait til morning to question Alice?!"

"We might not have until morning," the chief said as he grabbed his helmet from one of the tables and put it over his head. "I'll go get Toothless. Go tell Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins to saddle up. And Alice, too. She's the only one who can lead us there." Without another word, the brunette man rushed out of the forge and towards his house. Astrid sighed, knowing there was no arguing with him, and started to leave to go get Stormfly. However, she stopped when she heard a loud snore beside her, and looked over at the bench where Alice was sitting. The girl was now curled up on the floor next to Flash, asleep beneath the dragon's wing and resting her head on his saddle.

She knelt down beside them, feeling bad that she had to wake them up. Alice had gone through so much, and probably wasn't going to like the idea of going back to the village she betrayed so soon. But at the moment she was Berk's only hope. She grabbed Alice's shoulder and lightly shook her awake. The teenager stopped snoring and her brown eyes opened slowly, then she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Huh..." she muttered as Flash began to wake up beside her. The Flightmare made a high pitched yawn, stretching out his front legs.

"Alice, are you awake?" Astrid wanted to make sure she was awake enough to understand her.

"Yeah, why...?" Alice sounded a lot more awake now- and had the smallest hint of nervousness in her voice. Flash simply gave Astrid an annoyed glare- she wasn't sure if it was because he didn't trust her or if he was mad at her for waking him up.

"Listen, I know this sounds crazy, but we need you to show us the way to Alryne." Astrid explained as quickly and calmly as she could. Alice's eyes widened and she backed away a little in fear.

"W-wait, we're going now?!" she exclaimed, the terror gleaming in her eyes. "No! I can't, they'll kill me!"

"Alice, you're our only hope of finding it," Astrid tried to convince her. "You don't have to confront the chief or anyone there- just show us the way and we'll be back here soon."

Alice was silent, looking thoughtful for a moment. "What are you going to do?"

"Hiccup is just going to try to negotiate with the chief," Astrid reassured her.

She could just tell Alice was thinking "good luck with that", but nevertheless, the girl reluctantly nodded her head after a few seconds. Sighing in relief, Astrid stood up and then helped Alice her up as well. While Alice got ready to leave, Astrid did the same and grabbed her dragon from the stables before flying off to get the other riders.