Dragon Girls: A New World

Chapter 4: How Hard is it for You to Believe Me?!! (Paintsplash)

Astrid just gaped at me.

"I think you might need to see someone. Like, a nurse or something."

I glared at her. "Like I said before, I DO NOT HAVE A CONCUSSION," I said.

She eyed me dubiously. "Paintsplash," she said. "Then, did you ever consider the possibility that you might've gotten drunk and are still a bit wonky?" I gave her a horrified look.

"I do NOT drink!"

"Then why do you keep insisting that you're a dragon? And that you got teleported into an alternate universe?"

I was really beginning to lose my patience. "Because it's true!," I insisted.

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Ha! Let's see what Stoick thinks." I started. What did she mean, "Let's see what Stoick thinks"? Wasn't he dead? Then I realized: this is a different world. Stoick is still alive.

Which means..., I thought with mounting horror. So is Cinderpaw. And her gang. AND PHOENIX. and Aura, that terrible Night Fury I heard about.

I began to discreetly panic.

Which isn't easy.

After a few minutes of watching me turn purple with my eyes bugging out, Astrid pinched me.

"Are you okay?," she asked, her tone worried.

"I'm just fine," I managed to squeak. "Do you know of a dra--guy named Phoenix?"

Astrid suddenly went white and rigid, her face hard and sullen. "He's....dead...."

Well, that's a reli--wait, no it's not. Cinderpaw will still wanna kill Hiccup.

"How?," I asked, attempting to remain casual.

Astrid looked away and sat on a bench. I sat next to her.

"A few years ago Phoenix and his clan tried to hideout here after committing some big crime in a different city. He set fire to everything here. Hiccup and the gang tried to stop him, and I joined in," Astrid began, staring ahead blankly. "When most of his clan was arrested or killed for violence, he snuck up on me and jumped me. He had these white hot, very long brass knuckles, and he stabbed my left shoulder with them." Astrid lifted up her braid off her bare shoulders to show me the faint white dots, identical to the ones she had before Astradh cleaned and revived her.

Astrid sighed. "Hiccup risked his life to keep Phoenix from killing me. He wrestled with him for a few minutes before he had to stab him. He got several serious burns; we were in the fire. A few seconds after Stoick found us, we both passed out."

I sat silently, thinking about this. So here was a basic, somewhat twisted summary of what happened on Berk. This was a lot to take in.

After a moment, I risked asking Astrid about Aura and Cinderpaw.

"Soooo.....what about Aura?"

"Ha! She was crazy and homicidal," Astrid said. "And again, nearly killed me. Sooo, Hiccup had to kill her. This is a terrible world we live in, where you have to kill to protect yourself."

I was about to ask about Cinderpaw when someone caught my eye.

A kid about twenty-looking strolled through the courtyard. His skin was the color of night, jet black. His hair was mid-length and swept to the left smoothly, and he flipped it out of his eyes. When I saw them, I nearly fainted. They were the most handsome shade of yellow-green, and sparkled in the sun. He wore a snug black t-shirt with a red skull on it, and he wore a pair of white shorts. A pair of worn brown flip-flops threatened to fall off his feet. He smiled at a passing friend, and there were no teeth.