Of Axes and Dragons

Stormy eyes

Astrid the blonde ran to the village as if she had witnessed the most awful horrors in the forest. With her loyal dragon, Stromfly, following closely and a confused Eret abandoned in the woods. She dried the tears off her eyes and kept running, rushing inside Hiccup's cabin. He immediately sensed something was terribly wrong but Astrid ignored his interrogatory and just ran straight to his arms. He leld her tight and steady, thinking it might be helpful to calm the storm of emotions inside her at that moment, but as her body shaked, he realized his touch was only making the situation worse. He led her slowly to a chair and had her seat, then he grabbed each shoulder in between his hands and stared a her concerned. Her gray eyes, the color of the sky during a storm, were reddened as if she had been crying, which she had, and she looked at him with such fear and regret, he coulnd't tell wht was the matter.

"Astrid, you need to tell me what's wrong" Asked Hiccup as Stormfly entered the cabin and cuddled close to Toothless, the Night Fury.

She sniffled and took a deep breath before talking.

"Hiccup... I need you to hear the truth... All the truth I've been hiding from you for years now" She said slowly, as Hiccup's eyes widened with fear and confussion. "I used to kill dragons whe I was younger"

He let her shoulders go as if she was burning and backed off. What he heard broke his heart immensely, but he somehow saw it comming. When they wer younger, they both trained to kill dragons, and Astrid was excellent at it... Of course her hands weren't completely clean, but why did it bother him so much? And why was she telling him that now of all times? 

He hadn't healed completely from losing his father, and in fact he was just beginning to get used to his mother. The only real things in his life were Astrid and his friends, and in the midst of war with a southern kingdom, he couldn't afford to lose Astrid too.

"There's something else, isn't there?" He asked, regarding her as if she was a stranger... A foe, even.

She nodded slowly, looking at him, feeling his disappointment, his sheer... heartbrake.

"I don't think I feel the same about you anymore" she said slowly, "I am afraid we've grown far from each other."

"But... Astrid, please, look at me" he said, unable to understand what was happening, "That can't be true, we've been through everything together."

"Yet I can't convince myself I want to do this for the rest of my life" She finally said. "We lived a lie, Hiccup, I'm no dragon lover like you are, and in fact, half of the things we do together, only one of us enjoys."

He shook his head, he was not letting her go easily.

"Who cares?" He basically screamed, "I'd do anything to be with you, and, of course, you adrore Stromfly, are you out of yout mind?"

"I love Stormfly" she repeated. "But that's not it"

He tried to hold her hand, but she wisked it away.

"No... Please tell me what is it?" He asked. "You have been acting so weird since the whole Drago situation. I know it was hard for you, it was hard for all of us, but that doesn't mean anything has to change"

She shook her head, unable to look at him.

"Everything already has changed, Hiccup, don't you see?" She said, doing her best not to cry. She had already cried once, and there was no way she was to cry in front of him. "Why are you so relentlessly against change? Nothing is the same!"

"What is it Astrid?! You are not telling me anything!" He basically begged. "So you killed dragons. That's terrible, but so did my father, and Gobber, and basically anyone here older that 25..."

She shook her head violently and stood up. She couldn't help it.

"I don't love you" she finally said. "I convinced myself i did, but that's a lie. I'm a liar and I'm not in love with you anymore."

His breath escaped his lungs. It was as if the whole world around him was spinning round and he counld not get off the ride. He hated it. Everything around him seemed like some cruel joke, and Astrid was the comedian. 

"Ah, really?" He said, defensively, "And were you ever in love with me for the matter? Or were you only into me because I could ride and tame fearful beasts? Because that's how you see them, huh, our friends the dragons are just some nasty, cruel, mindless beasts!"

"Hiccup..." She tried to say, but he went on.

"And now that my dad's gone, and you realized that people die, because they do, you suddenly don't feel like dying by my side. Or is it that you are running off with Snotlout? Huh?" He said, unaware that he was acting like a brute.

"Hiccup!" She yelled. "How dare you? I tried to be honest with you, because I thought you deserved the truth, but this... This is nonesense! Snotlout? Seriously?"

He backed off even more. They were practically on opposite sides of the room now. 

"And of course I used to love you, but did you ever trust me?" she said furiously, "Apparently not. You even dare think I believe dragons are beastly! What do you think I've been doing all these years?"

"I don't know Astrid, that's what you're here to tell me" He said childishly. "But..."

The truth hit him like the sound wake of a Skrill. 

"I'm sorry, I said so many hurtful things... I'm an idiot" He admitted, finally letting a few tears escape his eyes.

That was definetely not what the blonde was expecting. She didn't know he would cry just like that, but he had always been the most sensitive of the two.

"I'm sorry too." the girl said, walking over to him.

They hugged, him crying against her golden braid.

"We need to split up." Hiccup finally mumbled against her hair. "Don't we?"

She nodded against his chest. "Yeah, we do."

And they agreed on it silently, both knowing that was probably going to be the last hug between the two. Neither could believe all those years they spent together would ever reach an end, but to both their dismay, it was an unexpected relief that it was all over. And that they were back to being friends, family, even.