ASTRIDS POV.

Astrid walked up one of the busy morning streets of Berk weaving between the crowds of Vikings busy hauling around heavy pieces of wood and stone repairing various destroyed buildings and structures that had been damaged or burned to the ground in previous dragon raids. All throughout Astrid's life and long before that her home had been under constant dragon attacks. The shortest amount of time they got between attacks was three days too three weeks. Never less, and never more. The sight of her village being damaged in the dragon raids and rebuilt in bulk was something of second nature to her and all the other Vikings.

But the sight of it, the sound of the dozens of metal hammers bashing nails deep into wooden beams, and large wooden logs being mutilated into planks. She had never gotten used to it, and probably never would. No building in Berk could ever be classified as old. In the past eighteen years almost all of the houses and other various buildings of Berk had at least been damaged or fully burnt to the ground at least once or twice.

"I think he's dead." Astrid heard a Viking murmur to another as she passed by them. "Please Angus, they were keeping him in a tent they were." Responded another Viking with fear lacing his voice, making it slightly quiver. "He slipped past Astrid and now he and his dragon are gone and he's probably bringing his whole dragon army back here! Head my warnings Angus! Berk will burn with dragon fire!" Angus and several other Vikings quacked under his predictions of the future which Astrid simply rolled her eyes at and continued on her way. Even before Hiccup had been captured the Night Rider had been a popular topic of conversation, but now that he was in Berk it was as if he was the only thing anyone could, or was aloud to talk about.

As if to illustrate that point a frantic Snotlout ran into her view and immediately started to bombard her with questions about the Night Rider. "Astrid" He exclaimed. "What happened to the Night Rider? Him and his dragon are gone! Are they going to attack?" Snotlout picked a small wooden board off the ground and held it over his head feebly. "Do you think we need to hide?" Astrid let out a displeasured sigh and pushed past the irritating Viking continuing on her way.

When Hiccup had been unconscious in the medical tent healing from his injuries Stoick had assigned her to guard him because other than him she was the only one that really knew what was going on. But since then everyone assumed that she knew everything about the Night Rider. Which of course was true because she did know more about what was going on with him than almost everyone else but she had to keep up appearances. "He and his dragon have been moved to a safer location." Astrid said to Snotlout who she knew was still trailing behind her.

Earlier that day Stoick had found her and told her about the new story that she was to tell other Vikings if they were to ask where the Night Rider and his dragon where. 'He and his dragon had been moved to a safer location.' Just another lie. "But where." Asked Snotlout his voice back to his normal cocky tone now that he knew there was no immediate danger. "I mean isn't it better for Berks best and most capable fighter to know where the Night Rider is?" Astrid stopped in her tracks and turned around to face Snotlout. In a huff and irritation she placed her hand on his face and shoved him to the ground then proceeded to storm away from him. "Fine! I'll find out where he is on my own!" He yelled from behind her.

A small smile formed on the side of Astrid's mouth, as annoying and irritating as Snotlout was it was in a way entertaining to see him make wild allegations just to fail and fall on his rear in embarrassment when he tried to complete them. After minuets of walking Astrid arrived at her destination, the Haddock house. She made her way over to the front door, Stoick wasn't home but he wasn't the reason she had come here anyway. Hiccup was.

There were probably better things she could do with her free time like train, help rebuild the village. But for some unknown reason she felt like she needed to spend time with Hiccup. She raised her hand up to knock on the front door but stopped herself. She couldn't go through the front door, the numerous Vikings around would see Hiccup when he opened the door and with his appearance so would appear more questions then she could answer. Astrid casually made her way around the side of the house to the back door and waited a second to knock to make sure no one had followed her out of curiosity.

After about a minuet she decided she was in the clear and she knocked on the door. Moments of uninterrupted silence passed and Astrid didn't hear any movement from inside the house. Was Hiccup okay? Did he need her help? She rapped on the door again this time louder and more urgently.

She rapped again on the door and then placed her ear up against it listening for anything from inside the house. Astrid grabbed the door handle and turned it trying to enter the house but the door didn't budge. She pounded on the door with her fist and pressed her ear up against the door once again. She didn't care if anyone out on the street heard her, all she cared about right now was if Hiccup was okay. Last night when they had gone to the arena Hiccup couldn't even stand on his own. Was that the problem? Maybe he just couldn't reach the door to open it.

"Who is it?" Asked an unfamiliar voice startling Astrid causing her to slightly jump back from the door. Why would their be a complete stranger in the Haddock house when Stoick wasn't their? Then a terrible thought lingered into her brain and latched itself on. What if this stranger had found out that Hiccup was alive and was the Night Rider and had broken into his house and murdered him! But that couldn't be, Hiccup had brought Toothless back to his home last night. There was no way a single Vikings could overpower and kill the combined strength of Hiccup and a Night Fury! "Why don't you tell me who you are?" Astrid demanded to the stranger. Her hand made its way down to a small knife that was sheathed on her hip and gripped the hilt.

There was the sound of sliding metal as the door was unlocked and as the door swung open revealing who the stranger was Astrid let go of the knife hilt and let her hand fall back down to her side. It was Hiccup, he was standing on his own only slightly supporting his weight on the wall. "Was that you I was talking to?" She asked as she entered the house brushing past him and looking around curiously. "Yeah, I wasn't sure it was you so I was being cautious." He explained closing and relocking the door before limping over to her. "You can walk on your own?" She asked. "Yeah, well sort of it's still sort of painful." He said leaning onto another wall.

"I saw your father this morning. He mentioned that he had a very eventful interaction with your dra-. With Toothless." Hiccup smiled before responding. "Yeah that's definitely one way to put it." The two talked about Stoick and Toothless's interaction for a while, exchanging the occasional laugh at one another's comments before Hiccup asked another question. "Why are you here Astrid." The question caught her off guard. "I was just wondering how you were doing." She explained. "Where's Toothless?" She asked after noticing that the dragon wasn't down here with them.

"He's upstairs. The sound of a dragon moving around the house makes it hard to be discreet." He explained. There were several moments of uninterrupted silence between the two of them before Hiccup blurted out a question. "Would you like to go for a walk?" After he suggested it Hiccups skin turned a bright shade of red, almost like he hadn't meant to say what he did. "Can you even do that?" Asked Astrid referring to his injuries.

"Yeah, as long as we don't do any running." He joked and Astrid let out a small laugh. "Well then sure." She said and he smiled making the unidentified feeling reappear in her chest but it vanished about as quickly as it appeared. The two walked over towards the back door and began to walk out when she asked Hiccup a question. "Can Toothless stay here alone?" She asked and Hiccup laughed and nodded. "He's not a yak, he can be unintended." She softly punched him on the shoulder and the two walked out of the house and into the woods.

Minuets passed and the noise form Berk faded away into the background, leaving only the sounds of nature around them. The sudden sound of a twig snapping drew her attention. "What was that?" She exclaimed wrapping her hand around the hilt of her knife. Hiccup looked around and the two listened carefully. "Nothing, probably just a deer." He said and continued. But Astrid wasn't so sure of Hiccups theory and she didn't let her guard down.

Astrid had forgotten how beautiful the bustling forest around Berk was. She hardly never went in here during the day so it was easy to forget it's beauty. It's tall trees with brown trunks and it's bright green leaves, the birds chirping out of sight. The chirps all sounding the same but in there own way each unique. The sound of crickets chirping somewhere on the dirt and moss strewn ground but impossible to see causing a calming melody in the background. "This place is beautiful." She said and Hiccup nodded in response with a smile plastered onto his face.

"Yeah, probably the second most beautiful thing on Berk." He said and Astrid looked at him curiously. "What's the first?" She asked and Hiccup looked away and started rubbing the back of his neck nervously. He looked back to her and there eyes locked with one another. They both slowed there walking until they stopped. Neither of them said a thing to one another, neither of them could. It was like Hiccups forest green eyes had thrown her into a trance and she couldn't pull herself out of it. She felt her guard lower and all the noise of the forest fade away into the background until it were almost absolute. Well, almost all of it.

SNAP

The noise pulled Astrid back into reality and she looked around. "Did you hear that?" She asked but Hiccup responded totally off guard by her comment. "Hear what? I didn't hear anything." He looked around but neither of them saw anything. Behind them the tall bush's began to rustle and they turned around and watched them closely. She pulled her knife from its sheath and got into a defensive position.

The bush's rustled again more fiercely this time and a animals squawk came. "It's a drago-." Hiccup began to say before the bush's exploded open and a large spiked dragon with the colors blue, yellow, red and white came charging out towards them! Her mind flashed back to when they had first entered the forest and she had heard the crack of wood, or when the two of them had gone to retrieve Toothless from the arena and she had heard the noise from deep in the darkness. It had been tracking them... following them... for who knows how long...