ASTRIDS POV.

Small green leaves and twigs soared through the air like organic shrapnel when the dragon erupted out from the bush's. Astrid swung with her blade at the dragon aiming for a point under one of it's protruding eyes. Before her blade could reach the dragon or before the dragon could reach her a strong force pushed itself into her knocking her off-balance and making her fall onto the ground out of the dragons charging path. "Hiccup get off me!" Astrid yelled as she tried to push him off her but she couldn't manage to move him. Hiccup had tackled her to make sure that she wouldn't have been able to hurt the dragon, or maybe so it wouldn't have been able to hurt her. But now he was in to much pain to move off of her and he weighed to much for her to move him.

Astrid's mind quickly flashed back to a similar situation that they had been in years ago in dragon training. They had been fighting the same species of dragon that wanted them dead now. A Deadly Nadder. They had been in the arena and her axe had gotten lodged into Hiccup's shield. Back then Hiccup had been more toothpick than Viking, she could have easily lifted that version of him off of herself but know she could just barely move him. Astrid looked over to the Nadder that had stopped it's charge and looked around frantically for them. The dragons sun colored eyes fell upon Hiccup and Astrid and emitted an exited squawk before charging again.

Astrid pushed up on Hiccup like she had pulled on her axe years ago in the arena. "Oo, love of the battlefield." She remembered Tuffnut saying. "Ugh, she can do better." Ruff had replied to her twin. The dragons thunderous steps where almost on top of them when she finally managed to push Hiccup off her enough to roll out from under him. Astrid was back on her feet in a second standing protectively over Hiccup her dagger gripped tightly in her hand. "Astrid don't." She heard Hiccup say trying to stand up but collapsing back to the floor gritting his teeth. "She's friendly." Astrid looked away from Hiccup and back to the dragon but it was to late when she realized her mistake. She should never have taken her eye's off her opponent.

When she looked back up the dragon was less than ten feet away and there was nothing she could do. But it stopped and raised its head up to eye level with her. Where had she seen this Nader before? It looked so familiar but she couldn't quiet place it. Hiccup had said that 'she's friendly.' So this must be one of his dragons from his island. "Are you alright?" She asked leaning down and helping Hiccup up from the ground. Through his tunic Astrid could see tiny circles of blood forming which means his wound was most likely reopened but it didn't look like anything to bad.

Goathy could most likely restitch his wound when they returned to Berk. "I told you she wasn't dangerous." Said Hiccup reaching out with a weak hand and giving the Nadder a light pat on the snout. The Nadder pressed it's snout harder onto Hiccup's hand almost as if saying 'keep patting' but it's eyes where fixed on Astrid. "Have I seen this dragon before?" She asked and Hiccup cautiously turned to her with a nervous look on his face. "Yeah, you actually do. This is the dragon that took you from Berk during the one raid. And she's also the dragon that almost killed us in the arena three years ago." He explained letting out a nervous laugh.

Astrid took a step back and raised her blade again defensively. She knew she had recognized the dragon from somewhere but the chance that it was the same Nadder that she had fought against in the arena years ago was impossible. Astrid thought back through the past three years her memories trying to remember what had happened to that Nadder and she remembered that about a year after Hiccup was presumed dead it did escape during one of the more dangerous raids.

If this was also the same Nadder it would explain why it took her during the raid. When Astrid had first arrived on Hiccups island he had said that Nadder's bonded better with warriors and she had wondered since then why it would bond with her because it hadn't seen her fight in the raid but if it was the Nadder from Berk then it would have seen her fight almost every day for a year. But there was something else, a reason to prove that this wasn't the same Nadder from Berk. After Hiccup had been presumed dead she had been consumed with anger and began to practice fighting against dragons every day in the arena.

And she fought that Nadder the most because it was the only one that wouldn't go down without using up every morsel of energy it had. She had fought that dragon so much that she must have given it 90% of its scars and it had given her the majority of her own scars. The weeks leading up to its escape whenever the two fought the Nadder was almost in a crazed state of mind like it had gone feral but the Nadder in font of her was calm. It couldn't be the same one although they did look the same, scars and all.

"I found her around two years ago." Hiccup began. "On an island near Berk. She was covered in scars and fresh wounds some still bleeding and she could barely move because of how hungry and thirsty she was. I knew instantly that she had come from one of the cages on Berk. She was feral in ways. Driven to the brink of insanity by what she was put through and it wasn't long after that when I learned that she was the same Nadder that I had fought a year earlier." Hiccup placed his hand onto his chest and Astrid thought that maybe this dragon had given him one or two of his scars.

"It took me and Toothless weeks to get her to trust us enough to even touch her. It was months before she trusted us enough to return to our island but when she went there within days she became trusted among all the other dragons." He concluded with a smile but Astrid was to busy wrapped up in her own thoughts to notice it much. "Hiccup." She said in a pinched voice. "I'm the reason she was like that, feral I mean." She made eye contact with him and a small tear formed in one of her eyes. "I know." He replied and it felt as if a weight was lifted off her chest.

"I flew over Berk a lot after I left. I saw you two together." Was all he said. The Nadder let out a sad coo and nuzzled itself into Astrid even though she was the one that had tormented her. "I think she wants to go for a fly." Said Hiccup and Astrid shook her head. "No, I don't know how." She said back away but both Hiccup and the Nadder approached her enthusiastically. "I'll show you how!" Said Hiccup exited and the Nadder squawked in agreement. Before he could say anything more she was on the dragons back with Hiccup behind her.

"How do I get her to fl-?" She tried to ask but with a gust of air and the feeling of movement they were in the sky. Astrid grabbed to the dragons horns tightly scared for his life but Hiccup let all his limbs dangle. "There's nothing to be scared of Astrid." Reassured Hiccup. "What about falling!" She questioned and Hiccup laughed. "If you fall she will catch you." He said like that would make her let go. She had experienced that scenario with this same dragon and she wasn't itching to try it again. Astrid looked around in the air her head as far up as it could get. There was no way she was looking down.

"Astrid relax." Said Hiccup. "Relax." He said again taking her hands in his and removing them from the dragons horns and placing them down but not letting go. Astrid fought to get out of his hold but she couldn't. "Calm down Astrid." He said into her ear in a soothing voice. "Just look." And she did. But it was different now that she wasn't so concerned with falling. She noticed the glow of the sun and how it reflected off the puffy snow colored clouds and how in those clouds she could hear a few birds chirping. She was seeing things that she had never noticed before. It was beautiful. "Astrid look." Hiccup said and she looked the other was and her jaw dropped.

Berk sat hundreds of feet below her and from this view she could make out the streets that wove around the houses and markets. She could see so many scorch marks and destroyed buildings but most of all she could see Berks citizens working hard to rebuild. "It's beautiful." Was the only thing that she could think of to say. "Yeah." Hiccup responded his hot breath hitting the back of her neck sending shiver up her spine. Astrid looked down at there hands and at that moment Hiccup intertwined there fingers. In her chest erupted the feeling once again.

The one she could never place. She had felt it dozens of times before, she had even felt it when she had been with the Night Rider before she knew his identity. Fishlegs had even tried to put a label to her feeling. He had tried to label it as love but she hadn't accepted that. But as she turned her head around to face him, and there eyes locked once more. And there breathing slowed and the whole world became quiet. She knew what it was. What this feeling had always been. Fishlegs had been right it was ...love... she loved Hiccup. Astrid began to close her eyes and so did Hiccup and there faces began to inch closer and closer to one another.

She had never kissed anyone before and she had a feeling that Hiccup hadn't either. But now seemed like a good time and it looked like Hiccup agreed. In Astrids mind hundreds of memories of there pasts together we're playing. When they were kids, when they started dragon training. When he had been thought dead. How she had thought she failed him by not being able to save him. Her first hearing about the Night Rider, and her first encounter with him.

All of that had led up to now, to this moment. As there faces neared one another, and there breathing slowed even more. And the world below was currently nothing but a distant memory, and there lips where about to touch sealing the kiss... a horn bellowed in the distance. Astrid and Hiccup opened there eyes and pulled away from one another leaving the kiss unfulfilled they looked around curiously unsure about what the horn was. "Hiccup?" Astrid said. "Yes?" He responded still not sure about what was happening. "Please tell me those are your dragons coming to rescue you again." She said pointing towards a colossal dragon flock approaching Berk. Maybe the largest one she had ever seen. "No, no it's not..."

(Authors Note) Ugh... I've been trying to finish this chapter for WEEKS! And I finally did!!! Yes finally! I hope you enjoyed it as this is one of the books final chapters as it approaches its end. As always if there's any spelling errors comment "spelling error" on the paragraph (or paragraphs knowing me) with the spelling mistake and I'll fix it. Until then, my brain is going to go hibernate from this beating that's called a chapter. I'm out. -Samuel Scutter