How To Train Your Spirit Form

New Beginnings

It had just turned dawn and Astrid had set out to find her axe. She brought a small dagger with her just in case she ran into some undesirable creatures.

She got lost a few times but eventually found her way back to where she released the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Her axe was just where she left it. She picked it up twirled it in her hand and nodded in satisfaction.

A familiar roar sounded nearby. Astrid knew who it belonged to and she nearly ran from it, but it sounded more like a roar of pain than a roar of aggression. Astrid had no idea why but she began walking towards the sound.

Pushing a few branches away she found herself staring at a beautiful cove, the view was quickly ruined by The Night Fury jumping up and scrabbling at the wall before clumsily gliding back down to the floor of the cove. It didn't see her.

Astrid tried to calm her racing heart and watched The Night Fury try and fly out of the cove several times more. Astrid furrowed her eyebrows. What was stopping it from just flying away?

Astrid stepped down to a smaller ledge and laid on her stomach, her axe beside her, so she could observe the dragon closer without it seeing her.

The dragon was pacing, looking extremely frustrated. It even went so far as to fire a plasma blast at the ground.

Hiccup was extremely ticked off. He had no idea why he couldn't switch back into his human form, he also still had the rope tangled around his tail fins and was having no luck in getting the rope off. In fact, the more he tried to pull at it, the tighter it got.

Astrid watched as the dragon moved his tail. The end of its tail seemed to be wrapped in the rope that she shot it with. Upon closer inspection, the dragon seemed to have two tail fins that the rope had tightly wrapped around. Was that why it couldn't fly?

Astrid scooched closer to the edge and in her absolute horror, she had elbowed her axe, causing it to fall off the edge and into the cove. When it hit the ground the dragon's eyes went wide and it back away from the falling weapon.

After a few seconds of it staring at the axe, it looked up and saw Astrid. Astrid stared back with wide eyes.

Why was Astrid here? Hiccup looked down at the fallen axe and suddenly got an idea. He could use the sharp part of the axe to cut the ropes! Hiccup walked over the axe and sheathed his teeth so he would get any bite marks on it and dragged it towards him.

"Hey! That's my axe don't touch it!" Astrid yelled at the dragon. What in Thor's name was it trying to do?!

Gently, Hiccup moved his tail so it was near the blade and he grabbed the axe gently so it was above his tail. Astrid's eyes widened, the dragon was trying to cut the rope! She could see what it was trying to accomplish but it would inevitably end up in the dragon cutting itself.

"You're going to hurt yourself," Astrid called out to the dragon, the dragon looked up at Astrid and its ears folded back and crooned sadly. Astrid sucked in a breath and began climbing down to the bottom of the cove.

The dragon's ears perked up in curiosity and slowly began backing away out of cautiousness. Astrid held up her and went into a crouch.

"Listen, I don't know what I'm doing but I don't want to hurt you. I want to help you. You see, I have a dagger with me that can get you out of the ropes you're tied up in, I can cut them for you but you just need to trust me," Astrid said strongly.

The dragon stared at her seemed to evaluate her words almost as if could understand her. After two minutes, the dragon slowly began approaching her. Astrid's heart rate picked up as she came face to face with its forest green eyes.

The dragon's eyes held so much trust even after all she had done to it. She gently pulled out her dagger and the dragon pulled its tail in front of Astrid.

Carefully Astrid grabbed the end of the dragon's tail and began cutting the ropes. After a few minutes, all the ropes were gone and the dragon pulled its tail to its face and flexed its tail fins.

Hiccup had no idea why Astrid was showing compassion towards a dragon but it was obvious that something had caused her to change her mind. But whatever the reason, he was extremely grateful. But then Astrid said something that made his heart drop.

"You're Hiccup's dragon aren't you?" Astrid asked.

Hiccup didn't know how to non verbally answer that. What was he supposed to say? Technically this was his dragon form but she didn't know that. Why did she think that he had a dragon and if she thought this, why was she so calm?

"I saw his journal and there were pictures of you and notes about you," Astrid continued. Ah. She saw his drawings of Toothless. Well, that made more sense. Astrid smacked her forehead. "Why am I talking to you like you understand me?" Astrid asked herself.

Hiccup let out the dragon equivalent of a laugh and Astrid's eyes slightly widened.

"You can't understand me, right?" Astrid asked. Hiccup made serious eye contact with her and nodded, she gasped and backed up a little. This dragon could understand her! Meaning there is no way that he was a mindless beast if he understood what she was saying! She then came to another sickening realization.

"I shot you down, I hurt you," Astrid said breathlessly, looking at the dragon's rope burns. "You remember all of that and you still trusted me," She said. "Why?"

The dragon slowly walked up to her and bumped foreheads with her. His scales were smooth and cool to the touch but somehow making her feel very at peace. Astrid looked into the dragon's eyes. She knew the dragon forgave her.