The Night Rider

Chapter 31: The Dragon That Had Been In The Bush's

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.