The Night Rider

Chapter 42: Left

ASTRIDS POV.

Astrid flew back towards the house were Hiccup was, in her hands she carried carefully two bowls of lamb soup. Astrid's eyes still stung slightly from when she had cried but the red discoloration was almost completely gone from the whites of her eyes, but the red blush on her cheeks still remained, but she wasn't surprised. He had kissed her! She couldn't get it off her mind, it had been so brief but at the same time it had seemed like an eternity, like a long, marvelous eternity. What were they going to talk about when she got back? Would they kiss again? There were thousands of possible scenarios running ramped through her mind each one less plausible than the one before. It wasn't long until Astrid was nearing the house that Hiccup was in. The Nadder touched down outside the house and Astrid climbed off rubbing her arm against the Nadder's scaled neck as a show of gratitude for flying her. Astrid walked up to the houses door and nocked before opening it. The doors hinges screeched while she opened it revealing an empty room. 

She peered inside inspecting it wondering if maybe she had flown to the wrong house. No, this was the right one. Astrid entered. "Hiccup?" She called out. She placed the two bowls of soup down on a table and began to look around the room. At first it appeared normal to her, nothing seemed out of place or disturbed other than the empty bed where Hiccup should have been lying. Astrid was about to leave when she spotted something tucked away on a small table in a dark corner of the house. It was Hiccups helmet and underneath it was a piece of parchment and on it was a note. It read:

Dear Astrid,

If  your reading this I'm already gone. There's no point of trying to follow me as we are by the time of you reading this through Hellheimens Gate. I know that your angry and probably demanding an explanation from me but I don't have a good one. Only this, about a year after I first left Astrid I was at a market far outside the Archipeligo and I met a man. I name was Viggo Grimborn, brother to Ryker Grimborn. Long story short Astrid me and this man didn't have a very good relationship and many dragons and dragon hunters died in our conflict. But in the end me and Toothless had been able to force them out of  the Archipeligo and far, far away. Or at least we had. It appears that they have returned and I need to stop them. Alone. I wish we could do it together, but we can't because when I'm around you I become weak because there's nothing I wouldn't do for you. I can't be the Night Rider and Hiccup I wish I could but I can't. I hope you forgive me, and I hope if I am victorious in this upcoming war I can return to Berk. Until then I wish you the best of luck, please Astrid don't let Berk reverse to their old ways. Also tell my father... that I remember. Tell him that I remember everything. That I remember how I got injured and please tell him that I don't blame him for anything and he shouldn't blame himself. Goodbye Astrid, I will see you again one day. I promise. 

Hiccup.

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Astrid crumpled up the note in her hands tears welling up in her eyes. In a fit of rage she flung it across the room letting it clatter against the wall. Astrid then picked up his helmet and gripped it tightly. He said he couldn't be both. She recited in her mind looking at the helmet and then just focusing on the Berkian Crest around one of the eye slits. He couldn't be both. 'There's nothing I wouldn't do for you.' What did that mean? Did that mean he loved her?  Astrid dropped the helmet onto the floor with a thud backing away from it before walking towards the door in huff. She couldn't bring herself to think about it anymore today. She had just told him that her parents were gone and for the first time she had allowed herself to open up. 

To shed a tear for them, and then he left. And what war did he fight? Astrid remembered his numerous scars that littered his body. She had always thought they had come from dragons, but looking back some of them did look like a sword or an axe scar.  She ripped the door open and stepped outside almost running  directly into Stoick. "Astrid are you alright? What's wrong?" He asked notcing the downcast look on her features. "He's gone Stoick." She said and Astrid couldn't tell which emotion Stoick was feeling from his facial expression. "Hiccups left."

END OF BOOK