Finding you

Chapter 18: Heart Attack

Hiccup's POV

Astrid's heart was nearly beating out of her chest as she wrapped her arms around my waist and clung on to me for dear life. She hadn't said a word to me since Zephyr and I rescued her, she had merely just pressed her face to my back and taken some heavy breaths.

"Astrid, you're safe now, he's never going to hurt us again." I attempted to reassure her as the image of Dagur the Deranged laying sprawled out on the floor of his Great Hall in a pool of his own blood flashed through my mind. I quickly shook off the memory and made a mental note to myself to check up on Zephyr once we got home.

Astrid took a deep, shaky breath before answering. "I ... I can't believe you came to rescue me."

I shrugged as I kept my gaze locked on the horizon, unable to look at my wife once again dressed up as a bride, but this time to marry another man. "Of course I did. I couldn't very well let my wife marry another man, now could I?"

A soft chuckle escaped Astrid, but she remained silent after that. My forehead creased with worry as the severity of the situation truly hit me and I realized how terrified Astrid must've been.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that." I apologized to her as I turned back to face her, those ocean blue eyes brimming with what I assumed to be tears.

Astrid shut her eyes and slowly shook her head. "No ... it's alright. I'm just happy you were there in time."

I brought my hand up to stroke her cheek, in an attempt to help her combat whatever was going on inside that beautiful mind of hers. "What happened?"

Judging by the pain that momentarily flashed before her eyes, she knew exactly what I was inquiring about. Half-expecting her to drop the whole question, I turned back to faze the horizon and the beautiful full moon that was shining brightly not too far above it. "He threatened you, threatened Zephyr. Said that if I didn't agree to marry him ... he would do terrible things to the both of you. I couldn't allow that to happen, I couldn't allow him to hurt you."

I glanced over at my daughter, who was flying a little ahead of us on her dragon, whistling a cheerful tune as if she wasn't carrying the weapons that had killed the chief of the Berserkers. "So you would rather subject yourself to a lifetime of torture and unhappiness than to see any of us suffer?"

Astrid sighed as she rested her head against my back. "Don't act like you wouldn't do the exact same, Hiccup. We all know that you're the king of self-sacrificing."

I shrugged, not completely in disagreement with her as I retorted with a witty comment. "I don't know, I feel like you've really been trying to come after my crown lately."

A snort escaped Astrid as I could almost feel her rolling her eyes behind my back. "You're lucky we're stuck on a dragon together, or else your arm would've been hurting very bad at this point."

A laugh escaped me at Astrid's comment and the mood between us immediately lightened. Now was certainly not the time to bring up the whole almost-marriage to Dagur, so I decided to put it on ice for the time being.

After an exhaustingly long flight, the island we all called our home finally showed up in the distance. A wave of nostalgia washed over me as dawn broke and the first rays of the sun shone over and lit up the island of Berk.

Soft snoring came from behind me and it didn't take me long to realize that Astrid had fallen asleep. As we passed the two statues that marked the start of our waters, I gently nudged Astrid in an attempt to wake her. "Astrid, wake up, we're home."

With a low yawn, Astrid slowly woke and soon after stretched her limbs before readying herself to once again greet the people, who had somehow figured out when we would be home and were all standing patiently outside our house, waiting for us to land.