Night Rider

The Arrival

Thanks for reading this story up to this point. I would much rather have 20 views on every single chapter of this book than have 1k on the first and only 2 on the last: I would much rather have consistant readers.

Night Rider had accepted to meet with Berk. He would be arriving today in the afternoon, before sunset and I was sharpening my favourite axe in the forge when Gobber came bounding in carrying an armful of weapons.

"You nervous?" He asked, dumping them all on the workbench.

"Nah. Excited." I said smiling, taking my sharpened axe off the stone. The edge glistened in the light. Perfect. I said my goodbyes to Gobber and then I walked off to Ruff's house - she said that she would help me get ready for the encounter with Night Rider. I couldn't resist chopping the head off a wild daisy on my way. I smiled. It felt satisfying.

"Ruff?" I asked, walking into her and Tuff's messy house without knocking.

"Astrid!" She exclaimed, running down the steps towards me. "Do you like?" She asked showing me an outfit. It looked very similar to my outfit at the moment, except it had a little more armour on the shoulders and waist, more metal spikes on the belt and skirt and fur on the shoulders for decoration. I was happy that it wasn't a dress or anything stupid. This outfit made me look powerful, yet beautiful - Ruff knew me well. I carefully slipped it on. It fitted perfectly and it felt stronger and warmer than my outfit before, but it still allowed me to attack with ease. Perfect axe with the perfect outfit. I stepped out of the hut, Ruff behind me.

"Astrid! You look ravishing!" Snotlout exclaimed, stepping forward, eyeing me up and down. No-one speaks to me like that and no-one looks at me like that! He basically asked for it - I pushed him to the ground with my foot and held him there. His head landed in a muddly puddle, much to my happiness.

"That is for what you just said." I said fiercely. I hit the flat of my axe on his head. "And that is for everything else."

"Ouch Astrid." Tuff exclaimed as Snotlout heaved himself off the ground "no-one get on the wrong side of Astrid. The violent Astrid is back!" He said snarkily. I death-glared at him and he slunk into the shadows. "I take it back." Tuff weakly said. Fishlegs whined and spoke up.

"Good luck, Astrid." He said, clearly scared. I just nodded in his direction and heard Ruff giggling behind me.

"You go girl!" She said. I shook my head and ignored them all and walked off to the habour, all of them sheepishly following in my wake. Night Rider would be here any minute, and he would have no idea what he was in for. Just as I entered the docks (and everyone got out of my way in fear) the unmistakable voice of Bucket shouted from above us on the cliffs.

"He is coming! With his dragon!" Everyone except me and the chief stepped back against the wall. I stood my ground. I hid my axe under my fur cloak which Ruff had provided for me. I stood defensively, glaring at the incoming metallic silver dot in the distance. Are you ready to meet your doom? I thought to myself. In a matter of minutes, Night Rider himself landed about 20 metres away from us. You really couldn't tell what type of dragon it was - it was so heavily coated in armor and protection. All you could see were its emerald-green eyes. You couldn't see any of Night Rider - his whole body was covered in clothes, leather or armour. Night Rider slipped off his dragon, patted its head, gave it a fish from a satchel, then stood before the chief.

"Night Rider." Said the Chief.

"Is that what you call me here?" He asked in a cheerful and questioning tone, "I have just been to a place where they call me 'Lightning' and Toothless here 'Death'! 'The unholy offspring on Lightning and Death itself'!" He chuckled, air quoting the last part. I dropped my axe from where I was gripping it under my cloak. Toothless?

"Astrid?" Asked the Chief. I knew I had seen those eyes before. The dragon was Toothless. The Night Rider must have killed Hiccup and stole his dragon! I know that Toothless is a rare and highy-sought-after dragon, but I didn't think anyone would commit murder for one!

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HICCUP!!!" I screamed, snatching my dagger from my belt as I ran towards him. Toothless tripped me up with a flick of his tail and I fell flat on my back. Stoick and a group of vikings charged forwards to try and snatch Toothless away from me. What had Night Rider done to Toothless? How did he make Toothless hate us vikings? How did he make Toothless hate me? Toothless prepared a huge and deadly plasma blast in his mouth. This stopped Stoick and his group in their tracks and they all stumbled backwards to the rest of the Berkians, except Stoick. Toothless moved away from me, advancing on the crowd and Stoick. Scared for his life, he backed away as Toothless finished preparing the plasma blast in his mouth. I stood up, dagger in my hand. "What did you do to Hiccup?" I asked, "How did you get Toothless!" Toothless didn't fire his blast.

He turned and looked at me. He held his hands infront of him, to defend himself. I grabbed my axe off the ground, but before I could move, he slowly walked towards me. I don't know what came over me, but I stumbled backwards and fell over a loose rock. He just looked at me and advanced slowly. I have to admit that I was scared and yet intrigued. Toothless was doing a great job at crowd control, unluckily for me. Night Rider stood infront of me and he held his hand out to me. I swatted it away with force.

"Astrid?" He said quite loudly. The crowd became silent and listened intently to Night Rider.

"Get away from me. How do you know my name?" I said strongly. He snatched his hand away from me, looking hurt. I couldn't see his face because his whole body was covered in armour and clothes, except for slits in his helmet for him to see out of, but I couldn't see into them. He backed off. I fiercely snatched my axe from the ground and charged towards him, a look of hatred planted on my face. He backed away from me, his body language showing he was scared. Toothless let out a low growl from behind me. Night Rider stumbled on a small rock and fell backwards onto the ground. I raised my axe. He covered his head. Toothless growled. I roared. He scooted backwards away from me. Toothless growled. I looked at him. He looked at me. Toothless growled. I swung my axe. He scrunched up into a ball. Toothless growled. My axe hit its mark. I shouted in rage. I walked away.

Published on: 10th September 2017.