Run and Hide

Chapter 3: 'Fearless' Astrid Hofferson

Astrid

No matter how hard I try Snotlout has no respect for women! How dare he say that to me, I mean seriously who does he think he is. Urgh! I trudged into room and tipped over my belongings in anger "Hey Astrid I was wondering if I could-," I spun round in anger to see Heather standing in the doorway of my hut, her emerald eyes sparkling against the light that came through the cracks in the walls, they were wide and diluted as she scanned the mess in my room "Do I even have to ask?" she questioned each piece coming in helping pick up each piece of broken products. "Not even close," she nodded and got straight to here topic of discussion "Well what I was coming to tell you is that Fishlegs found the whereabouts of the Grimborns' and where they are hiding their dragons," my heart burst with excitement with finally hearing some great news. Months ago we came to this island and made a home for ourselves as another outpost from our island Berk and ever since we came we've found out the Grimborns' have been capturing dragons and using them as trade objects. We've been trying to destroy this but the only way to do so is to destroy their compound.

We've had problems with the Grimborns' ever since I can remember, they try and take control of island after island because of money and their trade, they believe they can steal from village after village but it's mostly our dragons so they can be sold at their auctions and be used as slaves with whomever buys them, but it's said that only the richest of Vikings turn up. 14 years ago they stole more than just dragons and money from our island, our chief Stoick the Vast and his wife had lost their son to their tribe. He was only three years old when it happened and didn't know who they were and he was snatched within a blink of an eye with no regards to where they could have taken him. The Grimborns' always have a habit of moving from island to island so no matter how hard Stoick tried to find his son we were always too late because they were always gone. People began to lose hope that his son was dead, that the Grimborns' had killed him but I believed differently, I was close with him and I knew if he was gone then I would feel it, like something would be missing. At the moment I felt full.

Stoick believed he was still out there too so he never gave up looking, until one day a package had arrived from the Grimborn compound, reluctantly Stoick had opened the package and inside lay something that disgusted us all, it was the bottom half of someone's left leg with a note attached to it and could always remember the words clearly "The remains of your son after his death" after that day Stoick believed that he was officially dead and the search had come to an end. But I still believed, no matter what, people called me crazy but I know that he is still out there. But the fight between the Grimborns' and other islands never came to an end which is why we built an outpost here which we call Dragon's Edge, we help dragons the best we can and destroy the ships which try and trap them. At the moment I was following Heather into the clubhouse to speak with Fishlegs, it seemed that Heather had told everyone about it because there we all were waiting for Fishlegs to speak. "Okay so as you've heard I have found their compound but it seems heavily guarded so I'm not sure how we can get in a free the dragons and destroy what they have," Fishlegs began. "Easy, annihilate!" Snotlout shouted raising his arm down in front of himself making Hookfang release fire past his helmet "Yea well that won't work," I complained.

"We'll get there and we'll see what happens and once we see it for ourselves then we make a plan, agreed?" I questioned and they all nodded in unison. I nodded back and jumped on Stormfly ready to retreat to their compound. We flew in the covers of the clouds with Fishlegs taking the lead. The air smelt sweet and felt soft against my skin as we flew through the clouds but my cast back to the memory of that night and when he was taken, it just happened and no one was able to reach him and it makes me wonder what does he think of his family or does he even remember them because he was so young, or is he even still alive? I have to keep asking myself that because what if it was true and they did really kill him. My mind was snapped out as I started to hear these really deep voices below us so we diverted out of the clouds and hid behind one of their tall rock stacks. I gazed down below to not see as many men as Fishlegs was telling us about. "Um Fishlegs you said there were men everywhere, no way to get to the dragons?" Heather questioned his motives, but we just watched s Fishlegs was shaking his head "Something must have happened here after I left," he spoke with confidence "But what exactly?" I asked him as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Why are we just sat here admiring, why don't we go and free the dragons while we have an opportunity and then destroy the place boom!!" the twins clapped their hands together after Tuff spoke with words that actually had meaning for a chance. "Tuff's right, let's go!" we all jumped over the rock stack we hid behind and made our way downwards towards the direction of the dragon cages. One by one we released them but as we got further down the tunnel of cages they were all suddenly empty, where had they all gone. "Sorry we can't stay and enjoy the party but we shall be leaving now," we all looked down the tunnel to see Viggo standing there next to Ryker with his hands behind his back as he stood so formally smirking towards us "Viggo!!" We all cried out in anger as men suddenly descended towards us. We fought our way out of the compound man after man and as we did the fire erupted around the place and it was a flame. Most of the Viggo's hunters were running, crying, screaming from the fire while the others tried holding us back.

But this had me confused, if we freed the dragons they had, why were they holding us back or what were they holding us back from. That's when I saw, amidst the flames I could see them, Viggo, Ryker and...and...who was that? It definitely wasn't a hunter they seemed to small and frail to be one but that was all I could see as another hunter blocked my way from the view from whoever that person was. Man after man would drop and soon it was over, the flames had died down and the rest of us were standing amidst the ash and soot from the flames and the hunter's bodies scattered from corner to corner. But I stood there staring at where the three bodies were walking, Viggo, Ryker and who. Did they have someone else on their side; it must be the only explanation. "Astrid! Come up here!" I looked around to see where the voice came from and when I looked up I noticed Snotlout in a tower, I growled in annoyance and made my way up, the stairs headed up like a spiral and I felt like it took me forever but when I reached the door Snotlout pointed to the ground. I looked down to see little patched of blood staining the floor, it didn't look fresh but old and as I lifted my eyes to scan the room in the corner lay a rickety bed with only two thin blankets for its comfort "Astrid you don't think this was where they killed-," I slammed my hand against Snotlout's mouth "Don't even say it." That's when my heart ripped in two.