Astrid heaved for breath as she was shoved into the side box. Her heart pounded the adrenaline through her veins like ice. She hurriedly pulled her hair back and tied it tight, not wanting it to obstruct her vision during this.
"I'm screwed!" She hissed to herself. "Oh I am so screwed!"
Suddenly the gate began to open and she stepped out into the arena. Everyone in Berk was there at the top, peering down at her. The Chief was in the giant chair his father used to sit in, looking down upon her with a snarky grin. His dragon stood next to him
"People of Berk." He began in a loud voice. "Yesterday Astrid Hofferson broke rule number two. As punishment, she will be forced to survive ten minutes against a Deadly Nadder."
The crowd gasped in horror and Astrid looked up at him. "Are you insane?! I don't even have a knife, how am I supposed to do this?!"
"Berkians are trained at the age of fifteen to survive against and kill dragons, correct?" He smirked.
Astrid's face went a pale shade of green.
"Let's see some of that training pay off."
"This is impossible!!"
"I'll give you a clue. Nadders are quick, and light on their feet. You need to be quicker and lighter."
Loud clicks went through the air as another gate began to rise. And just like that the punishment began. The Nadder went right for Astrid, and she dodged it just in time.
Five minutes in and she was exhausted, bloody, and bruised. Dodging a dragon is hard work when you have nothing to fight back with.
Astrid wracked her brain for something, anything to help her survive this. No shield. No weapons....
Gobber's voice resounded in her memory but what had he said?!
The Nadder squawked and Astrid leapt to her left, landing hard into the unforgiving rock ground.
"That was pretty close, Astrid." Hiccup taunted from above. "Three minutes left!"
Her vision went fuzzy and that's what reminded her. "Blind spots!" She shouted.
But suddenly a woman from above began screaming. "Ingrid, no, get back her!! AHHH!" My baby!! She's in the ring, my baby!!"
Astrid looked and sure enough, there was a little girl headed right for her!! And the Nadder was reering up for another attack! She quickly jumped in front of the little girl, shielding her with her body and preparing for the worst.
The Chief stood and immediately slipped through the bars, landing in front of the two. He held his hand out and the Nadder stopped instantly, beginning to nuzzle his hand.
"Good girl, Stormfly." He patted her gently. "Good girl."
Hiccup then walked over to Astrid and the now sobbing child, startled from all of the commotion. He scooped her up and walked over to the child's mother, passing the child to her.
"You'd do well to keep a better eye on your child." He growled.
"Yes, Chief."
"And as for you," he said louder, turning and peering down at Astrid once again. "You weren't able to finish your punishment. Instead..." his face upturned in a smirk. "How many rules did she break?"
"One." One of his red-haired cronies replied.
"Then that's ten whip lashings."
Astrid's eyes widened. "But I almost passed! I-I was winning-the Nadder didn't get me!"
"You has three minutes left. Anything could have happened in that amount of time. Ten lashes." He said sternly, grabbing a whip from the side of his chair which he had walked over to. Toothless glared at him and Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Don't look at me like that." He said under his breath. "I could do much worse."
He slipped through the bars again and walked over to Astrid. She hadn't realized how tired she was. She could hardly stand, and fell when she tried to get up the second time. So instead she backed away as fast as she could. She'd seen what beatings like this did to people. Snotlout and many other villagers bore the scars of it.
"No, no please don't! I didn't do anything wrong! I was passing!"
But he didn't listen. His hard, callused hand wrapped around her arm and yanked her towards the center of the ring. In the center stood a large wooden pole. He tied her hands to it, just like every other person who'd received a beating of this nature.
Her breathing was faster than it had ever been before. She pulled and she tugged on the ropes as hard as she could but they just wouldn't break.
"No use fighting it Astrid." He ripped the back of her shirt open, revealing her beautiful bare back. He stepped backward...And the whip came down on her shoulder blade, earning a loud cry of pain.
"Why are you doing this?!" She turned her head to scream at him.
"There are rules." He growled, pulling the whip back for the second hit. "You break them, you get punished!" Then he smirked. "You should be pleased. I'm dealing the punishment myself. Not my men."
Astrid turned her face forward just in time before the whip came down on her. She groaned loudly in pain, her chin pressed hard against her shoulder.
Six lashes in and Astrid was close to sobbing. Her entire back was a mess of blood and torn skin. And of course the chief wouldn't just deal all ten lashes and be done with it. No, he had played with her the entire time. Taunted her. He was behind her now, just inches away.
"Can't you just give me four more and get it over with?!" Astrid cried.
"If you tried to relax, it wouldn't hurt as much." He replied, taking several steps back. Four quick lashes were dealt to her back, and then her ropes were cut and Astrid fell to the ground.
******
They were waiting for her when she exited the ring. The twins, Fishlegs, and even Snotlout. It was raining now and her feet fished in the mud. A storm was rolling in.
"Are you alright?" Fishlegs whined, handing her a fresh shirt.
"No, I'm not alright!" Astrid shouted, throwing the shirt at him.
"None of you stood up for me! Not one of you!" The tears now hurt from how much she had cried lately.
"Well of course we didn't!" Snotlout snapped. "We don't want to get punished!"
"I stood up for you, Snotlout! The entire time he whipped you! And I was starved for three days as punishment for it!"
"Well-"
"Just get away from me!" She sobbed. "All of you, get out of here!"
All of them left except Fishlegs.
"A-Astrid those are going to get infected if you don't take care of the-"
"I said leave!!"
After he left the pain of the whipping really began to burn. She screamed in agony and turned her head around to see her back just covered in blood. Ripped and blistered skin red and angry. She sobbed and sobbed and sobbed, hoping to die right there in the mud.
*******
A high pitched scream echoed throughout town as Astrid leapt upward in bed in utter panic.
Hiccup sat up as well, knowing full well she had had a nightmare. This one must have been really bad.
"Astrid, calm down. You're okay!"
"Heather! Yo-you killed heather and you tried to rape me and-and then you let a dragon try to kill me!!" She screamed, breaking down into frantic sobs.
His eyes widened and he pulled her into a tight hug, encasing her in his strong arms and caressing her head in attempts to soothe her.
"Astrid, take a breath. You're okay, it was just a dream."
"You whipped me in front of the whole village!!" She screamed. "There's blood all over and my back is torn up! You whipped me!!"
Hiccup pulled the sleeve of his shirt that she was wearing down, revealing her shoulder and a little of her back.
"Baby, you're fine. Look, see? No blood, no ripped up skin. You're okay." He said more convincingly this time.
"Hiccup please don't ever hurt me, don't you ever hurt me!" She cried out, still completely panicked.
"I will not ever hurt you, Astrid. Not in a million years." He tilted her head towards him and kissed her forehead. But she just wrapped her arms around him and rested her chin on his shoulder, drenching him with her tears. His nightshirt was so soft, pure cotton. She could tell it was the blue one she had bought him for Christmas and she slowly began to calm.
"Shhhh," he rubbed her back in soothing circles and leaned his head against hers. "You're alright. It was just a dream."
"You'll never hurt me?"
"Never." He said softly. His hand came up to caress her hair again and slowly but surely, she began to calm down.
"Toothless was a dragon, and so was Stormfly." She whimpered.
"The cat...and the bird...were dragons?"
"Yes. And you tried to rape me after I broke your rules and you killed Heather and you just did so many horrible things." Astrid buried her head closer into his neck.
"It was just a dream, okay? None of that will ever happen. I promise."
"I'm never sleeping again."
"Come on, let's lay back down. I'll turn on The Office and we'll just watch that until you feel better. Okay?"
Astrid nodded and he reached over to the bed stand to grab the remote, then laid back, allowing Astrid to snuggle up against him with her head on his shoulder and one leg thrown over his.
The Office hadn't even been playing for fifteen minutes before she was out again. Hiccup wiped away a stray tear with his thumb and kissed Astrid's cheek and whispered, "I love you, Astrid. I'd never hurt you."
His cat Toothless jumped up on the bed and plopped down at his feet.
"If you were a dragon in some past life or whatever...that's just creepy." Hiccup murmured. The cat just blinked at him and went to sleep.
