(Chapter slightly edited for grammar/spelling on 1/5/2021)

*Pic mine*

Toothless' POV

"AAAAAAUUUUGGHHH!" My eyes snap open at the sound, and I tense up. Hiccup!

"Hiccup? Hiccup?!" I look around the room, my eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness. He's not with me. Oh, no!

Snarling, I start to squirm, just to realise I'm suspended above the ground, my wings bound tightly to my side by thick rope. There's something thick around my mouth, preventing me from firing. I hiss, trying to open my mouth to at least bite through it, but it's too tight and doesn't budge.

Oh, this is bad. So, so bad. What are they doing to Hiccup? He's still recovering!

Another scream echoes around the ship, and I let out a roar of anger and panic. "I'll help you!" I shriek afterwards, struggling more. It's as if the restraints only tighten because although I struggle as hard as I can, I can't break through. Is that an arrow, sticking out of my side? That explains the ache.

"Damn, I should have fought harder. How did he overpower me?" It was only a few arrows! Well, and a net. And a bola. I hate them. Reminds me of...things.

After a few minutes more of struggling, I quieten down and glare forwards at the door, knowing I need to save my strength. Because the moment I get a chance, I'm breaking out of here. And I'm going to make sure Dagur knows what a mistake he has made.

He will feel my Fury.

Astrid's POV

Previously:
"Ruffnut! Listen to me." She can barely stop the shaking. I look right at her.

"You and Tuff have grown up together (...) But I know one thing about him, and that is, once he gets an idea in his head, it does not leave easily. So what do you think would happen when he gets the idea in his head to survive?"

She looks at me, realisation and hope showing in her face. "He'll fight."

Now:

I am awake as soon as the light shines down through the window. Truth be told, I have been awake for most of the night, only succeeding in a few hours of sleep. My brain has been in turmoil and no matter what I do, I can't take my focus off of the upcoming events.

Sighing, I sit up, swinging my legs off the side of the bed. A few people are moving around the room: pulling on shoes, or shirts or... Oh, Gods! Do people not have any sense of decency?! I decide to keep my eyes glued to the ground as I walk towards the door. 

"Oh, uh, Astrid, was it?"
Inwardly, I wince. I do not want to see anything undecent today. I push a breath out through my nose, before slowly looking up, praying to the gods that whoever has called me is not naked.

"Y-," I clear my throat, "Yes? That's me."

A man, probably about twenty or something, looks at me from a bed. He's taller than me, has spiky black hair, a big build, brown eyes, and oh damn no shirt on. Wow, look at them muscles... Astrid! I scold myself inwardly. Distractions are not what I need.

The man smiles at me and I force myself to focus on his words. "The maids dropped off some clothes, said you might appreciate them." He tells me, pointing to a stack of clothes sitting on a chair. 

"Thanks, uh..." I trail off, realising I don't know his name. He picks up on it and offers me his hand. I shake it firmly.

"Kurt, " He elucidates. "I'm a soldier, a guard of sorts."

"Soldier, Huh?" I smirk. "I could probably take you down any day!" I cross my arms and stare up at him defiantly.

He laughs. "You look like you could kill with just a look."

A man calls his name from across the room. He looks over at him before back at me. "Well, I better go, but if you or your friends have any questions don't hesitate to find me." He speaks up.

I nod, grabbing the clothes. "Thanks, Kurt."

I walk off as he does, looking for a place to change into the clothes. By the sounds of things, they haven't found Gosta's body yet: I still have time.

I leave the room, wondering the halls until I find a storage room of sorts. Checking to be sure the room is empty, I quickly slip into the clothes.

***

"Astrid!"
Walking down the halls, I turn around at my name, to see Ruffnut running up to me. She's changed into a green strap dress, with a black shawl thrown over her shoulders.

"Stupid thing," she grumbles, tugging at the side of the dress.
"Hey, Ruff. Where are the others?" I greet her, taking note that she's the only one.

"They're at the 'Food Hall', I was sent to find you," Ruff replies. I nod.

"Heard anything about Gosta?" I whisper as we begin to walk down the hall. I'm wearing a black tunic that reaches my knees, grey trousers, and a brown sheepskin shawl over my shoulders. At least I'm not stuck in a dress.

"Nope, no one's been up on deck yet," Ruff replies cheerfully as we move at a steady pace. I sigh in relief.

"Good. I'm thinking we'll need to throw the body overboard before someone finds it," I mutter as we round a corner. We walk past a few people, before stopping at an open doorway.

"Brace yourself," Ruff jokes, "They're animals."
I give her an eye roll as a response, moving forwards to walk through the doorway.

Immediately, I catch a glimpse of something silver flying through the air, and acting on instinct, I throw out my arm to catch it before it can hit me in the face.

The room goes silent.

I look down at the silver fish in my hands. I thought it was going to be a knife or something.

"Wow. I admire your etiquette!" I exclaim sarcastically.

The captain looks up at me in embarrassment, his bare plate coming crashing down on the floor in the silent room. He clears his throat, pulling at his collar. "Sorry, Astrid. it slipped."

The room is silent again.

But Ruffnut breaks it. "Is that smoked mutton I smell?!"

"Why, yes!" the captain replies, relieved for the subject down. "Please, join us, girls!"

I glance at Ruffnut, who nods. Snotlout is seated by the captain, eating with one arm while his other rests in the sling. Lokus is on the other side of the table, having an intense arm wrestle with a woman.

I'm pleased to say she wins.

Ruffnut moves first, so I follow after her. The people— there's about twenty in total— slide across the seat to make room for us. I give the embarrassed captain his fish back.

As soon as I sit down, a plate full of food is thrust under my face. It smells and looks delicious, and I am pretty hungry. So, after a quick inspection (I have trust issues) I deem it worthy of consumption and dig in.

Chatter resumes, but I stay relatively silent. I need to find a way to get Lokus, Snotlout, Ruff, and I together so we can throw the body overboard... before they find it and we lose our only chance at helping Berk.

No one's mentioned him, so I guess they haven't found the body? But it's only a matter of time. When they find out, they'll never let us go. For gods sake, we killed a man!

"Astrid?"

I look up, my thoughts are forgotten. The captain nods at me. "Did I let you know that it's going to take us longer than expected to reach Berserker island? It'll be two days minimum."
These extra days could be Berk's demise.

"Oh. Ok. Thanks again for helping us." I reply, downhearted.

"We'll get help, Astrid. Don't worry!" Lokus assures me from across the table. I give him a small smile, appreciating the assurance.

"So, uh, tell us about Berk." The captain says. I suck in a breath.
"How much time do we have?"

"Two days, apparently." Snotlout mumbles. I kick him under the table. He grunts.
"All the time you need," The captain replies, either not hearing Snotlout or choosing to ignore him. I shrug.
"Well..."

***

"I-I'm sorry, he did what?!"

I smirk, enjoying the captain's reaction. "He burnt a hole through the table."

"And, that's why we never let Snotlout near the forge again," Lokus adds.

"Gobber was so mad," Ruffnut chuckles, waving a chicken leg around. "It was hilarious!"

"If you think that's bad, wait to you hear what Ruffnut and her brother did last year." Lokus laughs. I choose this moment to slip away from the room, unnoticed.

I roll my eyes. I guess I'm doing this on my own? They're all too busy chatting up the captain. Actually, this is a good opportunity. They're keeping him busy.

I walk out the door, everyone too busy eating or listening to notice me.
I just have to focus on not getting caught.

Hiccup's POV

Previously:

"D...Don't." I beg, watching him pick up an arrow, and throw the prosthetic behind him carelessly. He turns to look at my sideways, and slowly smirks.

"AUUUUGGGHHHH!"

Now: (a few hours later)

I wake up on the floor, feeling agonizing pain all over. Panting, I try to push myself to a sitting position. My body protests with every movement, with every breath, but nonetheless, I inch up into a sitting position with a pained grunt. I lean heavily against the wall and look around the empty room. I'm in a cell. No Dagur in sight. As I move my arms, chains jingle and thump against the wooden floor, causing me to sigh. What did I ever do? What could I have possibly done to deserve something this-this terrible?!

I stay silent, looking around and listening in case Dagur comes in. I realise the prosthetic is gone, but in my condition, I doubt I'd be able to stand up anyway. How am I going to get out of here? Where is Toothless? Is he ok?! I suck in a breath through my teeth. If Dagur has hurt him... I'll never be able to live with myself.

I huff, exhausted, and just feeling bad for myself. Am I ever going to get a break? Life sucked on Berk. Life sucked after we left. Life sucked at the Red Death battle. Life sucked afterwards (I lost a leg, for Thor's sake). And life sucks now. A pang hits me in the heart. What if life sucks afterwards? What if this... This cycle never ends. What if life never changes?! I don't... I don't want to--

"You're new."

My head snaps up at the sound of a voice, my heart beating fast as my breathing quickens. "Who-" I barely manage to push a word out.

"Relax, kid. I'm like you."

Pinpointing the direction the voice is coming from, I look forward. Through the rusted bars of my cell, I can make out another cell across from mine. Someone sits inside it, leaning against the wall. A thick metal shackle visible on their ankle.

They look up at me and through the dim lighting caused by a lantern hanging outside their door, I make out a small smile directed at me.

"The name's Bo," He says, deep brown eyes peering over at me. I don't speak up; he's a stranger, and for all I know he could be on Dagur's side. He notices and decides to speak. "I've been here for..." he pauses and checks a visible tally on the wall. "Five...six... Six months. The food sucks, don't get your hopes up." He adds. Six months? That's a long time. I hope I'm not here for that long.

"Are," I swallow a lump in my throat. "Are there others? Like us?" I ask.

"No. Just us two prisoners. The rest are part of the crew." Bo replies.

"Tried to escape?" I ask curiously.

"No." His answer surprises me.

"No?" I echo. Is that really how bad it is here? That even the thought of escaping is impossible?

"I don't wanna talk about it."

An uncomfortable silence fills the room. I sigh softly.

"I'm Hiccup." He doesn't laugh or smirk at my name as most people do. Instead, he smiles.

"I'm Bo... I already told you that." I see him facepalm and catch glimpse of dark hair, but I'm not sure if it's because of how dirty he is. "I'm Sixteen."

"Oh. You look older." I reply, surprised. "I'm fifteen."

"Oh. You look younger."

"I'm a toothpick, I know." I let out a forced laugh.

"Ah! Nice of you to join the party! I thought you'd been carried off by now!"

"What, who me? Nah, come on! I'm waaaay too muscular for their taste."
"They wouldn't know what to do with all... this."

"Well, they need toothpicks, don't they?"

"No!" Bo retorts, snapping me out of the memory, humour laced through his words. "You just, look... innocent."

I shake my head, looking away. "I don't feel innocent."
I betrayed my tribe, after all. My people. My father. What kind of being does that make me?

"Well, it's never too late for change. What did you do, anyway?" Bo replies with a gentle tone.

"I... That's something I don't want to talk about."

Oh, I just trained a Night Fury. Betrayed my people. Abandoned them. That's all. Not too bad, huh?

"Fair enough, " He answers, not giving any indication of judgement. I smile at him thankfully.

"So. I'd suggest you get some rest, start a tally, and try not to talk back to Dagur. He doesn't like it."

I let out a nervous laugh. "Talking back is, sort of, in my nature."

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Yeah so IDK. I just ended it here cause I don't wanna make you wait. I just want to say I'm grateful for every single one of you reading. I know the percentage of reads and votes has really dropped lately, but I'm thankful that I still have you, dear reader, putting up with my infrequently updates and continuing to reading anyway.

I've been winging a lot of this story, and frankly, I have no idea what's in store for the next chapter.

School ended for the year so I have more time to write!

Ok, that's enough from me. No quote cause I'm lazy.

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