AN: Hi all. I was feeling under the weather yesterday so I couldn't finish this chapter on time.  

Chapter 7

Hiccup let out a groan as he walked through the majestic gilded palace halls. Ve and Vili's arrival had sent other Asgardians into a tizzy and Hiccup had been dragged along in the process. As Heimdal had to stay on guard duty Hiccup was asked to accompany Odin's brothers to the palace. Their arrival sparked the gossip mill and both brothers had taken a liking to Hiccup, asking him to regale them with tales of Midgard. It was already night when Hiccup was finally able to excuse himself.

"Hiccup we aren't going to your room?" Toothless asked as his little body was sitting atop Hiccup's head.

"I thought I'd pay Astrid a visit." Hiccup told the Nightfury as his plans to ask Astrid to dinner had been put on hold slightly when the old princes arrived. "Why?"

"I'm just a bit tired." Toothless yawned. "Stormfly and I ended up spending most of the day wandering the city. There's even this blacksmith named Brokkr that became giddy and started asking us to try and melt different metals." Toothless chuckled at the memory. "Stormfly preened at each metal she managed to melt with her dragonfire."

"Brokkr?" Hiccup thought aloud for a moment. That name sounded familiar to him but he couldn't quite place it within the Norse mythology.

"You'd like him Hiccup! You really would." Toothless continued, pawing at Hiccup's nose for the fun of it. "I'd bet you'd end up in the forge all day tinkering too."

Hiccup nodded as he tried to swat Toothless' paw away. "Why do you insist on riding on my head?" Hiccup asked as he approached Astrid's room.

"I told you already." Toothless took flight and hovered at Hiccup's shoulder level now. "You ride me when I'm big, then I get to do the same thing to you when you're the bigger one." The small chubby Nightfury stated his reasoning with a yawn. "I'm going back into the tattoo now. You two lovebirds don't do anything I wouldn't do." The little dragon playfully winked at his host before disappearing, leaving a flustered and blushing Hiccup behind.

Hiccup knocked on Astrid's door and waited patiently, unconsciously rocking on the balls of his heels. The door opened not thirty seconds later revealing a worn out Astrid.

"Hey Astrid... Hi Astrid!" Hiccup spoke quickly. "How was you-" Hiccup stopped for a moment when he noticed something on her shoulder "is that a bruise?" Hiccup saw Astrid's eyes widened before she yanked up her collar a bit.

"Hey Hiccup, eh.... Yeah, training was rough." Astrid told him but Hiccup sensed that there might have been more to it. However, looking at her he knew she could handle whatever the problem was. Astrid was a very strong woman after all and he meant that in both the physical and mental sense. Her strength was one of the things that drew him to her.

'Ask her already you dork!' Toothless mentally growled to his host. Hiccup gave Toothless a mental eyeroll causing the dragon to huff.

"So Astrid, Thor told me about this wonderful restaurant in the city. Would you be willing to accompany me tomorrow night?"

"Hiccup..." A sly smile appeared on Astrid's face. "Are you asking me on a date?" Hiccup quickly nodded and even though they had kissed a couple of times he still didn't quite trust his mouth not to blurt out something embarrassing. He did wonder if Astrid picked up the word date from the twins, she normally would have used courting.

"I would love to have dinner with you." Astrid smiled warmly. "Say, shall we meet at the palace gate at..... Sunset?" She asked.

"Yes... yes... I can meet you there." Hiccup said. "I'll make a reservation at the restaurant then." Astrid nodded before leaning in and initiating a kiss. "I'll look forward to it." She smiled before a flustered Hiccup bid her goodnight.

While Hiccup and Astrid had been talking, both Stormfly and Toothless were also in a conversation. "Honey get your fat behind here!" Stormfly had called out.

"I don't have a fat behind." Toothless huffed as they mentally talked.

"Fine, get your CUTE fat behind here." The Nadder squawked.

"Much better." The Nightfury stated. The black dragon was getting used to Stormfly's flirtations. He found that he didn't mind them so much unless the Nadder was dragging him somewhere by the tail.

"We are finally getting somewhere with these two." Stormfly told him proudly. "And you were afraid that they were going at it backwards."

"You don't normally kiss a person before asking if they're interested." Toothless retorted.

"If I recall correctly, you were screaming FINALLY just as much as I was when both locked lips at Gobber's house." Stormfly stated as she heard her host say yes to the date.

Toothless let out a cough to hide his embarrassment. Then Stormfly purred as their hosts were saying goodbye "Maybe we should find something to occupy our time with tomorrow. Our host might be indisposed." The Nadder mentally winked at the flustered Nightfury before going back to preening.

Astrid breathed steadily as she closed the door. "Did he suspect anything?" Heather asked as she, Meixiu, and Ruffnut came out from the bathroom suite.

"He saw the bruise." Astrid said as she made her way over to her bed. "I'm surprised the wound didn't reopen." She mumbled while pulling her shirt off to reveal her bandaged abdomen. "I need you to heal this with your magic for me Meixiu."

"How exactly did you get stabbed again?" The petite Chinese girl asked as she got to work. "It wasn't a training accident was it? Is that why you don't want Hiccup to know? Has someone been targeting you?"

"More like certain individuals." Heather scoffed.

"You guys are going to have to be a bit more specific." Meixiu told them as she started a Chinese incantation. "I only know of what happened from the point of Ruffnut dragging me from the Royal library to finding Astrid trying not to ruin the carpet with blood."

"Okay, so it started the morning Jerry came back injured." Ruffnut starts the story. "I had told Astrid about the sparring matches on the training grounds the Valkyries used. Of course we rescheduled and went to a match this morning."

Heather who was petting the sleeping Razorwhip hatchling grumbled "but apparently we weren't very welcome."

"Why not?" Meixiu asked perplexed since she was holed up in the library most of the day. Most of the things in there were just too fascinating.

"Well for one those big-breasted........eh.... Gals...." Ruffnut said quickly causing the room's occupants to look at Ruff's flat chest and think 'jealous' "Had the audacity to tell us that they wouldn't welcome us not just because we were 'weak' Midgardians but because Astrid had the Valkyrie title."

"True they didn't seem all that pleased about it." Heather nodded. "They won't go openly against the Allfather's decision to name Astrid a Valkyrie but that didn't mean they couldn't do it when no one was watching."

"What got those women in a tizzy?" Meixiu asked as the wound on Astrid started closing up.

"Seems they were the ones on guard duty when Gungnir was stolen by Oswald." Astrid explained further. "They took it as a personal affront and petitioned the Allfather to task them with its safe return."

"But you ended up with the job." Meixiu could put the details together now. "So it's bruised pride that set them off. But that still doesn't explain the stab wound."

"Astrid of course was seething but she gestured for us to leave the training grounds. The confrontation with them just wasn't worth it." Heather answered. "Of course the Valkyries wouldn't let us off now that they had their prey in sight. Their leader Brynhildr proceeded to challenge Astrid to combat to see if she was worthy."

"It was more like a ruse to humiliate her." Ruffnut muttered several curse words that even Tuffnut's chicken shouldn't hear.

"Astrid lost?!" Meixiu now asked.

"It was actually a draw." Astrid told the girl calmly.

"But the battle was GLORIOUS!!" Ruffnut snickered. "You should have seen the moves and the Valkyries' faces when Astrid parried Brynhildr."

"The stab wound came after the match." Heather sighed. "We were on our way back when a throwing dagger was aimed at Astrid."

"You didn't see who?" Meixiu asked. "Is that why you aren't telling Hiccup?"

"It's most likely one of the Valkyries' who weren't satisfied with the outcome." Astrid's eyes narrowed. "Attacking from the dark instead of a straightforward battle is dishonorable. I will find out who it was and defeat them myself."

"Besides do you want Odin to wonder why he has crispy Valkyries if Hiccup got involved?" Heather reasoned. "You all saw what a full powered Nightfury could do in our last battle. Now think of that and Hiccup finding out Astrid was stabbed."

"An angry dragon isn't one to be messed with. A furious dragon is just plain get-the-heck-out-of-dodge." Ruffnut added.