How To Train Your Spirit Form

Breakthroughs and Rope

All Hiccup felt was pain, the ropes dug into his scales and his head was killing him. Hiccup tried to remain awake but felt darkness creep up onto him again.

Astrid was beginning to get frustrated. She had been wandering the forest for hours and so far she hadn't seen the dragon. How could she of lost an entire dragon?! She hit a stick out of her way and it came back at her and nearly hit her in the face, she dogged it.

Astrid then noticed the stick belonged to a very broken tree. A tree that was broken quite recently. The tree was littered with claw marks and the ground had a wide deep skid marks where it looked like something had fallen from a great height.

Astrid's excitement grew, she might have found the dragon! Astrid followed the skid marks and leaned over a rock and saw exactly what she was looking for. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself laid unmoving wrapped in rope. She had killed it!

Astrid jumped over the rock and ran over to the fallen Night Fury.

"I did it! I killed the Night Fury!" Astrid yelled. The supposedly dead dragon moaned in pain causing Astrid to pull her axe out and point it at the not-dead dragon. The dragon blinked an eye open and looked at Astrid. Astrid tensed up.

Hiccup looked up at Astrid who was pointing an axe at him. So this was it. He didn't want to die. Fear coursed through Hiccup like never before.

Astrid could see so much fear in its eyes. No, that wasn't possible. Dragons don't have emotions they only kill. Everyone knows that. She shook her head.

"I'm going to kill your dragon, I'm going to end your reign of terror over Berk," Astrid said ferociously. The dragon's eyes widened.

"I'm a Viking!" Astrid yelled at the dragon. The dragon crooned in fear and sadness. No, not fear and not sadness. This was a dragon. Astrid exhaled and raised her axe above her head.

This was the end, thought Hiccup. Astrid was going to kill him. There was no point in fighting. Hiccup closed his eyes and awaited his certain fate.

Why was it so hard to kill this stupid dragon? She physically couldn't move her arms. It should be easy, just lower your axe with force on the dragon's neck, and boom, you've got a dead dragon its as simple as that.

But she couldn't stop thinking about those eyes. Those forest green eyes looked at her with such fear that she could almost feel it herself. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't deny the obvious emotion that was adorned on its face.

When she tried again to kill the dragon she thought of Hiccup. Why? Then she realized.

This dragon's eyes reminded her of Hiccup's. Hiccup would probably take that as an insult. But that must be the reason why she couldn't kill this dragon.

She couldn't kill the dragon. She was weak.

When she looked at the dragon all she saw was her weakness reflecting at her. But for the first time, Astrid looked at the dragon and instead of seeing a mindless beast, she saw a creature that had fallen by her hands.

"I did this," Astrid realized.

She held her axe tighter and began cutting the ropes.

Hiccup's eyes snapped open at the sensation of the ropes getting looser. From the limited mobility, he was barely able to see Astrid cutting the ropes?! What in Thor's name was she doing? Why was she freeing him?

With one last cut at one of the ropes, Hiccup jumped out of his twine prison. Astrid had backed up into a rock and stared at Hiccup, her axe forgotten on the ground.

They stared at each other for minutes, both seemingly evaluating each other's souls.

Astrid was sure the dragon would kill her, but it just seemed shocked she released it. Its eyes held no anger like she was fully expecting, instead, they were curious and cautious.

Hiccup had to leave, there was no telling if Astrid was going to stay peaceful forever. He turned and fled in the direction of the cove. But something wasn't right when he tried to take flight, he lost his balance and smashed into a rock pillar before ungracefully gliding into the cove.

What just happened? Hiccup tried to fly out of the cove but couldn't even reach the edge before crashing ungracefully onto the ground.

Hiccup turned to look at his tail fins which were luckily both still there. But, they were tangled up tightly in the rope he had just escaped from. Hiccup tried to pull it off his tail in dragon form but it went without success.

It probably is easier if he just took it off in his human form, Hiccup realized. I mean it was obvious. Hiccup thought of being human and when he opened his eyes-

He was still a dragon?

He tried again to turn back to his human form. Nothing. He tried for hours until he came to the sicking realization.

He was stuck as a dragon, he couldn't fly because of the rope on his tail. Hiccup had effectively gotten himself stuck in the cove with no idea how to get out.

Hiccup tried desperately to somehow turn back human again but there simply was no magic in him. Hiccup felt lost, he had no Toothless to console him and no home to safely go back to. He had no solutions and he was scared.