This is where I belong ||httyd fanfic||

41. The truth and the sky parade

.

.

.

.

.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Astrid had to shake her head and clean the wax out of her ears with her finger to see if she heard the man on the dragon right. Did he say 'Sky Parade?' ? As in some kind of celebration up in the air? She had to wonder just how it would be possible to do such a thing before she looked up again and saw that the answer had already been provided. She grimaced in disgust and had to literally resist the urge to vomit at the whole thing, breathing out her fury through gritted teeth. The idea of people riding dragons, riding those vile monsters and thinking of them as pets or noble steeds; it was a crime against nature itself. And here she was, on an island that was presumably full of them.

From the very beginning, Astrid had been taught by the example of her parents and her chief that peace could only come at the sharp end of a blade. Taught, inbred with hatred ever since she was a child, but as an adult she could see the world clearly, no longer needing the detestation her elders provided. She knew full well dragons were the enemies and that only one side or the other was going to come out standing at the end of the war, whenever that end may have been.

Even after the raids had mysteriously stopped six years ago, she and the wiser Vikings like Stoick and Gobber still kept their guard up. They still launched attacks against any dragon that flew over their island, even if for some reason they only came one at a time. In fact in recent times they had resorted to killing the dragons for extra meat since the animals they usually used had gotten sick. But that was the only good the dragons brought, the only good dragons were dead ones.

Even as she was witnessing clear proof of the opposite of everything she had believed in, it only provided more questions than answers. It was evident the dragons had either come here to this dragon-friendly island all that time ago; that or they moved to other, uninhabited islands. This place seemed to be only slightly larger than Berk, there was no way all the dragons could fit on this one island. But why did this island have an apparent 'no-killing-dragons' policy, what could have brought them to adopt it? Didn't they lose hardly-attained food and loved ones to the demons as well? Her fists clenched in anger at how these people wished to spit and dance on those innocent people's graves, how they could so easily dishonor so many good, brave warriors and children that passed on much too soon. It was nothing short of the greatest insult possible to men that gave their lives to protect their homes and their families, she figured.

And that was to say nothing of how she assumed Stoick would react upon seeing this, the compassion towards the monsters who took his wife, and possibly his son. These idiots were dooming themselves to oblivion; whether that was by punishment by the virtuous like the men of Berk or eventual deception at the hands of these creatures remained to be seen. All she knew is that she wouldn't want to be one of these people if Stoick came around and saw all this nonsense.

Still, she had to admit she was a bit impressed at how the mindless beasts could be controlled and act so tamely in response to their human masters. For all her rage at the insanity of these people's feelings and ideals with dragons, another side of her was arguing how amazing it was that they could even be controlled at all. Taking a good look at all the houses once more, she could easily identify that they had taken a long time to build, or perhaps not as long if they had dragons help with that too. They were clearly not like the buildings of Berk were, just the simple angular huts that could be compared with simple shacks or sheds. There was true artistry in the architecture, and the size, stories, and bright coloration they all had proved the lack of need to rebuild just to have an acceptable living space. Astrid may have loathed dragons and anyone who sympathized with them, but she wasn't stupid. This village itself provided a good example of the benefits of having dragons around.