How To Train Your Dragon One-Shots

Hiking Retreat

Hoping you're well! I just had my Constitutional Law final today, and wanted to quickly finish this short story. I imagine this takes place while Heather is staying with the gang on The Edge. I don't remember when Hiccup got his amber safety goggles, so that particular detail might be inaccurate, but I'm going for fun and not law related and I'm not concerning myself with some of those smaller details. 

I ship Hiccup and Astrid and I fully support their eventual canon marriage, but I love the idea that Astrid and Heather had something going for at least a little while during RTTE. I don't think it was long, but I definitely think there was something there. So, I wanted to write about it. And love is so much more fun to write about than what types of officers from what agencies a president can appoint/remove. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy! And if you have any ideas for characters I should write about or any situations characters I've already written about might end up in, let me know in the comments. I won't promise to using any of those suggestions, but I'd love to hear what other people are interested in.

***

Hiccup was standing over his workbench when she entered his hut. He wore his amber safety goggles as he directed Toothless to send small plasma blasts to chip away at whatever it was he was working on. By now, Toothless knew exactly what Hiccup needed and could be relied on not to blast apart or melt the target. Astrid smiled to herself. The two of them worked well together.

"Hey!" she called out between blasts.

Hiccup turned. "Astrid! What brings you here on this fine day?"

"Just wanted to check in with you before I head out," she replied.

Hiccup frowned. "Head out? Head out where?"

"Hiking. Heather and I were going to go train for a few days, remember?"

"Oh, right. Hiking. I totally forgot about that. Toothless and I were just busy with our latest contraption. I'll have to show it to you when you get back."

"That would be great," said Astrid. She smiled at him, and he smiled back.

"Say hello to Heather for me. And if you need anything, you can always-"

"I know, Hiccup." Astrid hugged him, and Hiccup patted her awkwardly on the back. "We'll be fine. Stormfly and Windshear will be there with us. And even if they weren't..."

"You two can handle yourselves. I know."

The two pulled apart. Hiccup smiled once more, and then went back to his work. Astrid watched him for a moment longer.

He's really sweet, she thought to herself. Then, she turned and left the hut.

***

Astrid had been the one to find the mountain. It was on a nearby island. Before she and Heather decided to hike there, she had made sure to check it out and determine it was safe and didn't have any mysterious mind controlling insects or poisonous plants. The Dragon Riders had landed on a few too many islands completely unprepared for her tastes. Aside from the occasional monstrous nightmare or hideous zippleback hiding in a cave, this island was free of any nasty surprises.

Stormfly and Windshear set them down on the coast just outside of the forest. The two girls jumped down from the dragons.

"Ready to head out?" Astrid asked.

"You bet," replied Heather. "I haven't been hiking in ages. It should be fun climbing a mountain instead of flying to the top. My parents and I used to do stuff like this all the time. It's actually kinda nice hiking again with someone I care about."

Astrid placed a hand on Heather's shoulder. "I'm so happy to be able to do this with you. Thank you for coming."

Together, the two Vikings and two dragons headed into the forest.

It wasn't a particularly tall mountain, but they took their time hiking it. They did some combat practice, dueling with their axes. They climbed trees, climbed boulders, and even befriended a typhoomerang that happened to be passing through. Astrid felt more energetic than she had been in a while. Training to be a Dragon Rider was hard work, but she hadn't been training to hike long distances nearly as often as she should have been. If she ever got knocked off Stormfly in a battle, she'd have to be prepared to walk for a while.

But more than training, it was also fun. Being alone with Heather was just as invigorating as the training. And it was so nice seeing Heather smile and let loose in a way she didn't back at the Edge. Even clad in heavy dragon-scale armor, she seemed to carry herself with a lightness and sense of ease. Out there, away from all their responsibilities, away from Snotlout, they could be themselves.

On their last day, they made it to the peak of the mountain. The trees had gotten shorter the farther up they climbed until there were no trees at all. Instead of hiking over pine needles, they scrambled up rocks and inched across ledges over sheer cliffs. At one point in her life Astrid would have been terrified. But now, she had Stormfly with her. If she fell, she trusted that Stormfly would catch her. And of course, Windshear would never let Heather fall.

When they finally made it to the top, they lay down on the rocks and looked up at the sky.

"That last mile was rough," Astrid said. She stretched her arms and grabbed a water pouch from Stormfly's saddle. "Don't tell the others I said this, but I'm actually tired."

"I wouldn't dream of telling them even if I wasn't also tired," Heather replied. The two of them laughed.

Astrid sat up and looked out at the forest below. The trees faded away and became the ocean, and she could even see another island off in the distance. She rarely took the opportunity to take stock of the world around her when she was flying on Stormfly. She was always training or fighting. There wasn't time to sit back and admire the view. Up there, on the top of a mountain hundreds of feet above the rest of the world, she felt weightless. She was fully a part of this world.

"So much for being unstoppable Viking warriors," Astrid mused. "Almost defeated by a mountain."

Beside her, Heather shifted to look at her. "Well, being unstoppable doesn't mean you shouldn't stop every so often. Even we need a break sometimes."

"A break? Us?"

"Yes, we need a break," Heather chuckled. "We can't always be dominating everyone in battle all the time. We should be able to enjoy going for a hike, seeing the beauty in the world and not just strategic landmarks, following our hearts..."

"That all sounds wonderful," replied Astrid.

"It does. And that's why I got you these." Heather stood up and rummaged around in a bag tied to Windshear's saddle. She pulled out three flowers. One was a light blue with yellow tipped petals, the second was almost gray and looked sharp, and the third was green and speckled with black and red dots. She extended the flowers to Astrid. "For you, mi 'lady."

"These are beautiful!" exclaimed Astrid. "Where did you find them?"

"Back in one of the caves we were exploring there was a patch of flowers. I thought they looked pretty and wanted to grab them for you. I remembered how much you liked those other flowers back on The Edge, and thought I'd find a few more for you."

Astrid took the flowers, noticing the way her hand grazed against Heather's. "Well, I did like the flowers you got for me that one time. And I love these! No one knows this about me, but I really like flowers."

"Don't worry, that secret is safe with me too," said Heather. She looked into Astrid's eyes, and Astrid couldn't help but notice just how green and gorgeous they were.

"Among other secrets," added Astrid. Still holding the flowers, she put her arms around Heather, careful not to accidentally poke herself on any of Heather's armor. She looked into Heather's eyes for a moment longer, then leaned forward and kissed her.

When they pulled apart, the two of them laughed. "Who said an unstoppable Viking warrior can't enjoy herself every now and again?" said Heather.

Astrid responded with another kiss.