For Honour - How to Train Your Dragon (Astrid x Male Reader)

Outlander

You were exhausted again, after only a few minutes of swinging the axe, you could have gone for two hours or more back home. You suppose you had to consider yourself lucky, you'd drifted across an ocean so fast not even Dragons could fly across. Astrid came around the corner, watching you work without offering to help.

"You look tired outlander." She stated, not as an insult but as a fact. It annoyed you, lighting a fire in your body. If she's been trying to put you down it would have washed over you, but it's the fact that she was right. You were pathetically weak, your father would have scolded you for it.

You shook your head, driving thoughts of your father out of your head. Instead you focused on the axe work, swinging it over your head in and an arc then slamming it down into the wood. Astrid watched, noting how you were well versed in the technique for it. Anger and pride pushed you to keep going even though your body wanted to give in, anger at your loss of strength and pride in the fact you were being watched.

You heard the cry of a nightfury, indicating Hiccups arrival. You were surprised to hear the much deeper rumble of a much bigger dragon, turning you saw a huge four winged beast slowly coming in for landing. It was the biggest you'd seen so far, towering over the smaller nightfury.

Hiccup jumped of toothless, patting his head softly with a large grin on his face. "See mom? I told you I'd get it working eventually." He smiled at his mother, an older woman who jumped off the larger dragon. She was smiling too, then set her eyes on you.

"So, outlander I presume?" She asked, you nodded. Her dragon, like the others, gave a small growl at you. It was starting to really irritate you how every one of them seemed to hate you by default, since they seemed so friendly with other strangers. She stepped down from her dragon and approached, she placed her index finger and thumb on your chin. You tensed at first, resisting the immediate urge to push her off. She moved your face from side to side, examining you.

"Don't be intimidated at all, I'm just going to check your general health." She assured you, as the exam went on you knew that wasn't all to it. She was inspecting you, trying to see how the outlander reacted to the other peoples of the archipelago. She started to mumble to herself as she proceeded with the inspection. "Pointed jaw, fairer features, slightly darker skin, smaller shoulders..." She continued for a while, eventually you decided to ask why.

"What's the point of all this?" The woman didn't answer instantly, she took a second to take a step back.

"I'm trying to find out why the dragons seem to hate you so much, nothing to do with your body. You say you murdered all your dragons?" She asked with distain, clearly she hated those who wanted to harm her dragons.

"I didn't, it was done centuries ago." You told her, thinking about the stories your uncle told you. You were fuzzy on the details, since it was just an old legend. The fact was dragons were so far in the past that no one in five generations remembered them, they had faded into myths. The woman gave an unsatisfied huff, clearly not satisfied.

"Well, dragons are intelligent creatures, it's possible they raised their children in fear of you. I spoke to gothi on my way over here, she told me about how the winter the outcasts who spoke of the men of iron was the worst in even her memory. It's possible that if the ice was so great that a outcast ship could get across to the other end, then it's also possible that five hundred years ago it was great enough for a few dragons to fly across."

You couldn't argue either way about that, since you had no knowledge of such things. The woman looked up judging you, you had the feeling she was on the edge of making some kind of important decision.

"Well, fair well outlander." She said, turning and climbing her four winged dragon. "Hiccup, I think we should investigate a little more." She told her son, then flew away.

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A week had passed, since then you'd gained much of your former strength, though you were still but a shadow. You'd ran for over two hundred feet before your body gave up, twice as much as had been when you started. Every morning you got up with Astrid and dressed, then went for a run. When you were tired she'd walk with you in the village, since she had been scolded by hiccup for abandoning you before hand. You enjoyed this tour, as it allows you to learn more of Berk. You were surprised to learn that it had been less then a decade since the dragons and the Vikings were at war, it was only after hiccup and his nightfury had bonded did everyone else follow suit.

The dragon riding academy had once been the dragon slayer academy, a strange but appropriate decision. You also learned to your horror, it was not yet winter and things were going to get freezing cold before they got hotter. Astrid had gotten a little warmer to you as well, she wasn't as cold and happily answered any questions you have.

When you got back Astrid would take Stormfly and leave you to cut wood on your own as she did practise with the other riders, you would then work as much as you could until Astrid came home. It was time for the days meal, where the large majority of people would congregate for a hearty meal of either fish or meat with tough vegetables with as much ale as you could muster. You were used to stronger wines, so you underestimated the effect on you. You had started to drink it fast and often, which lead to you getting drunk on the first night, you avoided large quantities since then.

No one noticed though, people avoided the outlander when they could. You had found one partner to dine with though, a large man by the name of fishlegs. Fishlegs seemed to know everything about every dragon Vikings knew of, having read the book of dragons many times. He offered to loan you his copy, but you couldn't read the language. You were well versed in the letters of your own people, capable of reading and writing entire verses of poetry, but you couldn't read Viking.

Fortunately, Fishlegs had memorised every word of it. You had already mastered the basics of the most basic dragons, Nadders, Gronckles, Zipplebacks and nightmares. Just from him listing the different names of dragons, you realised it would take a lifetime to learning about them all. Though this is the life they choose, one you couldn't critique.

At night however, your sneak off alone. You would wonder Berk under the darkness, taking the time to think. You still hadn't grieved for Lord Rogan or even begun to, you wanted to. Doing that would admit you were now Lord of the Phoenix legion, that all wasn't right with the world. Seeing Berk made you realise things were possible you'd never dreamt of, you were unconsciously holding on to the thought he might still be alive.

You sat on the beach, looking at the endless ocean. Somewhere out there was home, a place you were born, a place you missed. You were also concerned by what Valka, Hiccups mother, had told you. If the only way to get home was by freezing cold winters, bad enough to freeze part of the ocean, then how could you get home? How could you return.

Make me proud...

You suddenly flinched, his words burning into you hotter then any brand. The bizarre thing was, you didn't understand why. You and your father had never been close, as a child you'd idolised him, as an adult you had obeyed him.

A small sign of movement caught your eye, a small terrible terror was starring at you intently. As you turned to look at it the creature froze, its large beady eyes looking at you. After a few seconds it started to bob its head up and down, then it licked its eye and hopped away. You couldn't deny you were disappointed, you were starting to crave companionship. You didn't realise how much you enjoyed your lessons with Fishlegs, how much you relished that small interaction with another living creature.

How much you missed having a friend.