A/N

hey hey, you you, would like a new chapter?

perhaps some rewrites of the first like ten chapters, too? cause if the answer to the second question is yes, then do tell.

The question Astrid had to answer was where to start.

There were several dragons in the training ring. she didn't know all of them but there was definitely a Nadder, Terror, Zippleback and Gronkle but there were a few extra doors that were a mystery.

And there was the chance there was an empty pen, where once a Monstrous Nightmare had lived.

Three years ago she'd killed that dragon with no qualms, she hadn't even hesitated. Now, she was unlocking a pen and scrambling back as a blue Nadder rushed out into the moonlight.

It towered over her, twitched and sniffed the air. Astrid's breath caught in her throat as she wondered if this was when she died.

And then the Nadder took off, twisting around the cage, scrambling along the chains and looking for an exit. It finally squawked and dropped to the floor, investigating her. Right in front of the gate.

Astrid forced air down her throat, she felt faint. Was she gonna faint? She might. Her head was very light all of a sudden and it seemed darker?

No, she would not pass out. not right now.

She took a tentative step forward and the Nadder squawked, she jumped back, hair on edge.

"okay," she whispered, "hi."

The Nadder's tail twitched.

"this is probably really strange, not being attacked by a Viking, but, uh..." she held her hands out in front of her, no weapons to be seen, "I come in peace."

It's head cocked, and it came closer, sniffing the air.

How did she show she was trying to be friendly? How?

She remembered when she was little, someone had visited from an island with less dragons. They had a dog. Astrid had never seen one before, Berk didn't have pets they were too likely to be taken by dragons. She remembered being terrified of this giant dog, almost as big as her at the time considering how young she was

She remembered being told not to sit down near it, to never lower herself because it could take it as a show of obedience. She had to be the boss of the dog.

But it always seemed much more at peace when there weren't well armed Vikings towering over it. it loved her and the other kids.

So Astrid slowly sunk to the floor, crossed her legs and took a deep breath. The Nadder shuffled closer.

She had to show it she was a friend. She'd fought it before, waved an axe in it's face like a maniac.

She was the enemy here.

She folded her body over her legs and placed her hands on her head. she felt her breath bounce back at her from the floor as she exhaled.

It was quiet, it was cold and she was scared.

But that was the thing with her family, they called themselves 'fearless' but they weren't. no. they were just very good at rising above fear and fighting anyway.

She'd never had to push fear down this much.

She heard the Nadder shuffling, the stone under its claws shrieking nowhere near as loud as Astrid's breath in her ears.

And then even louder was the sound of the Nadder's breath down her back. she tensed, every muscle springing, preparing to flee. But she wouldn't be able to. If it decided to eat her she'd be done for.

A strange mix between a chirp and click sounded next to her ear and she felt something moving her hair around. And then it backed off.

She glanced up, head lifting from the ground slowly. The Nadder sat in front of her, legs folded beneath it, its wings sat at its sides. It lowered its head to the ground and rested it in front of her.

It was mimicking her.

He cocked her head to the side similairly to how the dragon had before. It copied her.

She raised her hands from her head, the Nadder's wings unfolded slightly.

She placed her hands in front of her face, splayed across the stone, the Nadder's wings rested unfolded on the ground, claw tips to the sides of it head.

Astrid pushed herself up slowly, sitting up tall, the Nadder copied. Astrid noticed, belatedly, that she'd started smiling.

"hi," she whispered, and the Nadder replied with a light chirp.

She unfolded her self from the ground, stood slowly, the Nadder watched her and copied, shuffling closer. Astrid's hand drifted up and floated across the scales, shining in the moonlight. The Nadder leaned into it and without trying Astrid was running her hand along the smooth scales under the Nadder's jaw.

"so what's you name, girl?" she asked, running her hand up to scratch behind the dragon's head, said dragon leaning into the touch so much it might just fall on her.

She didn't answer, unsurprisingly, but regardless Astrid couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt for this dragon. A being made for the sky. Stuck here.

She wondered what it was like, up in the sky. No rules and no restrictions. She almost wanted to break out the dragon and leave with her. But everyone in Berk would notice a dragon had been broken out.

She eyed the gate, closed.

"follow me," she whispered to the dragon, then walked to the gate silently. It creaked as it rolled up and she cringed at the noise.

She almost expected the dragon to leave, fly off on its own and never look back. instead it creeped up behind her and chirped, staring out at the night sky.

"go on," she gestured toward the sky, "you're free."

she squawked and unfolded its wings hesitantly, as if she expected Astrid to pull her back inside. The poor beast was so used to her pen, her cage, she couldn't believe she was now being let out, back to the sky.

And then she burst into the air, soaring higher and higher. Twisting and turning. Looping around the clouds. She almost looked like she was the only being in the world not held captive by gravity.

Something in Astrid felt lighter at the thought of letting this beautiful dragon free.

But then it fell back to the ground, landed in front of her, and blinked expectantly.

"what?" she looked around, wondering of there was a Viking watching that she'd not noticed. No one was there. "what's wrong?"

The Nadder came closer and Astrid drifted her hands along the dragons head then neck as she wrapped around her. And... she was hugging her. As best a dragon could hug someone.

"aww," she cooed, "some killing machine you are."

The Nadder chirped, then hooked its head around Astrid and swept her up onto her back, then took off into the air.

Astrid shrieked and clutched the dragons neck like a lifeline. The ground dropped in seconds, her stomach with it.

"ohmygodohmygodohmygod." Her hair whipped against her forehead and the wind squealed past with a ferocity she couldn't manage.

And then the Nadder evened out, the sky opened up around her, the clouds above, the sea and land below and everything in between.

Her breath hitched as she inhaled, pressed against the Nadder's back.

Her hands shook as she brushed her hair away, knotted beyond recognition. The cold stung her skin and her eyes watered, but she didn't care.

She couldn't care.

Because the sky was big, and beautiful and up here nothing existed but the wind and the clouds and every feeling she could possibly have rushed through her in an instant and left her high on emotion incarnate and this is what it is to be a dragon.

To be free.

No wonder Hiccup left. No wonder the Romans swore by the dragons. No wonder the gods didn't strike dragons out of the sky without mercy. Because they were wrong, the Vikings were wrong. They always had been.

This was beautiful.

She had been lied to for eighteen years about dragons. She had been lied to. She wanted it back. she wanted to rip her childhood back from the hands of time and redo it all alongside these beautiful beings. She wanted to have memories of flying ingrained into her, she wanted to have raised a dragon, bonded with one so much it knew her better than herself. She wished for a world where she grew up alongside peace and friendship, not battle and grit.

It was maddening.

But hopeful.

Bright.

Possibilities opened up in front of her, choices she never thought possible to make. The world was her oyster, if only she was smart enough to realise it.

And, oh, she was realising it.