Like a Moth to Flame

[Astrid]

"You've got a pretty... odd bunch." Astrid said bluntly. Healing, fire, dark, shapeshifting? This Gothel lady had a lot on her hands. Astrid almost felt sorry for the woman. Almost. "Maybe you are trying to hard. You've got no control of your powers, an your burning yourself... and others. You were a pretty good blacksmith and that had to do with fire?" Astrid continued on. "Or, your just to scared." Astrid teased. Astrid gave a small laugh as well to diffuse some tension. At least things were a bit lighter, right? Astrid should have known Hiccup wasn't one to talk to much about himself. Or if he started, he'd catch himself. A quality some teenagers of Berk were in desperate need of.

"So, what's it like? Being a werewolf, I mean." Oh you know, standard animal like behavior, urge to hunt down prey, uncontrollable wolf characteristics. No biggie. Astrid thought wryly "Different. I've got teeth an claws now. Makes me miss my axe." In truth Astrid could barely remember a time when that kind of weaponry was relevant to her survival. The wolf instincts were so much stronger now, the extra strength and savagery was a nice bonus, though. "I'm faster and stronger, though. It helps when living out here. Except most of the time I'm literally a dog and it's... still just different. Y'know?" Astrid couldn't imagine Hiccup knowing. Maybe he knew in a different way? Like being a wizard/warlock, but nothing like being a werewolf.

(ooc: bad post is bad and short Sorry for the small post! Still having a sorta sleepy day xD )

[Hiccup]

"Well... no, I can't really say I do know. I mean, I get being different. Just... not that different." Hiccup admitted. But they both knew what he meant. He'd been the sore thumb for ages. Now they both were in a sense, except he fit in just a tiny bit better. "It's weird, isn't it? Us both being in the same boat for once. All because of one stupid shooting star during a dragon raid. Man, the world sure knows how to mess with us." Hiccup said. It was almost like it was meant to happen. The pair of them being taken out of Berk, gaining powers they had never had before... there was no way it was just a coincidence. There had to be some reasoning behind it.

"What next? Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Fishlegs ending up with powers too? What if it happens to all of Berk?" he asked. Now that was something he'd never thought of before. All of Berk getting powers beyond the norm. Having to face the unknown. That would get them to stop being such wimps in regards to dealing with unknown, frightening things. Like dragons. But the chances of anyone from Berk actually trying to handle a dragon were slim to none.

"...I doubt anything like that would happen. I mean, can you even imagine the others with powers? I can't." he laughed. It was bad enough imagining statistical Fishlegs with any powers beyond those bizarre statistics in relations to dragons he had. Anyone else? It was just about on the same level as imagining Stoick actually listening to him for once. Brain explosion inducing, in other words.

[Astrid]

Astrid nodded. She couldn't expect him to know what being two different things was. How odd it was to have to sets of herself- wolf and Astrid. "Yeah I didn't expect it... but it'd odd, different, but there are others like me. I've smelt them around before... " Which put them in exactly the same boat. She was alone even though there were others like her. She just wasn't part of them. So that's how the scrawny viking felt like. "Oh yeah, definitely in the same boat. Though I think your doing better against the waves than me." Astrid smiled, it was the truth. As a viking he was like her, but as a wizard he was doing much better than her. Maybe he wasn't as popular as the other teenage vikings in this new place, but he was certainly getting along better as wizard. He probably even had friends. Friend friends, not like anyone from Berk. Not like her. A twinge of guilt fluttered inside Astrid, but the girl was to prideful to ever utter it.

"The gods either love or hate us vikings. For some reason, I'm not feeling the love." Wait, shooting star? A shooting star had done this? Astrid had never really figured out how this had happened to her. Maybe it really was better to be in a group and informed. Astrid cocked an eyebrow, and turned to face Hiccup more directly. "Wait, huh? That's what changed us into," she gestured to herself and the scrawny teenager, as if that explained everything, "a monster and a dragon boy?"

"The gods would have to help save the entire world if this were to happen to all of Berk." Astrid rolled her eyes. "Can you imagine an entire village of vikings, getting used to magical powers and the unknown? Running rampant through who knows where? I'd think it was the beginning of Ragnorok." Astrid gave a try laugh. But what about the teens? For some reason she could imagine them as witch/wizards, and werewolves. It was a pretty scary thought. The twins constantly using magic to try and kill one another, Snotlout being a show off... Fishlegs just not fitting in. "If any of the Berk vikings got powers, I'm very sure it'd be the beginning of Ragnorok. Especially if your d- I mean cousin.... got powers. Can you imagine him?" Astrid would have said Dad. Had Stoick recieved magically powers after two teenage vikings left because of them. Well the red headed chief wouldn't exactly be predictable, nor reasonable. But Astrid was sure Hiccup was sensitive on the subject of his Father. Especially after being banished by his own flesh and blood father. So why not change it to cousin.

Astrid watched Hiccup's face, biting the inside of her lip, hoping he hadn't caught her slip up.

[Hiccup]

"I guess you've got a point. Again." Hiccup chuckled. She always had a point about these sorts of things he brought up. How was that? He was fairing rather well, he supposed, even if he still didn't really fit in that well. But at least she sort of understood how he felt. He didn't want to say that much out loud, though. No reason to make that much more obvious.

"Well... ah..." Hiccup stammered a bit. He didn't really know if it was the shooting star or not that had caused all their problems. "I'm not really sure if it had anything to do with it or not. It just sort of... makes sense, I guess. I just remember seeing this shooting star while I was looking for that Night Fury that night, and after that I ran into that Nightmare and boom! Fire power." Hiccup explained. That was his best way of going about trying to convey what he had meant. Not the best, but it was the Hiccup way. As good as any, he supposed.

...And then he caught the slip up. Whether Astrid had meant to or not, she'd struck a tender cord within Hiccup. Even if he pretended it didn't bother him that much anymore, the fact that Stoick, his own father, had banished him stung. He did his best to hide that fact from Astrid, though. Instead of speaking, he only gave a little nod at first. Imagining Snotlout running around with powers of any kind was definitely a little frightening to Hiccup. His cousin having more power than him, even if the powers were that of the unknown, always had intimidated him. "Yeah... it would be freaky imagining all of Berk with powers. Especially... Snotlout."

Now Hiccup was having to keep himself from slipping up too. He didn't want to think about Stoick. He really didn't. Now that it had almost been brought up completely, though, he couldn't help himself. Why had things changed so much between them? Things had seemed all right while his mom had still been around...

Snap out of it. That stuff doesn't matter anymore.

In an attempt to spin the topic another way, Hiccup cleared his throat a tiny bit and started thinking about the dragons around Berk. What if they had gotten powers too? "...Ever wonder what it would be like if the dragons from around home got effected too?" he asked.

[Astrid]

"Yeah, makes sense I suppose. But it's weird to think... a star did this to us. " Astrid bit her lip and averted her eyes. She'd caught the pause before the name, Snotlout. She was unsure whether to apologize or stay completely quiet. She went with quiet. If a star did this to us... could it take it away? The first part of Astrid had a blind, blissful hope. Enough to make her heart ache at the thought of being normal. A pulling and twisting sensation, that one would imagine to go with large puppy dog eyes. But the blonde's face remained close to expressionless. The other half of her feared the possibility. It would cease to exist and there would be no more wolf. No more weird power... It would be good? Or bad? Or would anything change? She'd become stronger, faster, more alert in her short time as a werewolf. Sure the dangers were much greater, but that's why she had the extra senses. Right? Astrid was mulling the thoughts over in her head. Pure imagination/speculation, whatever one wanted to call it. But if she ever got a chance to get to the supposed star that caused her the burden...

Than the dragons were mentioned. Astrid's first reaction was to scowl and imagine all the gored figures of the vikings she'd once known. The girl had grown up with dragon raids, the beasts picking out vikings and killing them. The dragons gaining these mystical abilities, getting stronger only gave them an advantage in attacking the village. Stealing the sheep, the fish, destroying more homes, taking out more vikings. Astrid was about to voice these sour thoughts, but stopped herself. Hiccup wasn't like a viking. He probably didn't see what she thought when he mentioned dragons gaining powers. "I don't think we have the same thoughts about what would happen if the dragons were affected. I have to admit, it's pretty dark in my head." Astrid spoke slowly, watching her words. "What do you think would happen?" Astrid tried going around and away from her thoughts. For some reason she cared about Hiccup's opinion in this. She cared about how she should go about this in a way to not to cross the teen. She shouldn't care. But she did all the same.

"Though it'd be interesting to see, powerful vikings against powerful dragons with magic. I just wonder what they'd get. They can already breathe fire, fly, and I doubt they'd want to turn into tiny wolves." Astrid laughed quietly. Maybe veer away from bad, unhappy, scary thoughts?

[Hiccup]

Actually, Hiccup hadn't thought much about what would happen if dragons did end up gaining powers. As much as he at least wanted to attempt killing a dragon, the closest to that attempt being trying to catch that Night Fury, he doubted he could actually do it. He wondered if maybe the Vikings had been viewing dragons the wrong way the whole time. But Hiccup couldn't explain why that was. It was just something he idly thought about. "I... really don't know what I'd imagine. I hadn't really considered it happening before." Hiccup admitted.

Man, you must sound like an idiot right now.

Of course. Leave it to his brain to pick the absolute wrong time to pick on him. "It's just something I was wondering about, I guess. I mean, if you and I got effected by whatever it was that changed us, be it that star or not, then who's to say the dragons didn't get effected?" Hiccup asked. It would be strange to consider the large lizard-like creatures not being changed. But if they did change, what powers would they gain? He and Astrid had gotten magic and werewolf powers. What could dragons potentially gain from whatever had happened? Shapeshifting like Arthur? What if they ran into a vampire dragon? That would have been freaky, at least as far as Hiccup was concerned.

"I don't know... maybe I'm just weird for even considering it. But that's what I'm good for, right? Being different, I mean." Hiccup said. He shrugged a little as he finished speaking. It was the truth, really. By that point it seemed being different was all he was good for. It didn't even really need to be said. It was obvious just from looking at him and comparing him to the other Vikings. "...Should I even ask what you were thinking would happen if dragons were changed by what happened?" Hiccup decided to ask, just to veer the topic back in that direction.

[Astrid]

Astrid gave a sort of guilty grin. "You probably don't want to know. But since you asked," which the teen really hadn't, "think dark, bloody, and gory. After a dragon raid times 10. You get the picture. If you don't, your as innocent as newborn baby." Astrid laughed half halfheartedly and shrugged. "Maybe they'd have water powers... and Berk's surrounded by water..." Astrid trailed off in order to not give or receive nightmares of the scene playing in her head. "And yeah, as of right now different's good. Sometimes." Astrid nodded her head approvingly. The girl than lifted herself from the ground where she'd been lazying about. She didn't want the topic to veer into awkward silence or small chat (something she detested) and thought maybe some action could help.

The girl strode over to a nearby tree, transforming into a wolf for a brief second and leaping, bouncing of the tree trunk and morphing into a human mid leap. She felt her arms curl around the rough bark and pulled herself up to a seated position on the branch. "Up for a climb?" Astrid hopped to a branch slightly higher and leaned down, holding the branch with her legs. She out stretched a hand towards the scrawny viking. Anything to direct the conversation elsewhere.

((ooc: Sorry for the crappy post >.< but sound familiar >:3 ? ))

[Hiccup]

(ooc: I see what you did there. I miss Twisted Tales... :c)

"Right... I probably shouldn't have asked." Hiccup murmured. Now he understood what Astrid had meant. They really were different. She assumed the dragons would be more powerful, which they probably would, and be more capable of destroying Berk. Now that he thought about it, it did seem very likely. Hiccup was snapped out of his thoughts by watching Astrid leap up into a tree. For a moment he was confused. What was she doing? Then she asked if he wanted to climb. Him? Climbing trees? It wasn't as if he had anything better to do, but still... it seemed rather out of the blue. Yet, he liked the idea.

"Okay. Just don't expect me to be anywhere near as good at this as anyone else." Hiccup replied. He strode up to the tree and stared at it for a moment, trying to figure out how best to tackle the task of climbing, before reaching up for the nearest branch and attempting to pull himself up onto it. At that moment, Hiccup almost wished he was a werewolf. Surely changing into a wolf would at least make jumping up to the first branch easier. But no. He was a wizard. A failure of a wizard in his humble opinion, but a wizard nonetheless. Somehow, he actually succeeded in pulling himself up onto a branch and smiled doofily. He was at least proud he had accomplished that much.

"So, why the sudden desire to climb trees?" Hiccup decided to ask. He never knew what sorts of things Snotlout and the others did as a group. Maybe this was that sort of thing they did.

[Astrid]

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[atrb=background,http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/6900/astridmiddle.png] ((ooc: Me too I'm just afraid I won't have enough time for it again and it'll die, but I'll probably fix up the skin and make it look better if I take it off from hiatus)) Astrid shrugged. "I thought we needed a change of pace. We were sitting to much it was getting... depressing." The blonde commented, weaving her way through and up branches. Stretched to nearly her tippy toes on some rather tricky ones that could've been avoided. Show offy girl was show offy. Astrid smiled as she weaved herself higher, something about being up in the air made the weight of everything below fall off her shoulders as if it was tethered to the ground and couldn't follow her. Maybe it was the air? Though the branches weren't leafy and green, they were sturdy and provided a good view. As a little crevice presented itself, Astrid curled up against the tree and let one leg dangle down as she kept her balance. "And I don't expect you to be good, I expect you to climb." Astrid smiled leaning to the side and looking down for Hiccup. "It feels better up here y'know?" The blonde called down as she peered through the knobby branches at the view. It wasn't exactly Berk, the trees not as green or plentiful as the viking archipelago, but it was a view nonetheless. It showed that there was something far beyond where they were and Berk could just be part of that far beyond. It made everything seem small and every detail significant. Dear gods she was getting to soft. She was going into philosophical and 'the meaning of life' type thoughts. Maybe the forest was making her crazy? A crazy old wolf lady... For the moment though, Astrid didn't care, as she waited on Hiccup to come to her level on the branches. Maybe the teen was rubbing off on her? Nawww.... ---- Song: Howl by Florence + the Machine Images belong to rightful owners

[Hiccup]

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[atrb=background,http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/696/hiccupmiddle.png] "Okay, fair enough. It was getting a little depressing." Hiccup commented. A little? No, it was getting near depressing enough to make him run out of things to say entirely. At least he had been saved from going into a depression spiral. In spite of that, Hiccup found himself forced to grapple with tree climbing. He'd never tried it before and was a bit clueless on how to maneuver from branch to branch, but as he continued to grab branch after branch and pull himself up so that he could follow Astrid up it began to appear as though he was getting the hang of it. If only the others could see me now. At length, the redhead found himself worn out as he reached the branch nearest to the one Astrid had settled on. The twiggy teen usually didn't have to work anywhere near that hard at anything. Not including working in the forge with Gobber. That had been something entirely different. Somehow, though, Hiccup did find the strength to pull himself up onto the branch so he could sit near Astrid. Once he settled himself, he found himself awed by the view. It was unlike anything he had ever seen in Berk. The closest either of them would get to flying, he suspected. ...Flying? Flying. Hiccup had found himself fascinated by the skies before. Something about dragons and the way they could maneuver through the skies so gracefully had intrigued him. He almost wanted to try it for himself. But that would never happen. "To think all of this was outside the archipelago. Who knows what else we've been missing out on by not being here?" Hiccup asked. Call him sappy, but he was impressed by the view. it was, for lack of a better word, spectacular. ---- Song: I'm Still Here by John Rzeznik Images and Codes belong to their rightful owners Table made by Rapunzel Don't Steal!

[Astrid]

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[atrb=background,http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/6900/astridmiddle.png] Astrid smiled, turning to look to her side where an awed Hiccup gazed out over the forest. She probably saw more than he, her eyes more tuned to that of a hunter. The slight movement's of a tree branch indicating a bird or squirrel. It was a predatory instinct, but it had its advantages. One of them being that to her, who traveled the forest and believed it to be forsaken, had life. There was the possibility for life to thrive, and though scrawny and thin, animals did. Keeping her fit enough for a simple task as climbing a tree. On the branch she was so carefully perched on, came the buff of wind that wiped her hair and made the branch give a steady bounce. Like the flapping of wings. The tree was tall, and Astrid had a light feeling in her stomach. As if her abdomen were harboring helium, thus keeping her up on the branch she sat on. It could've been the light, awed feeling of the view, or the nervousness of being off the ground, the fear that with each buff of the wind she could sway and fall through the leaves and down. Astrid hid the darker part from her mind's eye, focusing on the light feeling that only seemed to be rising. She rolled her shoulders, as if keeping it from spreading to her head. Inhaling, a fresh breath of air and pine filled her nostrils. "It feels much better up here. Light, happy." The problems that had haunted her the dark memories that had resurfaced were tethered to the tree trunk, their chains to short to move through the swaying branches and keep up with the blonde. It was a good, victorious feeling. Astrid turned her curious blue eyes to Hiccup. "What are you thinking? You look... gone." for lack of a better word. ---- Song: Howl by Florence + the Machine Images belong to rightful owners

[Hiccup]

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[atrb=background,http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/696/hiccupmiddle.png] "Huh?" At first Hiccup didn't quite register the question. He'd been so caught up in the moment of just being up there, as close to flying as humanly possible, that he'd forgotten she was there with him for a few moments. It was hard not to let his mind wander, though. Astrid was right. Up there things were lighter. More free. There was nothing to worry about... well, aside from the potential of falling out of the tree and coming to an untimely demise by way of gravity. But he didn't think about that too much. He gave his head a little shake and tried to think about how best to reply. Could he really just come out and say that he'd been thinking about flight? "Well... I don't know. It's kind of silly." Hiccup admitted. A Viking wanting to fly was a very strange notion indeed. Vikings were beings of the sea, after all. Not the air. How odd would it have sounded if he just came out and said it? Then again, if he didn't say it he risked looking like a complete doofus. That idea wasn't an entirely pleasant one. At length, though, he decided there would be no harm in admitting to his thoughts. After all, there was no one else around to judge him. What was the worst that could happen? "I guess I was just thinking. Us being up so high and so close to the sky... it's kind of like... I don't know. Like... this is as close as we're going to get to taking flight, I guess." Hiccup said. A sort of doofy grin formed regardless of his desire not to appear like a doofus. He couldn't help it. It was a secret desire of his, one that he held in high regard, and it did make him feel happier imagining it. But all of his imaginings on the matter were silly. Zooming through the air with invisible wings, somehow gaining wings and taking to the skies like that, being picked up by a gust of wind and carried away... all of them sounded remarkably silly. None of them possible, of course. "Maybe it's just me. I guess I've always kind of wondered what it'd be like to fly. You know?" Hiccup asked. Did he dare admit the part about envying dragons for their wings? ...No. That much probably should be kept secret lest he sound more dorky than before. ---- Song: I'm Still Here by John Rzeznik Images and Codes belong to their rightful owners Table made by Rapunzel Don't Steal!

[Astrid]

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[atrb=background,http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/6900/astridmiddle.png] "Yah," as shocking as that was, it was the truth. What little girl didn't dream of taking on the skies? In the beginning, she'd wanted it because she'd seen the dragons and the birds, carefully maneuvering in the air, appearing to be weightless and unrestricted by gravity and the earth. As she grew older and as dragons flew away with food, she'd wanted the power of flight to chase after her fleeing opponents and retrieve what was rightfully Berk's. She could imagine that her reasoning was much different than from what was going on in Hiccup's mind. It seemed the two were even more cut off from the sky in the odd magical powers they possessed. Hiccup was now bound to fire, and Astrid so much more close to earth. She was a wolf and human, two beings destined for land beneath their feet. "It would be... nice. Better than running, you could see everything, much better than from a tree," Astrid assumed that with the power of flight, altitudes and heights wouldn't be an issue. Though the blonde didn't factor in speed, heat/cold, winds, but did she really need to? When was she ever going to fly? She was a werewolves and unless she became even more of a freak of nature than she already was, she doubted wings would be added to the phenomenon. "A lot Hiccup, I bet we've missed a lot." The girl replied, rather ominously, blue gaze focused out to the far horizon, over her view of the trees where the land seemed to disappear from sight. Why did it have to go do that? Why wasn't she allowed to see as far as she wanted? Why couldn't she see what she was missing out on? "I just hope one day we'll figure out just what we're missing. But I guess right now we're stuck here." Or more technically, Hiccup was. Astrid had no ties to the land, no vendetta's against anyone. She could pack up and leave, sure she'd have no more answers or experience as a werewolf, but no one was helping her now. Not like she'd accept help like Hiccup. She stayed though, why she'd set out in this direction, she didn't know. Why she stayed, she didn't know that she knew. Being stubborn wasn't just turned to the outside world, Astrid was stubborn in her own mindset as well. What more could you expect from a viking girl though? "You're not too bad Hiccup. You're not like any viking I've ever known though." Astrid said, smiling a bit at the words with a certain fondness. She and the rest of Berk had mostly assumed that the gods had it out for Berk, toying with them. Others though, had centered it onto the scrawny teen to her side, and she was sure the teen felt the blame too. But here wasn't Berk. ((ooc: Your post is so much more adorkable! :3 ) ---- Song: Howl by Florence + the Machine Images belong to rightful owners