#and ruff is so good at drawing animals it's insane. like have you seen this kid's cats they are Sick ! ! ! i genuinely did a double-take

[keeps-ache]

been telling my siblings 'you would NOT make it in vulcan academy' when they do smth goofy recently and nobody's been able to refute lol

[fan-writer02]

Something

Hiccup was acting... strange.

And if that wasn't the understatement of the season. She knew Hiccup. Well, not know him, but, know what he's like, what he does, and how he behaves. I mean, it wasn't like she watched him, per se, (She's not a stalker, sheesh) she just noticed when he messed up, or when he made a lame joke at the mead hall. She didn't like to talk much, especially since the only people her age were absolute idiots. So, she observed. And Hiccup was an interesting one to watch.

She felt slightly guilty to admit that his fumbles amused her.

But while everyone seemed to think he messed up 24/7, she'd have to disagree. Because they only noticed his mistakes. Even his own father seemed to only acknowledge him for the things he did wrong. She knew he did his best, and, in some situations, he even succeeded.

She'd spotted sketches on the wall at the Forge, and she highly doubted they were Gobbers. She'd seen his sloppy excuses for "weaponry designs" first hand when he attempted to draw her a new axe. After much frustration, he threw up his hands (hand) in exasperation, called for Hiccup, and had her describe what she wanted. He disappeared into that little room of his, and returned not one minute later with papers in hand. The charcoal drawings were fantastic.

Sadly, as much as he longed to follow in his father's footsteps, she knew that it just wasn't for him. He wasn't built for that type of exhertion. He was brainly, if anything.

And don't mistake her acknowledgments as coddling. She didn't favor the scrawny kid. She was just being honest, like she tried to be with all matters.

Which was why the past day's events bothered her so much. Never, as in ever, had Hiccup succeeded when it came to dragon killing. His sloppy attempts were just that. Sloppy. And attempts. He'd never once succeeded.

So how did he manage to frighten a dragon- and not a small one either- into surrender, without even using a weapon? She'd only known one person who could do that, and that was Stoick. Stoick, who had burly muscles and years of experience under his belt.

It bothered her more then she'd like to admit.

She gnawed on her lip as she thought, staring at nothing as she fiddled absently with her fork. The "gang" chatted over their food, but the conversation was lost to her. She hated secrets. Hating not being aware. And she had a strong feeling Hiccup was hiding something.

"We could be falling off the edge of the world, and I don't think you'd notice." Ruffnut huffed under her breath, nudging her in the ribs with her elbow.

Astrid jerked away, doing a double take. "What?"

"Boy, you were gone."

Astrid frowned and tucked her hand under her chin "I'm thinking." she twirled her fork between her fingers.

Tuffnut tugged on Ruff's just then, distracting her before she could prompt Astrid for an answer. Which was a relief; she didn't feel like talking.

After popping the rest of her bread into her mouth, she stood and headed to the door. After dropping her plate at the wash bins, she slipped outside.

The cold air did her a favor, cutting to her skin and effectively slapping her out of whatever daze she'd allowed herself to fall into. So, with a shake of her head, she bounded down the steps. She jumped the last ten, landing easily on her feet.

But even the cold night air couldn't drive her thoughts away. Shortly after she set out down the street, her mind fell back again onto the last day's events. How... How had Hiccup threatened a dragon, when he was obviously so tiny. Even his voice wasn't intimidating.

It was then that she realized. This mystery was going to drive her absolutely insane.

With a growl, she kicked at a wayward stone in frustration. It bounced against a stack of crates, before smacking into a nearby building. Looking up, she realized she was in fact standing in front of the Forge. She paused, the sounds of scuffling coming from within. Curiosity got the best of her, so she stepped nearer to look inside the small dirty window.

It took her a moment to decipher anything through the grime that coated the thick glass. But even with the limited sight, it wasn't hard to figure out who the small figure was that bent over the work table.

There was a single candle lit in the Forge, but it sounded like Hiccup was hard at work. Things clanged, the sound of metal against metal, and the woosh of the billows could be heard. Carefully peering through the a neighboring grimy window, she watched as Hiccup rushed back and forth between the work bench and the glowing red ovens. He seemed to be mumbling to himself.

There was a strange contraption displayed on the table. Something like a ridiculously tiny sail. A mixture of cloth and mechanisms. It looked like nothing she'd ever seen before.

What is he doing? She watched as he, in his hurry, tripped over a bucket on his way to the ovens. He went down in a heap, disappearing behind a weapon rack. It was almost comical.

Astrid tried not to dwell on the fact that she let a small smile slip.

"Stupid-" he grumbled, getting back onto his feet and continuing to the ovens, albeit much more carefully then the previous attempt. Sitting on the billows, he jumped up and down a couple of times to build the fire.

She pulled away from the window and took a few steps down the street. It didn't feel right watching like that, without him knowing she was there. It felt too close to spying, no matter how curious she was. And even if she didn't like to, she stuck to her morals.

Now she was creeping, in a matter of speaking.

Sighing, and knowing the only way to get any answers out of him was to actually talk to him, she lifted her chin and entered the building. She wasn't exactly sure what she'd do... but anything had to be better then peaking through a window like a freaking four year old spying on the baker.

Walking briskly into the Forge with all the gusto she could muster, she plucked an axe out of a nearby barrel. For a few moments, she wondered if Hiccup had even noticed she was there, for he merely continued mumbling under his breath, bent over the weird contraption.

She clunked the axe against the wood, successfully stalling him. He jumped, head whipping around to stare at her with large eyes, his sweaty hair flopping over his forehead.

"A-ah, Astrid! Hi-" He scrambled to scrape his papers together into a semi- neat pile, shoving them into his apron pocket. He wiped his hands against his pants legs, but didn't move closer.

She watched all of this, eyeballing the papers cautiously.

"Wh-what can I do for you?" He stuttered awkwardly. She looked up at his face again, absently dragging her hand down the axe blade. She struggled to find something to say.

"Just looking." She eventually settled on. He swallowed noticeably, his adam's apple bobbing. She continued. "I heard the clanging from outside, and since everyone's at the Hall, I wanted to make sure a critter hadn't crawled in and was making a mess."

The excuse/fine-line-of-a-lie surprised her with how legit it sounded. She glanced about the room again, trying to make it look like she was indeed inspecting for the suggested animal.

He gave a lopsided smile. "Ha... n-no... just me."

She gave a small nod, looking again at the unfinished devise on the table.

He seemed to read her mind, for he hastily began fiddling with it again. "I'm just working, ya know, gotta be prepared for the next raid!" He said it almost too cheerfully, but she didn't know what to gather from that. She reasoned he had a good reason for being happy, he had done well in the Ring that day, after all.

"I see. Is that another arrow catapult?" She gestured towards the devise.

He blinked, then shook his head. She noticed the way he moved his arms in nervous gestures, how one minute they were jostling at his side, picking at his sleeve, or bouncing from tool to tool. They were constantly moving.

Now, they moved from his apron pockets to the contraption behind him. He laughed nervously again.

"Um... just an experiment. Probably won't become much. In fact, you have a good point- I should just scrap it all together." He began picking up the small pieces around it, dumping them in a cup. Looking over, he peered out from behind his bangs. "Y-You sure you don't need anything..?"

She looked from him to the "experiment", then back to him. It boggled her, because he was acting like he normally did. Dorky, constantly tweaking his inventions, clumsy, and awkward. If she hadn't known about what had happened in the ring that day, she'd never have given his antics a second thought. It bugged her, because she knew that something... something was up.

But gosh darn it, she couldn't figure out what the heck it was.

"Ah... I think I'm good. Like I said, just checking in." She flipped the axe back into the barrel, before turning on her heal and ducking out the door. She paused outside for a few moments, going over everything that had just happened. Nothing odd came to mind. He was just... hiding something. And doing it disturbingly well.

Furrowing her brow, she crossed her arms and continued home.

I have absolutely no clue what this is, or what it's trying to be. It was more of a word vomit to get over this writers block then it was an actual story.

Yesterday, I decided to reread some of my older one-shots. Like the last chapter/story in my HTTYD Requested One-shots. And like... they're actually not half bad. Before reading them I always thought they were crap, ya know... but now, going back, I've realized how out of touch I've grown with my writing skills. And with all of this HTTYD 3 news and hype, I'm really starting to miss how obsessed I once was with the series.

So guess what. I'm gonna sit down during my free time -like while I'm drawing, instead of watching youtube videos- I'm gonna rewatch RTTE. I haven't watched that show in months, and tbh, I'm so excited to revisit it. Hopefully that'll get me back into the "fandom", so to speak. Just back into the mood. I miss it so much, and I'm really starting to miss the tumblr fandom as well. As much as I hate tumblr on a whole, I do miss the few nice people I'd met there. I've even contemplated returning (especially in the past couple of days). So who knows. But, I also wanna give you some of my plans for the new year.

I do want to keep writing (well, pick up writing again is probably a better way to put it), and not just for HTTYD. I'll probably write some stuff for Marvel as well, here and there, especially after Avengers 4/Engame, but I also really really want to write more HTTYD. And you know, if that means joining tumblr again to get into the "mood", then so be it!

The reason for all of this might be because we/I moved this past Fall, and I'm homesick as heck. And because of it, I'm also really sick for what I used to do back home. Like fangirling over fandoms.

I've been so set on growing up this past year. Of... going out of my comfort zone, that I pushed away my fandoms and the friends I'd made through those fandoms. (animalsarepeople2, katurdi, thepurplewriter333 *hugs*) And I am just lonely. I miss hanging out with online friends, especially now that I've moved and all of the few friends I had are back home. I miss you guys.

But, one good thing came out of this whole "year of growth". I've learned how to manage my time on the internet. I used to spend too much time obsessing over fandoms at such an unhealthy level, that all my free time was spent in my room in my bed on my phone. This past year I've been working more, hanging out with family, etc. I've learned to limit myself to what I do online.

So yeah, sorry for such a long A/N. Just wanted to give you the 2019 update. Expect me to return, even if it is slow at first. Wish my luck, and the happiest of New Year to you all! Love you, and thanks for all the support. *hugs*

Toodles-

Kat

(P.S. If you guys find any typing/grammar errors plz lemme know! I want to up my editing game. :D)