Fire and Fur

[Rahne Sinclair]

It was clear. Rahne was terrible at fighting. She was still struggling to regain her footing, still trying to figure out what had just happened. She'd taken on the Brotherhood of Mutants, The Hellions, Mystique for petes sake. But she recalled her adventures there. Unless she was in full on beserker wolf mode she would always run away or get knocked out. A single tear stretched down her muzzle as she sniffled back.

It was embarrassing. She couldn't even call herself an X-Man.

Rahne was so lost deep in her thoughts, in staring at the human reminder that was called her cross necklace, she neglected to realize the final blow was coming. Her jaw indeed was at least bruised, she noted before it was over. Lights out. No more consciousness. Rahne fell into blackness an embarrassed girl who wanted to crawl in a hole and cry.

Her unconscious body immediately shifted back to human form as if she was a werewolf. So lay there, a girl with russet wavy hair and bruises on her pale skin.

[Astrid]

For the immediate moments after Rahne collapsed, Astrid didn't lower her guard. She was fairly confident that the other girl wasn't going to be getting up any time soon, after the force she'd put behind her blow; but there was no point in taking chances when dealing with something as unknown as a shape shifter. When the only movement from Rahne's once again human form was her chest rising and falling gently, however, the viking girl allowed herself to relax. She blew out a short breath, straightened and lowered her axe, used her free hand to brush her fringe back from her eye.

She'd done it. Her first fight here, and she'd won.

Though she wasn't sure the other girl had really deserved the battering she'd taken, Astrid couldn't help but feel exhilarated. She wasn't sure if she'd expected the outcome to go the other way; she hadn't allowed herself to expect anything. As sure as she was of herself, Astrid had no intention of letting overconfidence be her downfall in a situation like this.

Turning to face Hiccup up in the stands, Astrid raised her axe in what was a just slightly teasing salute to her boyfriend; and as she hefted it, pain flared in her abdomen again. The axe crashed to the ground as the girl clenched both arms over her stomach, which was smarting a lot more acutely now that the fight's adrenaline had worn off. Still holding the wound, crimson trails dribbling from between her fingers, Astrid nonetheless forced herself to stand up straight again.

She was a viking. While, in spite of Hiccup's sarcastic assertion, she didn't exactly love it, she could handle pain; she would, however, need to get the torn flesh looked at before it had a chance to go bad. Stooping to pick up her axe, forcing herself not to wince as bending shot another flare of pain through her wound, Astrid carefully started back for the locker room, hoping that Hiccup would take the hint and meet her there.

[Hiccup]

She'd done it. Oh, thank the gods above Astrid had done it. She'd gotten through her first fight relatively unscathed... Some cuts not withstanding. Hiccup's breath came out in slow, even breaths and he allowed himself to relax at long last. It didn't take too long for him to see Astrid looking his way as she saluted at him. Good old Astrid... Nothing was going to keep her down as far as Hiccup was aware. He returned with a salute of his own and watched as she started to make her way out of the arena. The question of whether or not she was okay flickered back into his mind, and he took that as a cue to follow Astrid back to the locker room.

With that thought propelling him onward, Hiccup released himself from the stands and started to make haste toward the locker room. He didn't just leap from the stands, though. Hiccup didn't have that much confidence in his ability to make it safely down to the ground. Instead, Hiccup just ran as fast as he could so he could catch up with Astrid and make sure that she really was okay when he got to his destination.

One week down. Now all that remained was to hope and pray that he somehow didn't get picked for the arena next week.