Lost

Chapter 30

I continue to stare above for any unnatural movement. Suddenly my concentration is broken by a noise behind me. My head snaps behind me and I hear a shout.
"GET DOWN!!"
Then before I can move an inch, something shoots out of the trees and blurs past me into the leaves above. A deafening sound and invisible force sends me flying backwards from the tree. I land hard on my back and my vision goes blurry. My hearing now consists of a loud ringing and nothing else. Then I notice the wave of heat that hits me. The darkness around me erupts in light. My head is pounding, which means I've probably made my previous concussion worse. The movement caused my wrist to throb painfully as I hold it against my chest again. I slowly lean up and widen my eyes at the sight before me. My vision sharpens and I gasp. The tree that I almost climbed up was now bursting with flames. Fragments of wood and other belongings are scattered around the base of the tree. Then there's a noise to my left and I tense up. I look over to find someone jump out from the darkness of the trees looking around frantically. His weapon earns a sigh of recognition from me. Then Patch's eyes find me and runs over.
"Astrid! Are you okay? I'm so sorry! Can you hear me?"
"I'm alive," I respond weakly, my hearing slowly returning.
"I ran back here as fast as I could when I realized what Helgarrd had planned!"
"Helgarrd?"
"The chief. He had men hidden in my hideout ready to kill you and Hiccup! I don't know how he figured it out but I had to shoot that arrow."
Then it clicked in my head. Patch lived in that tree. He shot his explosive arrow into his tree house, exploding all of his belongings, to save me! I reach my arms out and wrap them around his neck, burying my face in his shoulder. I feel him stiffen in my arms but he soon wraps his arms around me and hugs me tighter.
"Thank you," I whisper.
We pull back from eachother and I see him smirk.
"Hey, that's what I do!" He makes a funny childish face and I laugh. Suddenly I remember the ax! I stand up quickly, wincing from the protest of my wrist. Patch's face falls and I see him stand up and look at me concerned. I turn around and look at the blazing tree. The ax isn't anywhere near the base of it, which must mean...
I see a glint come from within the trees next to where I was thrown backwards and I run towards it. Thank Thor! I smile as I pull out the beautiful ax from the bush and walk back to Patch. His face instantly lights up.
"Here. This seems important to you," I reach out my hand containing the ax.
"No keep it. I want you to have it. My sister would have wanted you to have it as well," he says, emotion flashing behind his eyes.
"Thank you," I smile.
"What was her name?" I ask sadly as I drop the ax to my side.
It takes a few long seconds for him to respond.
"Rosaline."