It was the first clear evening after days and nights of falling snow. Sometimes coming down in soft flakes but mostly showering down as hard hail the winter had invaded their small island unmercifully. Berk was completely white. And despite being used of this kind of weather all villagers sighed with relief about the view of this dark blue, cloud free sky above their heads.
The stars already shone bright when Hiccup the Dragon Whisperer finally got home after a long day of meetings with his inner council, discussing the upcoming holidays and more important preparations for the cold season. His nose had turned read from the biting cold while his breath curled upwards in small clouds.
He hadn't even opened the door to his home when a high pitched girls voice laughed loudly through the thick wood. As quiet as possible he let himself in.
"AESA HADDOCK! Sit down at once! What would your father say, if-" "FATHER!" Hiccup had barely set one foot inside when a bundle of squealing 5-year-old with wild golden blond hair flung itself into his arms. In a fluent movement he caught her instantly, threw her up and hold her high enough she could nudge her tiny nose against his cold one - their all alone welcome ritual - just to put her finally under his arm, like she was a basket or something.
Squealing and laughing she let her father carry her around. At the far side of the hearth stood Astrid the Vigorous, one Hand on her hips and a scoop in the other, protesting about the misbehavior of her daughter - an adorable small girl with her face and Hiccups eyes - while on the table next to her Havarr - the spitting image of his father, with the blue eyes of his mother - prepared the free place opposite his with a plate and cutlery for his father.
Hiccup came immediately over to get an all to needed kiss from his wife, before placing their youngest back on her seat in front of her plate. Afterwards he tousled lovingly trough the brown hair of his 10-year-old son.
At the same moment the third chair at the massive wooden table was pushed back and their oldest daughter rose with an unmoved face, putting her dishes together.
Without deign to look at her father she climbed up the small ladder to her room under the roof.
Sighing Hiccup looked after her.
"Is she still angry with me?" Astrid just stroke softly over his arm with an empathetic smile.
Then they took their seats and their smallest immediately started to talk about their exciting day. Aesa with Mummy and the so thrilling task of weaving cloth and Havarr along with Grandpa Stoick and the biggest collection of Viking Knowledge he had ever seen. Wide grinning Hiccup encouraged them to tell him everything.
-:-
Some time later, when both kids were to bed, Astrid and Hiccup finally found the time to curl together on their bench with the thick furs in front of the warm hearth. They hadn't seen the whole day and now especially he really needed some loving care from his wife.
But every time he talked about the meetings and the decisions of the day, his mind drifted away so he couldn't concentrate on topic. Eventually Astrid interrupted him.
"Go to her." She nodded to the upper floor, where Skulds room was.
But he just slipped deeper in the furs. "She wouldn't want to see me."
"You don't know. Go to her. Talk to her. She was the whole day a shadow of her own. Nobody suffers more about an argument between the two of you than you two."
"And what should I say?"
She smiled again. "You will know then."
With a long sigh Hiccup pressed himself a little bit deeper into the bench until he eventually stood up. "You may be right... Gods... When did you became the serious one in this family?" He bowed down to steal a quick peek off her lips. "The same day you started to become the fighter." She outright stole another kiss back and nudged him to the stairs. He obeyed.
-:-
The first thing he saw was the endless starry canopy above his head, the second that he got to old for this kind of climbing adventure. He really struggled to reach the last steps of the ladder let alone the roof, from the room of his daughter through the roof window onto the gable, but Skuld always hide there, so he had no choice.
In shocked panic she instantly rushed over to steady and finally helping him, because her father never came up here. But hardly sat him onto the roof next to her, she immediately fell back into her previous position with tucked up knees wrapped together by both her arms and anxious not to look to her father.
Wistful Hiccup watched the girl. Her brown blondish bangs - the perfect mixture of his and Astrids hair colors - flew lightly in the icy wind, while her whole thin body seemed not to feel any cold.
"Is it really that important for you?" he eventually begun, just to say anything.
Right away he could see how she sunk a little more into her tight position. Hiccup knew instantly he pushed the wound point. What was he even doing here? Discussing with his 15-year-old daughter about an own dragon... He really must become insane.
"Somehow yeah..." For this he couldn't suppress to ditch an eye brow. "Only 'somehow'?"
Again Skuld looked away. She was obvious uncomfortable, but the same time Hiccup knew, something burned on her soul she wouldn't say.
He just wanted to asked his next question, when she suddenly turned around to face him properly: "You know, Nutruff and Nuttuff will even get one in their contract! And they are younger than me!"
"So it's a contract you want!?" he got into it acting incredulously. But Skulds head immediately snapped over: "Dad!" "Just kidding!" In defending manner he hurried to raise his hands, but not without a cheeky grin on his face.
"It's not about that dragon, right?" Reluctantly she shock her head. Hiccup nearly whimpered when he saw the sadness in the face that had so much of him and Astrid again.
"What is it then?" Sometimes her inherited pride was really hard to break through.
She hemmed and hawed a little bit more till she finally said it: "Yesterday at dragon training Gobber split us in two groups and paired the twins with Small Inga. So I stayed as always with Spitface and Fishbite. And then in the middle of the training Fishbite made a mistake and roared 'Boys against Girls!' and Gobber just repeated this and the Twins and Spitface started to laugh like mad!"
Her father nodded as sign that he had heard, but he couldn't see the problem there.
Skuld was the best at dragon training had always been and would probably ever be. She was always paired with the boys, or just with Spitface, because they were normally better than the girls, not to say she would be far too good and outran them instantly. But again this never had been a problem yet. And this he vocalized to her.
As answer he got at first a grunted eye roll before she continued: "Yeah. But that's not the problem!"
"And what's the problem then?" Hiccup couldn't deny to feel slowly like a sonar.
Instantly Skuld backed out: "Dad shouldn't Mum have this conversation with me?"
"Strictly speaking yes, but your mother is right now very busy to hold herself on that ladder down there, so I think, you have to put up with me." Like a prove they heard a traitorous crack of wood and a short squeak from inside.
Seeing, that she had no other option she tried again: "They don't see me as girl. Nobody does..."
Now Hiccup understood. Carefully he watched his oldest daughter from the side. In hair and facial features she was the perfect middle way of Astrid and him, maybe a little bit boyish, but definitively a beautiful girl. Her body was mostly slim but good trained, like her mother used to be in her youth. Also was known how clever and goodhearted she was. Due to an small accident a few month ago her hair was cut shorter than usual for the girls of Berk, but this couldn't be the problem, right?
"The most time I'm just the kid of the great Dragon Whisperer and the Valkyrie of Berk. The one with the dragon tick, but not more..." she trailed off a short moment.
"Everybody is always fond of my ability with dragons or my trainings methods with weapons, but when these themes are off everything stagnates. The Twins speak of nothing but boys and marriage. They seem to know everything about sewing and clothes and baking and all this stuff I never had put any thought on. Fishbites biggest problem is the last side of a book and the urge to get as fast as possible a new one. He knows about stuff, I never even heard of! The only persons I can talk to properly are Gobber and Spitface about the best ways to hunt from upon a dragon or training or something like this." Knowing Snotlout in his younger years Hiccup could good imagine how his boy was.
"I'm neither very intelligent nor very girlish. Nutruff even said recently I would give a better guy than Fishbite!"
"And since when is it important for you, how they think about you?" asked Hiccup worried. He had an horrible icy lump in his stomach, according the similarity to his own childhood. He had never thought that Skuld could ever have such problems...
"Since the others cast me with weird glances. Did you know the whole village is already talking about me still not being promised or something!?"
"And you think, a dragon would solve this?"
"At least I would be accepted as seriously grown up... Even without being proposed to! - Toothless did solve it for you, didn't he?" Now it was on Skuld to throw a quizzical look, but Hiccup stopped her immediately: "This was completely different! You really can't compare then and your problem now!" "But with him you got Mum...?" Again he interrupted her: "I got your mother because of our utterly craziness and the unfortunate existence of a giant dragon queen. Toothless never had anything to do with this...I think." With this Skulds father suddenly wasn't that sure anymore... But within a short glance next to him he saw in her eyes that this wasn't the answer, she had hoped for. So he decided to try it the other way around:
"Look, I totally understand you, but I think you are a little bit to fixed on this. When I was in your age I had a really hard time to fit in, because the more I tried, the worst it became. But then came a situation I forgot all about this and suddenly it got solved by itself." The arriving look told him she wasn't really convinced about this.
So tried anew: "Your Mum and I raised you to a clever, goodhearted girl with lots of interests and much common sense. We never told you how to dress or what to learn, because we wanted you to become the girl you want to be. And we both are really proud about the person you became.
"Your interests are different, yes, but who cares? That's who you are! Shouldn't they feel strange for them being so horrible 'normal'?" After this sentence even Skuld had to smile. In a quick movement she shifted over so she could snuggle her head onto her fathers shoulder.
"Why do you always have to be so smart, Dad?" For this Hiccup just shrugged the unoccupied shoulder. "In fact I never had been. But living life you sometimes learn some useful stuff... And your Mum is a really good teacher, right?" And they sniggered.
"Peace?" He glanced down as good as he could, just to catch the nod against his shoulder.
"Peace. But about this dragon..." She hadn't even finished the sentence when her father already sighed. "Okay, listen: I will talk to your mother so you can have Stormfly a little bit more often, okay?" But instantly Skulds head snapped off his shoulder. "Stormfly!? Why her!?"
"Not good?" Now her father was really confused. "Dad, she is a house dragon! If she isn't running around to collect things Mum send her to, she's baby sitting Havarr and Aesa or is sleeping the whole day!" By the half desperate voice of his daughter Hiccup couldn't suppress a grinning any more. "You must be kidding! That can't be serious! Dad!?" But he just laughed harder.
Hallö!
It's the most horrible English ever, I know - Apologizes! -, but I'm still believing, that the idea is the most important thing in a story, not the style of writing, right? So as always I really appreciate it, if you feel free, but would stay fair. ;)
I'm so sorry, but every time I read the names of my twins I get a laugh flash. XD It sounds - AND LOOKS - so ridiculous, I had to take it that way! XD I think Spitface is easy to assign, right? (son of Ruffnut and Snotlout) As well as Small Inga and Fishbite. (daughter and son of Fishlegs + not yet invented wife) The twins are Tuffnut's.
Well yeah... The beginning somehow doesn't really fit to the ending, but anyhow I like it. What about you?
I even dare to say: If anybody is interested, I would start a sequel... in my horrible English... XD No, seriously. I have a nice idea, that won't be that hard to digest and has a little bit more excitement and plot, but I don't need to start it, if nobody want's to read more about Skuld, Spitface, Hiccup and Co. Right? So what do you think?
Nevertheless thanks for your attention! Read ya! :)
akira