A failure. That's what I am.
Dad is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. Hero of Berk, Greatest Swordsman, Dragon Master.
Mom is Astrid Hofferson. Master Shieldmaiden, Leader of the Dragon Forces.
My older twin brothers are Stoick Haddock the Second, and Finn Haddock the Second. Both are widely known for how well they work with dragons and the people. They both are amazing craftsman, and they're everything dad has ever wanted.
Then there's me. The runt. The accident. Hulda Haddock. Named after some sorceress of legend. While my brothers got named after great vikings of blood.
I have not ridden a dragon, and I'm definitely not good with people. Nor am I able to handle any type of weapon or tool. All I can do is draw, cook, and make healing potions.
I do tire of being called a witch, and a disgrace. I am the punching bag of my age group, including my older brothers. I almost always cause dragons to go on a rampage when I study them, dad says its because they cannot sense me when I'm doing so, and that iss why they freak out once they notice me.
All I get from my parents are looks of dissatisfaction, pity, confusion, frustration. I try my best. Sometimes my potions cause fires or explosions, only once did they cause a flood.
I bored of healing the people of Berk. I hate the gossip, I hate having to tiptoe, I hate keeping my mouth shut, I hate knowing I have no future, and I hate the looks.
Because I'm the only person in the Hairy Hooligans Tribe who cannot ride dragons.
Today Hulda stayed in the house, and decided to mend tunics, and complete the rest of the house chores. Hiccup, Stoick, and Finn are getting ready for a chief gathering, while Astrid is going over possible threats and making sure the Berk Defenders and the Dragon Force are ready for anything in dad's absence.
Hulda, exhausted from being bullied, stayed in the emptiness of the house humming a small lullaby to herself. She quickly finish the repairs of the household clothing, moves to all the garments back into their respective chests, starting with her mothers and fathers. The auburn haired young adult heads up the stairs, and she can't stop herself from looking at her father's drawings. Curiosity killed the cat, and Hulda has accepted the fact that curiosity might kill her. She quickly puts the clothes away, and starts to thumb through the drawings.
Some are building designs, and mechanisms to make the easy life around Berk even easier. Others are new tail designs for Toothless, and the last are pictures of the family. There are a lot of Astrid and the twins, celebrating, riding their Deadly Nadders, wielding their weapons, and looking heroic. The twins are large and muscular, definitely bigger than Hiccup. The boys unknowingly take after Hiccup's father, only they have Astrid's blond hair and blue eyes. Stoick rides a dark green Nadder named Thrash, Finn rides a dark purple Nadder named Crash.
Frowning Hulda finds all the crumpled drawings of herself. She unknowingly takes after her father, only having her mother's round face, body very similar to her grandmother's, Valka. The girl has her father's hair, eyes, build, and mannerisms. In the current picture she is holding her eyes are downcasted, arms tightly drawn across her small bosom, entire body rigid, standing perfectly straight. Hulda's heart throbs with pain, knowing this is how her father sees her. A big disappointment.
All of the pictures she in a similar state. In some Hulda has fire behind herself, others the girl has her arms over her head, and tears falling from her face. Those pictures have water smudges in a few places from her father.
Trying to shake the feelings of failure, the young woman moves puts the drawn pictures into Hiccup's desk, with the rest. The top picture is one of her mother, the twins, and herself as a baby. In the current photo Hulda is smiling a large gummy grin.
Now intrigued, the girl sits in her father's desk chair, and begins to go through the drawer. There's a few of Toothless, a few of Stoick the Vast dancing with Valka. Hulda does not recognize the man dancing with her grandmother, but puts the photo on her lap with the others. She is surprised to see all of the drawings of a place she's never seen with the words Dragon's Edge in the bottom corner, and a ton of maps, and something called the Dragon's Eye.
Hulda finds more drawings of the family, and sees how she and the boys grew up in Hiccup's eyes. The twins got larger, and achieved more greatness, whereas she stop smiling as much, and hold her arms closer and closer to her body. There's a single photo of her and her dragon, Ashes. The written scratches in the corner read She'll never fly.
Hulda sighs, hurt at how weak and pathetic she looks in her father's drawings.
"And what in Odin's name do you think you are doing young lady!?" The deep voice of the chief bellowing at her causes her to jump up and drop all the papers, which fall around her on the floor.
Hulda automatically bows her head, and wraps her arms around herself. She fears that if she opens her mouth to explain herself, she'll just get in even more trouble, like all the other times. She knows she's in the wrong, which is the main reason the green eyed girl decides not to fight back.
Hiccup can't hold back the growl that rumbles through his chest. The silence, the unexplained incidences, it really got on his nerves.
"Get out of my sight." He growls, causing Hulda to dash past him, down the stairs past her mother, past Toothless and Stormfly, and out the house. The young teen holds her breath to hold back the tears of frustration. As she walks down the streets the other vikings whisper about what she ruined now and shoot her glares.
Hulda pushes herself faster to the forest, just to get away from it all. She stayed in the house trying to prevent the whispers and the glares, but she quickly failed, again.
She trips and falls when she reaches the middle of the forest. The depression and anger taking complete control of her she stays on the cold hard ground. Hulda gasps in ragged breathes. "I should just leave. Just like I always plan to." Tears fall from the eyes of the chief's daughter. "I can't even be in the same room as him."
Back at the chief's house, his wife sighs as she climbs the stairs. "Hiccup, did you have to scare her away?"
Frustrated and feeling defeated, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third bends to pick up a few of the pictures off the floor, noticing they were old drawings he made of the family. "I don't know what to do with her Astrid! She makes a mess out of everything, she doesn't care about riding a dragon! Hulda will either just stands there, or scream in my face, acting like I just punched her in the gut!" He continues to clean up the drawings, and places them back in their designated spot.
"Well, maybe to her it feels like you did." The blonde says, helping her husband clean the mess her agitated daughter made.
Hiccup shoots Astrid a look. "And why on earth would she feel like that?" He demands, not understanding what his loving wife is getting at.
Astrid sighs, putting a hand on his cheek, forcing her exhausted husband to look in her eyes. "I'm not sure Hiccup, why did you feel like that at her age? It might be your name, but you're defiantly making sure your daughter feels like a hiccup."
He just stares at her, dumbstruck. "What- And why- How do I make her feel like that?" Hiccup demands.
The women just sighs at grown man, and sits on their bed. Patting the side for him to join her, Astrid says, "Maybe it is because you make a bigger deal out of her failures than accomplishments. And because of that, everyone else in the village does the same. Even our sons." The blonde wraps an arm around her husband's shoulders and he puts his face in his hands.
"I am a terrible father. No wonder why she doesn't talk to me!" Hiccup rubs his hands over his face finally letting his wrongly pointed anger go, and sits back up. "I should go find her, and apologize. Maybe have a talk with her, take her flying." Hiccup says smiling at his plan. He moves to get up as he finishes his sentence and is stopped when Astrid gently reminds him "But Hiccup, your daughter doesn't fly. Ashes is just a Smothering Smokebreath and will never grow large enough"
The Chief of Berk groans, having no idea what to do. His wife rubs his back with her heavily calloused hands. "Maybe just take her to the cove, and talk." Astrid suggests, knowing it'll be the best place for both of her loved ones to feel comfortable.
Hiccup leaves the house, and finds his daughter laying on the forest floor. Trying not to sigh out loud he offers his large hand towards the child's head. "Need help up?"
Hulda heard her father walking up to her. His metal foot creaks as he walks. She pushes herself up on her elbows, and grabs hold of his hand. Her father's hands are extremely calloused, like her mother's. Hulda's hands are soft and smooth, never seeing a hard day's labour.
The delicateness of his daughter's hands reminds him of how fragile she is. Hulda was born premature, like him. According to his mother, Valka, his daughter was born much earlier than he was. Unlike his boys, who were very late in their birth, so it is no surprise at how big and strong they are.
His little girl could hardly hold up anything larger than a dagger. Hulda would never be able to stand up for herself in a physical fight. Hulda's intelligence rallies her fathers, and Hiccup could only wish that one of his sons were as smart as his little girl. Honestly that's why he was so frustrated and yelled at Hulda. His idiotic sons ate up all of his patience, instead of helping him think of a plan to make a peace treaty with the Murderous Tribe, all they wanted to do was go to war. Neither of his sons understand the importance of peace.
Hiccup gently pulled Hulda to her feet, using his other hand to scratch the back of his head. Hulda trying to make this slightly less awkward and embarrassing, brushed off her clothes and asks "So...um...Dad, where is Toothless?" The girl really loved that dragon, and felt much more comfortable with the reptile around. She may suck at taming, training, and riding dragons, but she did generally love them.
"Oh, he went back to helping Fishlegs and Finn at the academy. The lesson's on how a dragon with a disability is still a fine dragon to ride. Toothless will probably get annoyed soon and come join us." Hiccup says, pride filling his voice with the topic of his dragon. Hulda silently wishes his voice would sound as proud when he spoke of her.
The two auburn head's begin to naturally walk towards the cove. Hiccup showed Hulda on her 10th birthday. He hasn't shown the twins in fear they'll turn it into a secret training grounds and ruin its beauty, but he knew his only daughter would appreciate it like he has.
Neither of them speak as they enter through the rock tunnel. Hiccup goes to sit on a rock by the water, and his daughter begins to climb a tree.
"Hulda, we need to talk." The grown man says in a defeated voice.
The young woman sighs, jumps down from the tree, only stumbling a bit. Hulda walks over to her father, eyes focused on the water. "About?"
"Well you. You need to join your tribe, get to work, help out." He says, eyes narrowed on the back of her head. "Do you want to be a bread making viking? We don't have many of those." Hiccup says, a little more quietly, remembering back into his youth when he said a similar sentence to his father.
The green eyed girl sighed, wrapping her arms around her small frame. "No dad, I do not want to be a bread making viking. I'm suppose to be the next healer when Valka decides to step down, you know that."
Her father runs his hand through his shaggy hair. "And is that what you want to be? The tribes next healer?"
Hulda shrugs, what she wants is to be the next Chief. The girl knows she can't voice this to anyone, and has already accepted her fate of being the healer. "Well I don't really have a choice."
Hiccup stares at her realizing she really doesn't want to replace his mother, which surprises him. "Then what do you want to be? You can tell me, I won't be upset." Hiccup asks, his own curiosity rearing its head.
Hulda tightens her arms around herself, trying to muster the courage to tell her father that all she wants to be is a viking he's proud to call his own, and not tell him what she really wants. "I guess...Anything other than who I am." She says to low for her father to hear.
"Pardon?" Hiccup asks, leaning towards her. When he doesn't get a response, the man sighs and takes a different approach. "Lets try this then, what do you not want to be?"
Hulda takes a deep breath and begins her rant. "What I do not want to be? Well that's easy, me! I do not want to be a failure, untalented, an academy dropout. I don't want my only talents to be cooking and potions!" Young and terrified green eyes meet older confused ones. Her volume increases until she's shouting. "I don't want to be punching bag, or Berk's pest, or THE TARGET FOR AX PRACTICE! I DON'T WANT TO BE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN'T RIDE A DRAGON, I DON'T WANT TO BE SO TERRIFIED TO GO IN PUBLIC, I DON'T WANT PEOPLE TO THINK I'M CRAZY, BECAUSE I AM NOT CRAZY! I'M TIRED OF FEELING SO ALONE WHEN I'M ON AN ISLAND FULL OF PEOPLE!" Tears fall from her eyes, and the volume of her voice drops. "And I especially do not want to always be shaming you and mother. I am so tired of being the disappointment of the Haddock's dad. I don't want to be the runt of Berk. If I died, people would cheer."
Hiccup quickly stood up, walked over to his defeated daughter, and pulled her small frame to his. One arm wrapped around her back, the other holding her head to his chest. He looked to the sky, a tear sliding down his cheek, and he asked Odin to help his only daughter. The grown man had no idea of his daughter's true feelings, and is horrified to learn how similar they are to his feelings when he was a youth.
Hulda sobbed, damping her father's leather armor. She feels her energy escape her, and her knees buckle, but her father holds her up.
"I am not ashamed to be your father. I am very proud of the young woman you are growing into." Hiccup informs her with carefully calculated words, remembering some of the ways his father praised him. She begins to shake her head, making Hiccup hold on to her more tightly. "You are a better healer than Gothi, and you had no training. You've only had me to teach you to cook and you have surpassed me long ago." Hulda begins to push away from him, the only things he can compliment her on, are the traits she would be fine with losing. "You are extremely compassionate Hulda. You can't use a weapon because you do not want to hurt anyone. I couldn't use a weapon when I was a youth either. I made machines, mechanism, and I would also create fires and damage all over Berk. I- I understand Hulda!" Hiccup exclaims, not knowing what else to say. The man feels his heart breaking for his daughter.
"But I'm not the perfect Chief! I cannot grow a beard, and people think that's weird." Hiccup said, trying to lighten the mood, and let his daughter see that he's not so perfect either.
His daughter pushes herself from Hiccup's grasp, and makes eye contact with him. "No dad. You went from a screw up to a hero! I went from being a viking with a wide future to a screw up! And how can you blame me!? You always knew who you were, and your destiny. You're Chief! Stoick is the new blacksmith, Finn is in charge of the dragon academy, and they're both soon to be married to lovely wives. Also, my brother's are fighting for the Chief title! So what does that make me? It somehow makes me bad dad, and then I didn't want to use weapons, and I over think dragons and I don't even have a chance to participate for my blood right!" Hulda says, feeling completely crushed.
Instead she pulled at her loose hair, feeling like she was about explode. She's done her best to explain how she feels to both of her parents how she feels, but they still don't get it. The green eyed girl was marrying age, but she had zero suitors, and her only career option is to take over being the healer after Valka finally retires. Healing was gross work, and she had more to do with her life than stay in a tiny hut healing ungrateful people.
The chief puts his hands up defeated. "Listen Hulda, you are going to make a great healer. And you're allowed to run for chief, you are my blood and a very intelligent woman." Hiccup saw his daughter's crushed eyes fill with disbelief. "In fact, why don't you come to the Gathering Of The Chief's with your brothers and I? We do have to take a boat, their Nadder's can't handle a flight that long. But Thrash and Crash will be coming with the boys, and Toothless with me."
Hulda's body fills with excitment. This is the first time her father ever invited her to a Gathering. She clasps her hands together and looks at her father with the baby doll eyes, hoping he would let her bring her our dragon.
"Oh, could you not?" The auburn haired male sighs, knowing he'll cave to that face. He's already beginning to regret his offer. Hiccup's little girl belongs at home, where she'll be safe, and not at a Chief Gathering. "Fine! Fine you are bring the Smothering Smokebreath…" Hiccup said sighing, frustrated that his daughter's only dragon companion is such a pest.
"Oh thank you daddy!" Hulda says jumping to give her father a hug, causing a large smile to spread over Hiccup's face. "I have to go find Ashes now!" The girl starts heading out of the Cove, quickly turning around to give her father what she hoped was encouraging words. "I promise dad, Ashes won't be a problem!" Auburn hair trails after the girl as she goes to find her best friend.
Hiccup sighs, relieved when he sees his dragon enter where his daughter just made her exit, and that he was finally able to brighten his only daughter's spirits. "Hey bud… W are going to have to be extra careful at the Gathering. I invited Hulda to tag along, and of course now Ashes is coming along." The large black dragon sighs dramatically, and flops onto the ground. "I hear you." Hiccup sighs, laying down beside his friend.
Both of the green eyed Haddock's have a large lopsided grin gracing their faces.
But this is only the beginning...
