Danyelle hadn't initially been planning on leaving her home, or just the entire island in particular. No, she had just wanted to go on a little test flight into the sky and see if she'd improved her flying. However the people on the island had other plans.
While everyone that lived there on the island of Troll indeed were trollkarls (or magicians, for those not exactly fluent in Swedish), they still had the burning hatred for dragons that most everybody else shared across the seas. So (Name) wasn't exactly safe where she lived.
Because she had the power to turn into one.
At least, she could create wings along her shoulder blades and horns appeared on her head, maybe a tail so she could keep balance would show up, but it held such likeness to a dragon that if she was ever found out by the villagers then she was almost certain they'd try to get rid of her as quickly as possible.
Which was why she was currently flying for her life across the open ocean, tears stinging in her eyes as the wind whipped past her. She could hear the shouts and screams of villagers, all of them firing ice and flames and all sorts of magical projectiles at her, trying to get her out of the air. Some had cast spells on themselves so they too could fly (for a limited time, of course), and were in hot pursuit of her. One of them being the chief of the island, his face angry and ballistic.
"SHOOT TH' DEVIL DOWN!" He ordered the three who'd followed with him, all of them coming after her and still firing at her. They all roared in response, and she yelped, swerving into the clouds and flapping her wings as quickly as she could, trying desperately to get away from the people she used to call her friends and family.
Was it really so wrong to be a dragon? Even to look like one? They hardly ever attacked the island, in fact they'd learned years ago that trying to steal their food wasn't going to end well at all. Yet they still hated them, still wanted them dead. And it frightened Danyelle even more knowing that because she looked like one, they felt the same way about h-
"AH!" She suddenly yelped, burning pain searing through her right wing. She turned her head sharply, seeing a hole ripped through it. Panic shot through her body when she realized that she was going to fall into the water.
Hard.
The men cackled and shouted behind her, and in a frenzy she beat her wings, despite the raging pain in one of them, the tears in her eyes finally falling. Terrified she frantically searched for some sort of land, anything, anywhere.
And then she saw it.
A small island, it wasn't too far from her but definitely a lot lower to the ground than she was. It'd have to be a crash landing. She swallowed thickly, shaking her worries away and turned her whole body to focus on hitting the ground. She tucked her wings to her body so she turned into something like a torpedo, and before the magicians could blink she was miles ahead of them, speeding so quickly they didn't even realize she was gone until it was too late. The only thing they had to follow was the thin trail of smoke burning from her wing.
She only hoped she was moving fast enough so that when she did make impact, they'd be too far behind to catch her. Though it would be extremely unfortunate if she hit the ground too hard. She'd rather not be splattered all over the ground and killed that way instead.
"Toothless, will you stop running around for one second?" Hiccup chided his best dragon friend as he continued to barrel around the island. His pupils were dilated, so at first Hiccup assumed that Toothless was just having fun and enjoying being able to stretch his wings out and not be out scouring the world flying. But he'd been doing it for minutes on end now, and it was just getting annoying at this point.
The dragon only growled and rumbled, his ears pricked as he continued to romp, moving skittishly from side to side of the small island. Hiccup sighed sharply, sitting back from his map so he could get a decent look at the formation a few miles away from them. A new island they'd just found, and he'd been trying to get a decent sketch of it. But thanks to Toothless constantly running in front of him, his view of the island kept getting skewed.
"Oh, come on, bud! Give it a rest! I'm trying to get some work done!" Hiccup scolded the Night Fury, but the dragon didn't stop. Instead he suddenly rushed towards the edge of the island, on the far side next to where Hiccup crouched over the map. He was making an odd squawking sound that Hiccup only heard if someone was in danger.
"Toothless? What's the matter…?" He asked him, removing himself from his work and walking up to the dragon, placing his hand on Toothless' back. The dragon only growled again, his pupils even larger than they were before.
"There's...nothing out here, bud. What are you so worked up about-"
And then he saw it.
Something was streaking towards the island, and it was something big and injured. It looked like a dragon a little smaller than Hiccup, but its wing was smoking and it was moving way too fast for a landing to be safe.
And it was heading straight for them.
"Toothless, move out of the way now!" Hiccup shouted, shoving his dragon out of the way. Toothless yelped as he was pushed, but quickly leapt out of the way as the dragon, or whatever it was, ran straight into Hiccup.
Ouch.
Suddenly Hiccup was being shot across the island as the momentum began to drop when whatever it was that hit him began to slow down, despite it being on top of him and dragging him across the ground as they moved. And gradually, they stopped.
...Right on the edge of the island, their heads hanging over the ocean.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Hiccup cried out, scrambling to get back up where it was safe. Toothless was immediately by their side, taking whatever it was that landed on top of Hiccup into his mouth and dragging it off him, leaving it sprawled out on the ground. Hiccup clutched the back of his head, still pounding from the violent impact from his skull hitting solid rock.
"Oww...Gods, what in the world was that?" He groaned, slowly standing back up, wobbling over to Toothless and leaning on the dragon for support. Toothless only garbled in response, his eyes large and curious as he dipped his head, sniffing the creature that had run into his bestie. When Hiccup's eyes refocused, he took a look at the mysterious thing, too.
And what he saw nearly took his breath away.
There, laying in front of them now in fetal position, was a young girl who looked his age. Messy, wild (h/c) hair and (s/c) skin decorated with cuts and bruises were all over her body. Her clothes looked a bit foreign. Different from what they wore on Berk, that was for sure. But the most mysterious and surprising part of all were her dragon wings.
Dragon wings.
"What...What in Thor's name is she?" He murmured, lowering himself next to the girl and cautiously placing a hand on her shoulder. She looked incredibly worse for wear, and felt a lot bonier than he considered healthy or safe. Carefully he slid his hand from her shoulder to her wings, feeling the leathery, delicate texture of them. Then his fingers came into contact with the bloody hole that had been ripped through one of them, a singed blackness around it and a burning smell coming from the wound. His eyes widened slightly when he retracted his hand, seeing the dark blood already staining it.
"We need to get her home. She's wounded, bud." Hiccup realized. He moved to lift her up, but all of a sudden, her eyes were open. They locked onto him, her pupils contracted, making her eyes look frightened and dangerous.
She yelped in surprise when she saw him and scrambled up, struggling to get away from him, kicking away and backing herself up onto a tree. She grabbed onto it for support, staring at him and Toothless like she'd seen a ghost with a knife, and one that was about to kill her.
"Wh-Where am I? And who are you?!" She demanded shakily, wrapping her wings around herself as a sort of shield. But she winced in pain when she flexed her injured wing, obviously in extreme pain. Hiccup stood up, holding his hands up in surrender as he edged closer to her, his weapon forgotten next to the map where he was working prior to her impact.
"It's okay! It's okay, don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you. You're injured, and we need to get you somewhere safe." He explained to her, but with every step closer he took, she backed away, ducking behind the tree and surrounding herself in the brush.
"H-How do I know you aren't going to hurt me? Or your pet? What about him, is he dangerous?"
"What, Toothless? Don't worry about him, he won't attack you. He was the one that found you, actually. And he's going to help us get you somewhere we can take care of your wounds. Just let-"
"No! Stay away from me!" She shouted at him, hysteric from fear. Hiccup slowed his pace, but still moved toward her, knowing that the blood loss would get worse if she didn't calm down. She needed help badly, but he didn't understand why she wasn't letting him help her. Why she was so scared of him.
"Look, look! I'm not going to hurt you and neither is Toothless. I promise, we just want to help you! Your wing's damaged and if we don't get that patched up then you're going to be in serious trouble. You can trust us, I swear. So please...just let us...let us help you." He reasoned with her, and paused a few yards away from where she cowered, holding his hand out to her.
"Mmm...a-are you...are you sure you won't hurt me?"
"Yes."
"You...promise?"
"I promise."
"..." She began to inch toward him, unraveling the one wing she had sloppily tucked around herself, extending a shaky hand to his. But a sudden bout of dizziness said otherwise. As soon as their hands touched she slipped, the world spinning around her before going completely black.
Hiccup gasped when she fell, catching her easily and lifting her bridal style in his arms, noticing the blood that had trailed from where she stood all the way up to him. He grimaced, then turned and rushed for his dragon, no time to lose.
"C'mon, Toothless. We need to get her home right now!" He ordered his friend, and without another second to waste they were up in the air, speeding straight for Berk so they could fix the mysterious girl up before the injury became an even bigger threat to her life.
Danyelle groaned weakly when she finally came to, her head pounding and her wing throbbing. Wherever she was, it was warm, and whatever she was laying on was soft. Slowly she pushed herself up on her elbows, minding her wings as she attempted to gather her surroundings. It was then that she realized something.
She wasn't on the island. And this placed looked an awful lot like Troll.
Danyelle panicked, giving a sharp cry and tumbling unceremoniously out of the bed she was in moments ago. She hit the floor with a thud, but the pain shooting through her wing and her arm now were the least of her problems.
Her breathing was quickly turning into hyperventilating as she searched wildly for an exit, some way to get out of wherever she was. Her gaze landed on a large, open window nearby, and without hesitation she sprinted for it. (Name) leapt onto the sill and grabbed on, staring out at the island below her before spreading her wings and getting ready to jump off.
"Hey! Wait a minute!" She heard someone cry behind her, but she didn't have time for them if they were going to try and kill her. She moved to flap her wings but a sharp pain shot through her injured one and she stumbled. Her eyes widened when she realized she was about to fall.
But suddenly two firm hands grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back into the room, causing them both to fall back and her landing on top of whoever it was that was trying to keep her in.
"You..? You're the boy from the island!" She recognized him and he nodded, moaning painfully and rubbing the back of his head as he rose to a somewhat sitting position, the girl too dazed to realize she was on top of him.
"Yeah, that's me." He replied in a strained voice, catching sight of her suspicious expression.
"What am I...what are we doing here? Where did you bring me?" She interrogated him, and he offered a small smile as the pain subsided.
"I brought you to Berk. It's my home. Also the place where we got you all patched up, as promised." He informed her, and she leaned back from him, obviously wary of her surroundings.
"You sure?"
"Mm, yes well, I'm pretty sure I'd be able to recognize my own room on my own island, y'know?" He pointed out, and she relaxed, rubbing the horns on her head as it was a nervous habit. Regardless of whether or not this was his island, she didn't know how people would react to a girl that could turn into half a dragon, or something similar to one.
"And...am I safe here…?"
"As safe as it gets, I think. We ride dragons here, believe it or not. And since you have dragon-like...uh, well whatever you are, you're similar to a dragon, so I'm sure you'll be fine here." He reassured her, and her hands fell from her horns as she gazed around her surroundings. It was cozy, that's for sure.
"Well, since you seem like you're feeling better, how about I take you downstairs for some foo-"
"How's the little dragon-lady doing in here, Hi-...I can come back later, if you need me to." Gobber suddenly interrupted from the stairs, making both characters look at him surprised. And then they looked at each other.
And realized what position they were currently in.
"Aaah! Th-This isn't what it looks like!" She squealed, scrambling to push the boy off of her and landing on the floor harshly. Hiccup stood up hurriedly, distancing himself from her with a pink tint on his cheeks.
"Yeah, what she said! Nothing's going on, Gobber. Wipe that look off your face!" He told the man, who only smirked and laughed at the pair before motioning them to come downstairs.
"Oh sure, because 'nothing' was definitely happening up here. Come on, lovebirds, there's food and visitors down here. If you can make it down, that is. Ahh, young love." Gobber said with mock dreamyness, making both of them groan as he finally disappeared.
"And that was Gobber, one of our many village idiots." Hiccup informed her, taking her hand and pulling her up to stand. Still shaky though, she leaned on him for support, her injured wing causing her balance to be a tad skewed.
"He said there are visitors...are they from this village? Or are they from mine…" She wondered as they neared the steps, obviously frightened and suspicious of the idea of visitors. Hiccup, being Hiccup, noticed and paused, looking down at her with amusement.
"Look, um...whatever your name is-"
"-My name is Danyelle."
"Okay, then. Look, Danyelle,the 'visitors' he was talking about, they're my friends. I met them here on the way to my house and they've all been waiting to see you wake up and make sure you're okay. It's not every day we meet a girl with wings and horns, after all." He explained to her, and she sighed shakily, eying the stairs once more.
"You promise it'll be safe?" Hiccup paused again, this time turning her and placing his hands on her shoulders so she could look up at him, and see the sincerity in his eyes. She really was a beautiful girl. Albeit a bit flighty, but that just came with her untrusting nature.
"Danyelle, I promise. Here on Berk, you'll be completely safe. Wherever you come from, whoever's treated you wrong, we'll protect you from them here. Me and Toothless will do everything in our power to make sure you stay safe and happy, okay? No matter what happened to you then, I swear on my word that none of it will happen here. ...Alright?"
She stared up at him, surprised by his sincerity. He looked genuinely concerned for her well-being, something that she hardly ever received from her own home, her own parents even. And it was a pretty good
feeling. Of course the icing on the cake was that it was coming from an extremely attractive young man. A warm feeling entrapped her heart as she locked her eyes with his, and for the first time in months, she cracked a small, gentle smile.
"...Alright."
~To Be Continued~
