Disclaimer: Do I really need to say it again? I only own Jacinda and Selena. Also, Skullette's story (read the chapter, that name will make sense in a bit) is written by my friend, CrazyNutSquirrel, and when she starts posting it, It'll be in my favorites
Stoik had told me that the storm front moving in would hinder the party they had planed, and he wanted me to move it out of the way. Of course, this was most liky that they wanted to decorate, and moving the storm front was the best way of sending me off. Of all the elements that Selena and I could bend, clouds were the hardest to get right. That's how we ended up high in the sky, purple energy crackling, burried deep in the storm front, trying to split the clouds so they flowed around Berk.
It was going well. The clouds were moving at a nice pace, splittig to go around he island. Selena's humming got a little deeper, and the clouds finally fully split and started moving nicely. I whipped the back of my hand over my sweaty forehead and patted Selena on the neck.
"Good job girl!"
My head snapped up as I heard a girls voice hollering at me. There was a girl with auburn hair waving at me from the back of a Nader clutching a deep green Night Fury in her claws.
Selena pumped her wings, driving them upwards, and then used the wind to glide them over to the girl. As soon as we were in ear short, I said "I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. What was that?" Selena stopped about five feet away from them and let the air buoy her and keep her hovering on the spot.
"I said 'hello, I'm Skullette.' I was wondering if you'd like to rest at my cave? It isn't too far from here and I notices you looked tired." I gave a small smile.
"That would be great, thank you. I'm Jacinda, and this is Selena. I assume you're a viking from Berk? I haven't seen you there."
"I've kinda been trying to protect my night fury from my dads"'s groncle, so I've been living in a cave with Andraemon and Violet." Skullette smiled, but her eye twitched.
"Alright, lead on, then." said Jacinda.
I told her my story, and she told me hers, our dragons were fooling around in the back of the caves.
"So do you know why Snotlout was so grumpy?" Skullette asked, ducking to avoid a fireball from the back. "It didn't look like that was his normal state of being."
I shook my head. "It's not. He's been having nightmares since the dragons nest. From what I saw, he was trying to protect me from something."
Skullette had leaned a little forward, like I was telling a big secret.
"Oh... Is he okay now? And what was he trying to protect you from?"
I gave a little shrug. "It looked like a shadow, with blonde hair. That would be Tasma."
"That chick sounds worse than any electric eel a drogan would try to avoid." again she had to duck under a fire, it was from Violet thus time. I reached out with my right hand and caught the wad of fire. I shaped it into a sphere and started passing it from hand to hand.
"Soooooo... You know where Tufnut disappears to?" I raised an eyebrow, not paying much attention to the fire any more, but I kept passing it back and forth.
Skullette looked at me very seriously. "Promise you won't laugh at him?" wiggled my eyebrows.
"Only if you don't laugh at Snotlout."
"Deal."
Selena and I landed in the main square, and surely enough, it was all decorated. Everyone was outside waiting for me, dragons and all. Snotlout had on his best yak fur, which looked worse on him then his normal clothing. Gobber and his dragon, a Boneknapper dragon, helped me off Selena. Completely unnecessary, but nice anyway. The crowd burst out in cheers, and I wondered why they bothered throwing this party. I mean, ya, I can bend elements, but why all the fuss?
Everyone gathered around the arena, and sat down next to Snotlout and his friends. My friends now. Stoik stood up at his chair and announced that there would be a talent in my honor.
I turned to Snotlout "Why?"
"Why what?"
I gave an exasperated sigh. "Why all the fuss?"
"Because you're something new and exciting. You know all about different dragons, you bend the elements to your will. There's a whole list." he whispered back.
"Are you going to do something?" I asked coyly. Rufnut and Tufnut gafawed and Astrid and Hiccup chuckled.
The fires lit outside of the arena were doused and the show began with Gobber telling his story about him and the Boneknapper. Said Boneknapper was acting out bits and pieces of it behind him. Astrid and Hiccup played a song, Hiccup on a flute, and Astrid whaling on the drums. We took a break for food, Snotlout and the twins drifting towards the desert table, me heading for the table laden with bread and soup.
"Having fun are we?" I could tell Skullette was under the table because my powers let me sense what was around me in a six foot radius.
"Jacinda! How did you know...?"
I smirked. "How about I use this as an excuse to come visit you sometime soon?"
I grabbed a bun and a bowl of hot tomato soup and made my way back to where Snotlout and the twins were shoving their faces with cake, and Astrid and Hiccup were talking in ernest about dragons.
"Where did you go?" Snotlout wanted to know.
I raised an eyebrow at him, looking from the cake to his face and back. He guiltily set it down and wiped the icing off his face.
"Better."
The torches were dimmed again, and the next act came out.
Astrid and Hiccup were called down by a girl in a hooded cloak to play their song again. I knew the girl was Skullette but no one else seemed to, including Tufnut.
She had two steel hoops that she danced with, spinning them around her hips and arms. There was a brief pause in the music, and she jumped up the side of the arena and grabbed Tufnut by the front of his shirt. I could see Skullette's teeth flashing in the torch light as she smiled. She pulled him down into the ring and resumed dancing. There was a pause where Tufnut just stood there, then slowly he started dance. It was sort of... Random, his dancing.
They all left the ring when the song was done, and Tufnut came back muttering about weird girls. Rufnut elbowed him in the ribs and quipped "Great dancing. You almost passed as a human being." Snotlout rolled his eyes. His arm had somehow managed to get around my shoulders.
"I'm going down." I whispered to him shrugging off his arm and grabbing a leaf from a nearby tree. Selena joined me, and we headed down to the entrance.
"Hey Gobber! Great story. Hey listen, you think I could do something?" He smiled at my praise.
"I don't know, can you?" I stuck out my tongue at him and sauntered in to the arena. I waved at everyone, then I made a guitar out of nearby wood, and used the leaf I grabbed to make strings. I took a few practice strums, then told Selena what song I wanted to play. She called the wind up, and started making piano sounds. The tune was simple. Dum dum dumdumdumdum babababa ba dum dum dumdumdumdum.
I sang then.
"five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes. Five hundred twenty five thousand moments so dear. five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes. How do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights and cups of coffee. In inches, in miles in laughter and strife. In five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes, how do you measure a year in a life all about love? All about love. Measure in love. Seasons of love. five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes. five hundred twenty five thousand journeys to blame. five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes. His do measure the life of a woman or man? In truth that she learned? In the times that he cried? In bridges he burned, or the way that he died? It's time now to sing out, though the story never ends. It's time to celebrate, remember a day in the life of a friend. Measure your life I love." I knew the song so well, the words just flowed off my tongue, and the chords seemed to pluck themselves off my makeshift guitar.
Everyone had gotten a ton of applause, but I was the only one who got a standing ovation. Selena bumped me with her nose, and I patted her star. We exited the arena and met up with he others.
"That was great, babe." said Snontlout, throwing his arm around my shoulders. I placed my hand squarely over the centre of his face and pushed him off.
"Guess who's not just here to be a trophy girl? Oh, I know. Me." I knew from his tone and the 'babe' comment he was just showing off to his buddies.
"Oh diss." jeered the twins.
Snotlout looked a little hurt, but he'd get over it.
Later that night, i was sitting facing the sea with my back to a boulder, talking to Selena and trying to sort out my feelings for Snotlout.
"Things I knew:
1. I love him. Plain and simple.
2. I can't live without him.
3. In all his past lives, he ended up falling for Tasma.
4. He always left me alone.
Things I didn't know:
1. How he feels about me
2. How to stop Tasma from using him to get to me
3. How to keep him alive."
Selena lay down beside me, placing her head in my lap and making a low, comforting hum. I set down my guitar, and started running my nails along the spot behind her horns that she loved to have scratched so much.
All of a sudden, she sat up and narrowed her eyes at a rock a little ways off from us. I sighed.
"How much did you hear, Snotty?" Snotlout pulled himself up from behind his rock, trying to preserve whatever dignity he had left.
"Enough," he grinned. "You said you loved me!" I practically facepalmed.
"That's the only part that made it through your skull? Boys!" Selena rolled her eyes and moved off to give us a little privacy.
He shrugged. "well you also said you didn't know how I feel," he lay down on his side next to me. "and I'm trying to figure that out, too." I slid down until I was facing him.
"Yeah? You get the part about you always choosing Tasma over me and getting yourself killed? You always do that, and leave me alone." that was the part that bothered me the most. The fact that no matter how much I warned him, and tried to protect him, he always ended up dying and leaving me to face the world alone. It wasn't that I couldn't handle it - because I could - as it was the fact that I wasn't [I] supposed[/I] to be facing it alone. I knew it wasn't his fault, but Snotlout was the only one there, and Tasma was god knows where instigating a war.
Snotlout look a little hurt, but he quickly regained his cocky demeanor. "So, what now?" I rolled onto my back, gazing thoughtfully up at the stars.
"Now you tell me how you feel. Spill."
I glanced at him, and he looked quite shocked. "A viking talking about feelings? Stupid idea."
I glared at him. He instantly backpedalled. "Uh, the idea isn't stupid, it's just- erm- ah-"
"Save it." I muttered, looking back up at the stars. "It was a bad idea anyway."
Snotlout shifted his weight, then said slightly awkwardly
"I suppose I'm just confused. You show up out of nowhere, and start stirring things up. You say I have past lives, and I remember I have past lives. You bend the elements to your will. You say that Tasma keeps doing something to me, but I don't remember anything about it!" He was getting more and more agitated. I brushed a bit of hair out of my face.
"You sure you want to know what Tasma does to you?" he nodded. I had always tried to protect him from the truth, by now he needed to know. "She is a psychic, capable of brainwashing. I think I told you this already. She always, always manages to get to you and convince you that either I'm cheating on you, or that you love her, not me.
"I don't blame you for being brainwashed; you can't help it. The bit that bothers me is that you always try to kill me, and I'm not sure whether you're brainwashed or not." If he looked confused before, he was far more confused now.
"I tried to kill you?" he bit his lower lip. "I couldn't even imagine doing that." I smiled a bit. That was reassuring. He seemed to see something in my eyes, and got completely caught up in them. He leaned forwards, slowly, giving me plenty of time to remove myself from the vicinity. I just closed that gap between us, wrapping my arm around him, and pressing my lips against his.
Snotlout woke up with Jacinda's head resting on his chest. After they had kissed (it was a good kiss) they had talked. About what their favorite colours were, what they ultimately they wanted to do with their lives, things like that. They had fallen asleep when Fire showed up and him and Selena started cooing at each other. The vikings had rolled their eyes, and Jacinda had muttered something about how uncomfortable a pillow of rocks were. Snotlout had suggested she use his arm as a pillow, but apparently she'd rather use his chest.
He moved his arm and put it around Jacinda.
He still couldn't believe that she said he had tried to kill her. Right now, at least, it was unthinkable. He felt like if she ever died, his life wouldn't be worth living. Like the sense of purpose he had found since meeting Jacinda would slip through his fingers like tendrils of fog.
The dragons shifted and stood up, stretching out kinks in their spines. Selena caught sight of Jacinda laying on Snotlout's chest and seemed to smile. Fire nudged her with his nose, gesturing with his wings towards the open sky beyond the cliff. Selena did a rung take off, Fire a few strides behind her. They rolled around and wrestled playfully in the air. At least some one's relationship was simple and clear.
Jacinda shifted and opened her eyes. "Morning, sleepy head!" Snotlout said, tousling her hair. Her hand caught his and removed it from her mane of goldy hair.
"You no touch. Mitts off. Leme 'lone" she said, half asleep.
Snotlout rolled his eyes. "I suppose that means you don't want to come with me to the party tonight?" that got her attention.
"Party? What party? We JUST had a party." she sat up, turning to look at him. Snotlout rolled his eyes.
"yeah, but the adults were there. All the teens are getting together tonight and having an amazing dance party for you,"
Selena landed next to them and tilted her head to the side curiously. "And you, too." he patted Selena on the nose.
Jacinda sighed and stood up, extending a hand to help Snotlout up.
"I suppose that if the party's for me, I might as well come." she said with a grin. Snotlout reached up and took her hand.