I'm a horrible, horrible person. I'm sorry, folks. You will not believe how busy I was. Anyway, to clear up confusion since you guys probably haven't read this story in forever, Sally is Hiccup and Astrid's daughter, Svala, the pirates screwed up her name. She was lied to, saying that her parents were killed by the dragons they trusted, leading Sally to think dragons are evil. Hope, the Terror that escaped, belonged to Christine, a ghost who was like a Hiccup centuries before, but nobody believed her. The dragon now believes that she and Hiccup were wrong, as long as there were humans like pirates, dragons couldn't live in peace with them, and flew off to tell the others, who abandoned their owners and flew off to eliminate the pirates.
Several months had passed, and Sally was now just over two years old. She didn't know that, however, as she was too young and the pirate's days all passed by in a blur. Her hair had grown, and the drunken pirates loved to play around with it, inventing crazy braids, and even attempting to trim it, which led to uneven, scraggly, dirty hair.
Sally wasn't even allowed to go topside, always stuck below deck in the darkness. Sure, there were torches, but she wasn't allowed to carry them around, she couldn't even reach them if she wanted to. All she could do was sit there with the hungover pirates in the daytime, and try to escape the rowdy pirates at night to sleep, failing most of the time. Where could she escape to? Sally had no bedroom, only a small blanket in the corner of the main room.
Until Maria came. Maria was a kind woman, who wore a red dress a bit too short for Sally's liking, long, curly black hair, and some of the palest skin Sally had ever seen. And she was tall. When she first appeared at one of the many parties, she couldn't stop looking up at her, wondering how someone could possibly be so tall.
"Oh, aren't you precious!" she exclaimed upon seeing young Sally staring up at her. She bent down (showing more than Sally was used to, her mommy would yell at this woman) and picked her up, almost suffocating the two-year-old. "What's your name, precious?"
"Sv-Sally," she mumbled shyly.
"Well, Sally, you and I are going to be best friends!" Maria exclaimed with the biggest smile ever, but Sally thought it looked too fake. No one's lips could be that red, or have teeth that white. Sally had to reach up and touch her face, but Maria pulled back.
"Why?" Sally asked.
"You'll ruin my make-up, precious. I need to look as pretty as possible, or I won't get paid as much," she explained, patting Sally's cheek softly. "You look like you could use a little makeover too, precious. Follow me." Maria set the young child down and grabbed hold of her hand, before leading her up the stairs. Sally hesitated a little, being upstairs was forbidden, but she was with an adult, so it must be okay. But when the door opened, she cried out in pain, the light was too bright!
Maria seemed to notice her discomfort and shielded the child's eyes, saying something that sounded angry but in a strange language as she hurried her across the deck. Soon they reached a room that smelled familiar to Sally. They were in the captain's quarters!
"Trouble!" Sally exclaimed, before talking unintelligibly in fear.
"Hey, hey! It's alright, precious, I'm with the captain for tonight. If anything, I'll get into trouble not you, understand?" Maria comforted. "Now, about that hair..." she fumbled around his desk before finding an older knife. Maria held it up and examined it thoughtfully, before sighing and motioning for Sally to sit on the chair. "Sit on it backwards, though, or else I can't reach."
The toddler did as was told of her, she knew what punishments she could get for disobeying. She soon felt an uncomfortable tugging on her hair, and pulled forward a bit to get away, only to hear a word in the strange language again. "No no, try to keep your head still, this will not take long, I promise." Sally frowned but tried her hardest to pretend she was a statue, whimpering at the tugging on her tangles. Eventually, her hair was thrown down, and Maria picked her up again, taking her in another room with a tub full of water. Next thing she knew, her hair was soaking wet and the tugging continued, but it was considerably easier to bear.
A while later, Maria turned her around and stared intently at her face, biting her lip in concentration, and ruffled the child's hair before smiling. "There, precious. All better." But then, a look crossed her face as she stared at the rest of the child. When Maria reached for her dress, Sally pulled back with a "NO!" and almost fell in the tub, but was caught by the pretty woman, who was talking in that language again.
"My dress!" she stamped her foot when back on ground, and the woman looked extremely relieved.
"You'll get it back, I just think you need to be cleaned up a bit, that's all."
Sally looked at her curiously. "Bath?" Maria nodded, and Sally grinned. She hadn't had a single bath since she came aboard this ship, and she didn't like how her feet stuck to the floor whenever she tried to walk.
Maria sang pretty songs to her in the weird language as she bathed her and cleaned her dress, and when both were clean as they could be with the older water, the woman smiled again. "What a beautiful young girl!" Sally beamed at the praise as Maria picked her up and held her close. "Don't worry, I'll see what I can do with you tonight, but for now, you have to go back downstairs, I promise I'll come back. Would you like to come and live with me?"
Sally stared with wonder at her, before grinning and nodding. "Stinky," she said as she scrunched up her nose and stuck her tongue out, and Maria laughed. "Alright, I'll walk you back, then I've got to fix my hair and makeup, and put on a different dress. I'll come back for you in a few short hours, okay?" Sally nodded and Maria led her back, talking about a place called Spain and all the things they would do.
But when a few hours came, the fat man came downstairs instead, looked her up and down and shrugged. "Maybe she was right..." he muttered as he walked away.
"Maria?" Sally asked just before he reached the stairs. The captain sighed and turned around, before smirking.
"She was thinking of taking you away, saying a young woman should be taken care of better, and she was probably right, but we can't just give you away," he explained. "I'll find someone to take care of you here next time we land..." he muttered to himself as he turned around again.
"Why not Maria?" she asked.
"She was eaten by dragons, kid."
Sally gasped and started to cry. He was right, dragons were evil. Good thing the man with the knives comes once a month and teaches her how to hold and use the weapons, she didn't want to be eaten by them like her parents and Maria were. Maybe they'd come back if she could kill the dragons.
Hiccup was growing tired of flying. It seemed like it was all he did, and it probably was. Only landing to eat, slightly rest, and ask questions and back to the skies. He never even talked to Toothless, except for the occasional motivation and encouragement. Until one day, he couldn't.
"Toothless? Toothless, where are you, bud? We've got to go!" he called out, hoping to hear or see the dragon pop out of the hiding place he must be in. But no matter how loud or how much he called, no dragon could be seen.
"Toothless!" Hiccup called. "This can't be happening. This can't be happening! Svala, Astrid, now Toothless?! Where are you?!" he shouted. "Toothless!"
Finally, a familiar roar was heard, and Toothless came stumbling through the branches, dripping wet and bleeding, but looking extremely excited. He bounded up once, cringed, but grabbed Hiccup's tunic and dragged him until Hiccup got the hint and ran after him. Eventually, as they neared the beach, they slowed down, and found a woman sitting huddled up against the fire, clutching something so hard her knuckles were white.
"Toothless? Who's she?" he asked quietly as the woman jerked her head up, looking traumatized and weak. She stared at him for the longest time, and whispered, "Father, please forgive me."
"I'm not going to hurt you. What's your name?" Hiccup sat down next to the woman and wrapped a blanked from his dragon's saddle around her. She clutched it tightly and sighed.
"My name is Maria."
"Okay, good. Maria. Where did you come from, and why are you all wet?"
"I was thrown overboard while hired. I had not pleased my client," she explained. It was then that Hiccup noticed the traces of make-up and the torn dress she was wearing, before it came together.
"You...you're a..." he stuttered, tripping over his accusation.
"It was all I could do, my father wanted a son, to bring in more money for the family," she whispered, crying a bit. "I thought it'd be alright, and it was for a while. But...that poor girl..." she cried harder.
Hiccup nodded, before freezing in his place. "What girl?"
"The one the pirates had...Sally..."
"Sally?" He thought about what Christine had told him. Could this Sally know where his daughter was? It was his only lead, and Toothless looked excited. "Can you smell her on Maria?" he asked Toothless, who nodded. Hiccup's smile widened. "Can you lead us to the ship?" he asked the shaking woman.
She shook her head sadly. "They're too far gone by now, and they said if they ever saw my face again...that precious girl..."
Hiccup sighed and nodded slowly. "Could you at least come with us, to point us in the right direction? And 'Sally' might help me find my own daughter if she sees a familiar face."
"They took your daughter?" she asked, her head shooting up.
"The Pirates of Dutchman did-"
"That's them! I didn't see any other girl with them, though..." she saddened. "What horrible people...if I do help you and we find your daughter, could you drop me and Sally off back in Spain? I think of her almost like she was my own little girl."
Hiccup smiled back at her and held out a hand. "We've got a deal."
Oh, the confusion! The horrible confusion! Don't worry, Astrid comes back next chapter, and I sense a reunion of some sort, but with a horrible twist! What will happen? I don't even know! I only hope my next chapter comes out quick, and I promise I'll try my hardest!
