Chapter 6: a whole new person

Kristan wakes up well early in the morning to find her cousin has completely disappeared. Most likely he didn't show up at all and had spent the night at the forge.

She rises from her and takes a whiff of her arm. She really smells of sweat and burnt after a couple of days of taking on the dragon training and is in real need of a bath. Not to mention the bruising and the aches from yesterday's fiasco. Luckily it's early enough to do so. It's just doing it that's the fun part.

Kristan has to hike to a private spot she found when she was young real early in the morning in order to have a bath in peace and away from prying eyes.

Kristan digs into her snatch and pulls out an old baggy beige shirt that is held up by a leather strap that goes around usually her neck and is tied off in the middle with a long piece of cloth. She also gets out a pair of baggy orangish brown pants. She considers them her bath clothes. Something she doesn't mind getting wet or dirty and that dries her.

Since the clothes are already baggy and she's not doing anything really physical in front of other people, she doesn't need her binders for her breasts and can let them be au natural. It feels so relieving to Kristan to not to have them strapped down in order to maintain a male appearance.

She quickly puts the clothes on and grabs a bar of soap from her bag before sneaky out from the back door to go to her bathing place. Can't have her cousin seeing her.

It wasn't long before she reaches the place. No one else knows about this place but her. It was a pond that is hidden in a cove.

She climbs down into the cove and gets near the pond before she strips the clothes off and pulls out leather piece that was holding her hair. She braces herself for the cold water as she jumps in.

" Cold. Cold. Cold." She said to herself as she shudders from the freezing water trying to adjust to the temperature. It doesn't help that winter is nearing.

She swims over to where she laid the soap bar at and starts washing her body and hair. Immediately she was feeling relief as she start getting the fish oil out of her hair she had been putting in for the last week.

She had been using fish oil to straighten her hair and make it more guy like. Normally her waist length hair was very wavy and had a much brighter red color. But the oil made it more greasy looking and darker. With the greasy stuff out of her hair, she looks much more like a girl.

She breathes a sigh of relief as she finished washing up and adjusting to the water. She actually ends up starting to paddle around in the water for fun. It was the one time of the week that she actually looked forward to. Feeling so free from prying eyes and her father.

She briefly turns her head towards the other side to see something she never saw before growling at her. It was an unrecognizable black dragon.

" Ah!" She screamed as she swims back to where her stuff is. She immediately scurries out of the water and tries to make a grab for her dagger in pant's pocket nearby. But the dragon had already galloped over and pinned her down with just it's paw.

She panics as the dragon looks down on her with its fierce green eyes. Like a predator who has caught it's prey.

" I can't that I'm about to die naked and afraid." She thought as she shuts her eyes embracing for her death to come. It was then she heard a familiar voice.

" Toothless down!" She heard cousin shout. It was then that she felt the paw no longer pinning her down. She opens her eyes as she saw her cousin lead the dragon away from.

" That's impossible." She whispered highly to herself. Because of the stress, her voice sounds high. No Viking has ever tamed a dragon. Vikings kill them. Not befriend them

" Look I know this is wrong, but please don't tell." He begged her. " He's not dangerous. Please mam. I beg you. Just give me to explain."

" Mam?" She said as she looks down at herself and gasps that she's still naked. She immediately wraps her arms around her exposed breasts as she backs behind a rock.

" Aw man! I am so sorry!" Hiccup said now realizing this situation and shields his eyes.

Kristan breathes heavily as she contemplates her situation. Someone has seen her naked and now expects her to keep a giant secret from the village. But by the sound of it, he doesn't know who she is. Her secret's safe for now. But now there's bigger problem to think about. The dragon.

" I know I should tell, but I can't." She thought about her scenario. "He's my cousin and was once my friend. That's betrayal to full extent. Plus I might be the only person who knows about this. If I tell the village as Kristan, he'll figure it out that I'm a girl and tell his dad. My uncle might not believe him but that's enough for suspicion and have me strip searched. I have no choice but to go along with this."

She takes and deep breath and says in a high voice to disguise it, " Ok? Just let me put my clothes on."

Her cousin immediately blushes about the awkward moment and turns around to let her put her baggy clothes on in peace. She shakingly puts her clothes on and was about to put her hair up when she realized that it might give away her identity. She tucks the strap in her pocket and leaves her hair down in its free waves.

She looks over to see the dragon resting by the pound and her cousin still turned around.

" It's safe to look now." She said in her high voice over to her cousin. She realizes that it's her natural voice without trying to deepen it. It's a little deeper than Astrid's, but not as much as Ruffnut's.

He turns around and says, " Sorry about him. He gets a little defensive whenever someone might seem threatening. It doesn't help that I shot him down and cause him to lose a tail fin."

" You really did that?" She said in shock. She thought he once again had missed that night. Which means..." You actually shot down the Night Fury!"

He nods in response. " Yeah, but I guess I'm weak to not kill him. So I let him and now I'm trying to pay him back for what I did. Pretty lame huh?" He explained.

Normally she would confide to the Viking side of her, but by looking at her cousin and this dragon, she has second thoughts. One that is saying to give this a chance.

" It's crazy, but it's your life and your feelings. You can't change that." She said to him.

" Thanks uhhhh... What is your name?" He asked. " I never seen you before."

" Oh! Ummm... It's..." She said thinking about what she should say for her name. It can't be something too related to her real name. She says the first thing that comes to mind." Uhh...It's Opal. Osk Opal."

" Osk Opal?" He said skeptically.

" Just Opal is fine. I prefer the second part." She said immediately. The name came from her mother's first name and the stone of the geo necklace she has from her mother.

" Alright Opal. Where are you from?" He said.

" Um.. I'm kinda of a loner. Never exactly fitted in with my previous village. I have been living in various parts of the archipelago. Won't need to worry about me squealing here." She said. At least it was half true.

" Sounds like my life. But unfortunately I'm the chief's son, so I can't just up and leave. Even though my cousin is going to be the one running the village." He scoffs. " He's Mr. Perfect all the way."

" No one's perfect Hiccup." She said.

" Wait. How do you know my name?" He asked curiously.

" Oh crap." She thought. "I forgot. I'm supposed to be someone who he has never met."

She quickly covers her mistake with, " I... went to check out the village and heard about you and the incident."

" Oh. I guess I'm that well known." He said sheepishly and then looks at the dragon before asking her. " I know this seems weird, but give me your hand Opal." He heads out his own hand for her to take.

" What!?" She said.

" Toothless needs to trust you. If you gain his trust, he won't get defensive on you again. Especially if you come back here." He explains.

She looks at the dragon and sees it growl at her then to her cousin who partially might know what he's doing.

Normally she would get defensive herself and want to protect her cousin. But with no real weapon on her and no other choice, she decides to go along with it. She puts her hand in her cousin's and let's him lead her over to the dragon. Now it's her that needs to trust him.

The dragon walks over to them and still looks intimidating to Kristan. He looks like that he is contemplating as well whether to trust her.

" Do you have any weapons on you of any kind." He asked her.

" Uhhh.. I have just my knife." She said getting it out and the dragon hisses at her.

" Get rid of it." He tells her.

" What?!"

" Your knife is posing a threat to Toothless. He wants to make sure that you can't harm him." He explains.

She looks at the dragon, her pleading cousin, and then her knife.

" I must be insane." She said as she makes her decision by loosening her grip on the knife and lets it drop onto the ground. Hiccup kicks it farther away making sure she can't get to it.

Then a miraculous thing happens. The dragon's expression turns from an intimidating look to something much more docile and innocent. Kristan tugs a small smile in response and the dragon gives her what it looks to be a Toothless grin.

" So that's where that name came from." She said now knowing why he calls that dragon Toothless.

He nods as he continues," Alright Opal. Just lay your hand out in front of you with your palm up and let Toothless make the next move."

She hesitates and really doesn't want to do it. She has no idea what that dragon's going to do if she lets her guard down. Too many times has she let her guard down and has come to regret those times. She takes a deep breath and slowly reaches her hand out in front of her like Hiccup tells her to do.

" If I lose a hand, he is so dead whether my secret matters or not." She thought as she shuts her eyes waiting for the inevitable, but it's not teeth she's feeling. Under her hand is a dry rough texture. Nothing she has ever felt before.

She opens her eyes to find the dragon press his nose into her hand. His eyes were closed as though he was taking her in. She looks to her left to find Hiccup smiling at her.

" See. He won't hurt you." He said assuringly. " He now trusts you Opal. Now you have to trust him."

All she could do was nod in agreement to a deal she had never thought she could make in her lifetime.

Interesting chapter. Huh? Hiccup has no idea that Opal is Kristan. I didn't want her to reveal to him her real gender, so I made Kristan adopt another ego instead. Pretty cool concept and has never been done before.

My goal with every story is to do AUs that are not usually done, but never done in that way before. I don't know about you guys, but there are a lot of stories that aren't really that creative. To me if you are going to do an Au, do it in the way that hasn't been done before.

I chose the name after a character in my new favorite cartoon show, Steven Universe. Opal is definitely badass. It may sound weird for a viking name, but I like it and it suits her as a disguise name.

Please Review and See you later.