Thirteen Years Later
Astrid sat at the table in the middle of the kitchen, her hair pulled back in a braid that strung down her left shoulder. It was tied up with a small leather band that had little beads lining it. Her bangs here now swooped across her forehead to the left side. Her blue eyes slid from the empty plate in front of her to the chair across from her. She frowned, there was a plate with picked-at food.
"Aneira." She muttered angrily as she stared at the girl that was sitting in the chair across from her. The girl looked up at Astrid with her big, blue eyes, her wavy brown hair was let down and hanging around her shoulders and in her eyes. Astrid frowned and cocked her head. "Eat your dinner." She said, raising her eyebrows as the small girl looked up to Astrid. Aneira had grown up a lot, she was now 13, almost 14, but she was different. When she was a baby, her parents had thought she had had something wrong because she was extremely small for a three month old child. They were right, she was small for her age. Even now, she was smaller than the other Vikings. Astrid had said that Aneira looked like Hiccup, her father, when he was her age, and that she would grow up stronger. But Aneira didn't care what her parents said, she wanted to be like the other Viking teens, she wanted to be able to train like they did. But she also didn't see the point in training if there wasn't anything to fight. She had been told about her parents past, and she loved the story, but she still didn't know why they needed to train for anything if they were going to fight. Aneira, though, was more interested in creating things. She drew any contraption that she thought of, no matter the time. Her grandfather, Stoick, told her that she was like Hiccup when he was her age. Drawing and creating, and she liked that she was like her father, it made her feel like she belonged in her family. But Aneira wanted to belong more, not only in her family, but she wanted to belong with the other Viking teens. She only had one problem.
She hadn't found her dragon yet.
"I'm not hungry." Aneira said, staring back at her mother, only proceeding to look back down at the sketch book she had in her lap and begin to draw again. Astrid was about to stand up but she turned her head to the side when someone burst through the doors. Aneira's head stayed down, staring at her book, sketching any type of dragons she could. She was an extremely amazing artist, and could draw anything so that it looked realistic. She loved to draw the dragons that the village had because they were the easiest to draw. But she also loved to draw the people she knew. As she slid her charcoal pencil along the page in a long, light line, the book was snatched from her hands and her pencil clattered to the floor. She gasped and turned her head to see Hiccup sitting down in the chair beside her with her sketch book, staring at the pages of her book.
"Dad!" She whined, getting to her feet and reaching across the table to grab the book from Hiccup's hands. Hiccup smiled and flicked his hand out, grabbing Aneira's hands and holding them together, placing them on the table so that she couldn't move. Aneira grunted. "Giving it back!" She screamed, struggling to get her hands out of her father's grip, but he was too strong. She swung her gaze to her mom, whining. "Mom?" She said, watching as Astrid smiled at her and shrugged, standing and turning to place her plate into the sink. Aneira grunted and looked back to her dad, who seemed fascinated by her drawings. She rolled her eyes and let her head fall onto her dad's hand holding hers, giving up.
"Us." Hiccup said to himself, but Aneira heard and lifted her head to look at her father. She frowned and looked at the drawing he was staring at with amusement. It was the drawing she had been working on moments ago. It was a drawing of Toothless and Stormfly sitting on either side of the page. Her parents stood before their dragons, smiling. And Aneira stood in the middle, a smile strewn across her face, crossing her arms, with no dragon behind her.
"Aw," Aneira groaned. "Dad, come on. Do you have to go through my stuff." She sighed, raising one eyebrow and whining as her dad raised his eyebrows. She could see the gap between his teeth as he spoke, she had the same thing in her teeth. Everyone said she looked like her father the most, but she didn't see any resemblance between her and either of her parents.
"Annie, this is absolutely amazing." Hiccup said, eyeing the drawing. He was right, the drawing was amazing. Aneira was extremely talented. But the girl just rolled her eyes.
"Dad!" She complained, pulling her thin wrists out of her father's grip and snatching the book from his hands. Astrid returned from putting her plate away and set a plate of food down for Hiccup. Hiccup looked up at her and kissed her on the cheek before they smiled and Astrid went up the stairs to get ready for bed. "Please don't call me Annie." She muttered picking up her charcoal pencil from the floor and continuing her drawing.
"But that's your name." He said, grinning as he began to eat the food that Astrid put in front of him. "Isn't it?" He grinned guiltily.
"No," Aneira said to him, closing her book and putting it into her fur vest pocket. "It's not." She muttered.
"Fine, Aneira." Hiccup exaggerated her name as he spoke it. "Why don't you wear skirts like the other girls?" He said, gesturing to her brown pants that only reached just beneath her knees. They were tied with leather straps so they stayed against her thin legs. She wore a light brown tunic with a brown fur vest. It was extremely similar to what Hiccup wore when he was younger. Aneira glanced up at her father! raising an eyebrow at him.
"I don't see you wearing a skirt." She spat, glaring at Hiccup. Hiccup rolled his eyes and smiled.
"Yeah," he said cheerfully. "But I'm not a girl. You should wear a skirt, like your mother." Hiccup nodded his head towards the stairs to where Astrid had just gone into their bedroom.
"Just because the other girls wear a skirt, doesn't mean I should." Aneira pushed her chair back and stood up, pushing her plate away from her and turning to walk up the stairs. Hiccup rolled his eyes, got to his feet, and rushed towards her before she could reach the stairs. He quickly grabbed the back of Aneira's fur vest and a little bit of her tunic, and lifted her straight off of the ground. Aneira's book and pencil fell to the ground, falling away from her as her father planted her on the ground to stand in front of him.
"What has been up with you, lately?" Hiccup frowned down at his daughter shrugging as he shook his head. He watched as his daughter folded her arms across her chest and huffed, breathing out and blowing a piece of wavy, brown hair out of her eyes. Hiccup frowned and leaned down, grabbing the charcoal pencil and sketch book from the ground. He lifted it up and showed it to Aneira. "This," he said. "Is mine until you tell me what is going on." He say Aneira's eyes go wide as she dropped her hands to her side, she was about to protest, but stopped herself, staring up at her dad.
"I don't want to be different." She muttered, but Hiccup heard it and raised his eyebrows. He cocked his head to the side.
"You're not different." He said, shaking his head. He gestured to himself. "I was just like you when I was a child. I was different." He said, his voice clearer and softer than it was before. He knelt down, putting the book and pencil down, and placed his hands on Aneira's shoulders, staring into her blue eyes.
"Yeah, but look how you turned out. Everyone loves you now." Aneira looked to her left, staring out the window. "No one will ever love me." Hiccup sighed, shaking his head as he slightly shook Aneira's shoulders.
"Someone will love you, just like I love your mother." He smiled at her, bringing her in for a hug, but Aneira pushed him away.
"Dad," she began, shaking her head. "There's only two other boys and three other girls my age on this entire island!" She said, flinging her hands into the air, still looking out the window. "They're the cool ones, those girls can fight! They can do things I can't." She sighed, turning back to her father. "And you!" She raised her eyebrows. "You trained dragons for Thor's sake! That's what got mom to like you!"
"If you think that that is the reason that your mother loves me," he said in a rough tone, standing back up so he stared down at his daughter. "Than you are terribly wrong."
"I don't even have a dragon!" She yelled at her father. Astrid rushed down the stairs, stopping at the bottom and staring at the two of them. She wore a night dress made of a soft, velvety silk that Ruffnut had made for her as a present. It reached just above her ankles and was good for winter and summer.
"Aneira!" Astrid yelled angrily, walking towards her daughter and husband. "I told you, you will get your dragon when you do. You can't just take any dragon. You will find one, I promise." She smiled at her daughter, who had snatched the book and pencil from the ground. There were tears on the 14 year olds eyes, and she ran up the stairs into her bedroom, slamming the door. Astrid turned to Hiccup, who was shaking his head and looking at Astrid.
"She's right." He stepped forward, lacing his arm around Astrid's waist and walking her up the stairs. When they reached the bedroom, Astrid sat on the bed.
"How so?" She said as Hiccup removed his clothes and armour from the day and put his night pants on. He normally didn't put a shirt on, but had to in the morning because Aneira didn't like when he didn't wear a shirt. Astrid pulled up the blanket over her and leaned on her hand and elbow. She looked at Hiccup as he snuggled into the bed beside her.
"She needs to find a dragon, she's the only only one in the village who doesn't have one. Each of the other teens have one." He sighed, pulling Astrid closer to him as she looked at him with her big, blue eyes. They were the exact same as Aneira's eyes.
"Yeah, but she's not like the other teens." Astrid buried her head into Hiccup's chest, they both sighed and closed their eyes. Astrid almost instantly fell asleep as she lay against Hiccup.
"Exactly." Hiccup's whisper trailed off into the night as they both fell asleep.
The Next Morning
Aneira wobbled down the stairs, yawning, and waddled over to sit at the table. She looked across the table at her mother sitting there, sipping a small cup of water. Aneira grabbed a cup and poured herself some water, gulping down the whole thing.
"Wow." Astrid laughed, looking at her daughter. Aneira looked up and smiled at her mom. "Someone's thirsty."
"Why are you so cheery?" Aneira frowned, smiling at her mom. She knew when her mom was hiding something, and that would be now. Astrid leaned onto the table, smiling at Aneira.
"Today, all of the teens are going to train together, for fun, at the training arena." She said. Aneira shrugged, sipping another but of water. "And since your father and I are friends with all of their parents, you are going with them." Aneira's jaw dropped open and she stared at her mother, she slammed her glass down on the table and stood up.
"Mom!" She said, her eyebrows raised. "Why would I go with them? They don't even know me, let along like me." She gestured outside, pointing to the way the training arena is.
"They're heading over right now, so I'd get going." Hiccup came through the door, probably listening to their conversation as he entered, and gestured for Aneira to go outside. Aneira looked from her mother to her father, smiled, and rushed to the door. She ran down the stairs of the house and began down the path to the training arena. "Told you it would be easy." Hiccup smiled at Astrid as he closed the door behind Aneira. He walked over to his wife and kissed her on the forehead, sitting beside her to begin his breakfast. "And she didn't even eat."
Aneira, walking down the path to the training arena, pulled out her sketch book and began to continue the sketch of her family. She seemed to not be able to get her hair right, but everything else seemed to fall in place perfectly.
Someone else laughing startled Aneira and she fumbled with her sketch book and dropped it. It fell to the side, and Aneira knelt down to reach and grab it, but she realized where it fell. It fell right in front of someone's feet. She pulled her hand back and tilted her head up to see who it was, her left eye was covered by her wavy, brown hair. Standing above her was a boy. He had a long sword in his left hand and in his other hand he held a large, circular shield against his side. He was looking down at her, smiling as Aneira quickly grabbed her sketch book and pencil and stood up. She hugged the book against her chest and stepped out of the way of the boy, who she saw was standing in front of another boy and three girls. They were all a little taller than Aneira, and all had large weapons like axes, shields and swords in their hands. Aneira shyly moved her hair out of her eyes and looked up at the other teenagers.
"What's this squirt doing here?" The other boy laughed from behind the boy in front of her. The three girls laughed with him, but the boy who stood in front of her didn't. He just smiled and looked at Aneira. He had light, sandy brown hair that just reached past his jawline and his eyes were a bright green. Aneira didn't smile back at him, because she didn't know what to do.
"Hey, you're the chief's kid, aren't you?" The boy said, nodding towards Aneira as he sheathed his sword. The other teens just stood there with smirks on their faces, but the girl on the right of the rest of the teens just frowned with her arms crossed as she held her axe.
"Yeah." Aneira looked up at him, still not smiling as she hugged her book tighter against her chest. The other teens stared at her with amazement, as if they hadn't seen anyone like her before.
"Yeah, Hiccup told us that you would tag along to train with us." The boy said. He was nice, Aneira though. The boy laughed. "My name's Echo, what's your name?" He smiled down at Aneira.
"Aneira." She said quietly, blinking one as she moved her gaze to the other teens behind Echo. The two girls on the left seemed to look a bit alike, they both had the same long, blonde hair and they both had freckles on the bridge of their nose. Also, their skin colour seemed to be the same light, pinky colour.
But the other girl had dark hair, almost black, and brown eyes. She looked tough, like she would start screaming or something.
"I'm Mayka," the girl on the right of the two look alike girls said forcefully, as if she were holding it back and she has to let it go. "And this is my cousin, Franka." She jerked her thumb to the shorter girl—Franka—beside her. Aneira slowly looked over to the other boy, who was glaring at her. She waited for him to state his name until he finally did after he got jabbed in the gut by Mayka.
"Jemini." He said, rubbing his ribs where Larka jammed her elbow. Echo rolled his eyes, smiling at his friends stupidity, and looked back to Aneira.
"I'm Flicka," the girl with the dark hair said to Aneira as she stepped forward.
"So," Echo nodded towards the training arena that they were headed to. "You coming to hang out with us? We don't really train on these days, we just play games and do whatever we want." He shrugged. "Sometimes we don't even stay in the training arena." Aneira just stared up at the teens as they loomed over her. She had thought she was short, but Jemini seemed to be almost her height, and the other three weren't much taller than her. She nodded in response to his question, and Flicka stepped forward to stand beside Echo.
"But when we do train," she paused, staring at Aneira. "What can you do?" She lifted the corner of her mouth in a snicker and raised an eyebrow. Her arms crossed over her chest as Aneira breathed inwards deeply.
"Nothing." She said quietly, Flicka frowned and leaned towards her, not hearing what she said, staring at her. "I said, nothing."
"So you can't throw and axe, protect yourself with a shield, battle with a sword?" Flicka frowned, her eyebrows furrowing as she continued to glare at Aneira. "Well," she spun around, staring at Echo and patting his shoulder. "Have fun training this one, Echy." Echo give her a confused look at she began to walk off towards the training centre.
"Flicka, don't call me that." He called after her as she waved him away with a swish of her hand and continued down the path. He rolled his eyes and turned back to Aneira, smiling. "Sorry," he said, pointing to Flicka. "She's a bit annoying." He grinned down at her as she clutched her book and pencil to her chest, her fur vest tickling her wrists.
"It's okay," Aneira said quietly, staring down at the ground, looking at her fur boots. "So," she looked up at Echo. "Who are your parents? I think my dad knows them." She said, smiling as she asked the question. Echo seemed to smile and close his eyes, slightly giggling as she asked that.
"Actually," he began, opening his eyes. "I moved to Berk about a month ago. My parents, um," he paused, reaching up and scratching the back of his head. "You could say they aren't around anymore. But that was a while ago, so I'm sorta over it." He looked at her. "Sorta." Aneira blushed, knowing then that she shouldn't have asked that. But Echo continued. "Flicka, well, her dad is Snotlout, I think he was your parent's friend." He said as he gestured the way Flicka walked, then he pointed back to Mayka and Franka, beginning to speak, but Mayka cut him off.
"My dad is Tuffnut." Mayka grinned and nodded her head, and Aneira realized that her and Franka both had horrible posture.
"My mom is Ruffnut." Franka grinned almost the same grin as her cousin, and she nudged Mayka in the side with her elbow. Almost just like the stories her parents had told her about the twins, they both tackled eachother to the ground. Aneira looked at them in shock, but she lightly giggled, remembering how she loved hearing her parent's stories about the past. Echo pointed behind him to Jemini and grinned at the boy, making Aneira look up at Jemini.
"Jemini's dad is Fishlegs, who, again, was a friend of your parents." Echo turned back to Aneira and grinned. "So, we should probably head down to the training arena. I'm sure Flicka is probably rage throwing her axe at a stone wall and making it stick." The four other teens snickered under their breath and Aneira's mouth twitched at the corner, turning into a small smile.
"How do you know that they were friends with my parents?" Aneira said, looking up at Echo. Echo raised an eyebrow and sighed, looking down at her. He tilted his head to where Flicka disappeared to, then back to Aneira.
"I, uh," Mayka smiled and nudged her cousin, whispering something to Franka about Echo being shy and not telling anyone. "I sorta live with Flicka. Her parents took me in when I came to Berk, and your father was the one who allowed me to live here." He shrugged. "It's no big deal, it's just that," He looked, again, to where Flicka left to. "Never mind." He looked back at the other teens and smiled, nodding his head towards the training centre. "Let's get going, today is a special day. We've got a new recruit for the training academy." Echo turned and started to jog down the path to the training academy, with Jemini on his heels and Franka running after them. But Mayka stayed behind with Aneira as Aneira watched the teens go quickly down the path. She stared in awe.
"I can't run that fast." She said, turning her head to look at Mayka. Mayka seemed to be smiling down the path, but she turned to look at Aneira as she spoke.
"I know, that' sway I'm sticking back with you. I normally get there the last, too." She shrugged and smiled at Aneira. Aneira's single thought in her head was: Maybe I will make some friends.
Once they arrived at the training arena, Aneira stumbled through the door, alongside Mayka, and saw the rest of the teens standing at the other end of the arena. She stopped, frozen in her tracks and her face flushed. All of the teens weren't just standing by them selves.
They were standing with their dragons.
Aneira, frozen in place in shock, stared at the rest of the teens, all of them hopping onto their dragons and scratching their scales. She was wondering if she should just leave now, or if she should stay here, and just watch them do whatever they are going to do with their dragons. But right as she made her decision, and was about to turn around to leave, she heard someone call her name. She spun around to see who it was.
"Aneira!" Echo called again, making Aneira blush. His voice was so smooth, but it was rough at the same time. "Come on!" He said, beckoning her over with a wave of his hand. She shook her head and looked around, sending a mental message that she didn't have a dragon. Echo's hand instantly dropped, and he seemed to frown. His head turned and he seemed to say something to the other teens, and the four others flew out on their dragons.
Aneira watched in amazement as Flicka flew above her riding a Monstrous Nightmare, Mayka and Franka rode a Hideous Zippleback together, and Jemini rode a Gronckle. Aneira smiled at the thought of children taking after their parents, but when she realized that Echo hadn't left yet, she turned back towards where he had stood before. Now he was right in front of her, sitting on top of his dark green Deadly Nadder. Dragons were beautiful creatures that fascinated Aneira, but sometimes they scared her.
She stepped backwards as Echo and his Nadder came towards her, the Nadder bending it's head towards Aneira. Echo smiled and patted the Nadder.
"This is Joz, he's a tough one, but he's got his soft spots." Echo said in a soft voice as the Nadder nuzzled it's head against Aneira. Aneira looked up at Echo as he smiled, and he reached his hand towards her. "Come on, you can ride with me for today." He said, grinning and reaching his hand out further, pushing her to take it. Aneira hesitated, but then she pocketed her book and pencil, and took Echo's hand. He instantly pulled her up so that she was sitting behind him, a little way away from him on the dragon saddle. She looked around, she had been on a dragon before, she had been on her parent's dragons. So she wasn't scared of riding a Nadder, because she rode Stormfly before, and she's ridden Toothless multiple times around Berk with her dad. "Hold on." Echo steadied himself on Joz and grinned, grabbing the front of the saddle. Aneira frowned.
"Hold on to what?" She said, confused and she raised an eyebrow as Echo turned around to look at her with a smile. He chuckled and shook his head with a grin, turning back to face forward as Joz began to walk forward, getting ready to take off.
"Me!" Echo said as Joz took off into the sky with a whoosh. Aneira didn't have any time to respond to Echo's word, let alone do what he told her to do. So she gripped tightly onto the back of the saddle, trying hard not to fall off as Echo tried to catch up with the other teens that were flying higher, above the clouds. She screamed, as she had never experienced going this fast on a dragon. Hiccup had asked her multiple times if she had wanted to go fast, but she never did, so they stayed at a steady pace the whole time, even with Astrid. Aneira caught a last glimpse of Echo smiling back at her before he pulled back and Joz soared upwards, vertically into the clouds. Aneira screamed as she was flung off of the saddle, and she flew off of Joz. Hiccup had told her that if she ever fell off of a dragon, to keep everything straight, even if you may die.
Thanks, dad, for telling me I could die! She had thought, but instead of panicking, she smiled and straightened up, closing her eyes and falling head first towards the ground. Luckily, they had gotten really high up, so she had a long way to fall.
A squeal escaped her mouth as she felt herself being grabbed by something, and she opened her eyes, looking up. Above her was Echo, and he was smiling a goofy grin that made Aneira smile too. One of his hands was holding her back, and the other was under her knees. He had caught her before she had even passed the clouds, before she had killed herself. Echo shook his head and lifted one of his hands to grab the saddle, steadying them. He dropped her legs and let them lay across his lap as his other hand still gripped her back and shoulder, hugging her against him. Aneira smiled up at him, frowning as well.
"What were you doing? You seemed pretty comfortable with the fact that you could have killed yourself." Echo grinned and chuckled as he led Joz to fly closer to the others. Aneira shrugged and shook her heard smiling.
"My dad taught me how to fly solo, he said to act as if someone was going to come and rescue you." She looked forward, spotting the others flying around each other and shooting playful fire lines at one another. Echo grinned down at her and sighed.
"Well, aren't you just so lucky that I saved your life." Echo said as Aneira giggled. He grabbed her by the waist and swung her around to sit behind him on the saddle again, this time, sitting differently.
This time, Aneira wrapped her arms around his middle.
