The next morning, Ruffnut and Cami woke up and walked out of the house, both of them going wide-eyed as they saw Eryna sitting cross-legged in front of the still sleeping Skullcrusher and Furious. She seemed calm enough, gently stroking Furious' nose while cooing her voice in a friendly, lullaby-like tone.
Cami looked at Ruffnut for an opinion, only for her to shrug before they both looked back at Eryna as Cami said "uh... hey, Eret's sister, wh... what are you uh..."
"What are you doing to our dragons?!" Ruffnut suddenly snapped.
"Ah, top of the morning t'you, girls!" Eryna stood up and straightened the creases on her clothes. "Y'slept well, I hope..."
She was notably less hostile than she had been the night before, sounding almost as excitable as Cami had been that day she first visited Berk. Simply deciding to play along rather than cause a fuss, Cami itched the back of her own neck and said "um... yeah, we... we slept fine..."
"Excellent. Well, Eret's with Mum at the Great Hall, so I've got the job of entertaining you both for the day. Was thinking maybe the three of us could have some girl-on-girl bonding time..."
"Look, I'm flattered, but you're a little on the petite side for my taste..." Ruffnut tried to sound disappointed as she said this, prompting Cami to roll her eyes as she muttered "for Thor's sake, Ruff, she wasn't talking about that..."
Eryna chuckled awkwardly, before saying "I was actually thinking more of a quick fishing trip. I've got a boat ready, if either of you girls are interested..."
Within half an hour, the three of them were in a small fishing boat about a mile away from the island. Ruffnut and Cami sat silently on one side while Eryna sat opposite them on the other end of the boat. She cleared her throat, trying her best to sound casual as she said "so... Eret seems awfully fond of you and your Berkian friends..."
"Doesn't seem too fond of you, though..." Cami snarked as she crossed her arms, prompting Eryna to smirk a bit in acknowledgement.
"Well... Eret and I go back a long time, Cami... being siblings, and all..."
"Sure, sure... well, I'm an only child myself, but I'm pretty sure siblings don't normally treat each other the way you treated him last night..."
"Hm... someone's bitter, I see..."
"Oh, Brutus! My brother is a worthless piece of crap!" Cami tried her best to mimic Eryna's accent, something that amused both Ruffnut and Eryna herself.
"Well, I suppose you've got me there, Cami. But it's not quite as simple as that, I'm afraid."
"Really? How so...?" Cami seemed genuinely curious this time, prompting Eryna to grin as she began her story.
"When we were children, Eret and me... hm, he was basically my hero... y'know, the whole older brother thing."
"Okay..."
"I looked up to him like an idol. Made me laugh, stood up for me, carried me when I was tired... hm... he was my best friend..."
"I can relate..." Cami seemed less hostile as she said this with a grin, reminiscing to herself about what she and Hiccup were like back in their childhood. It then occurred to Cami that her friendship with Hiccup back then wasn't any different to what it was now, prompting her to look at Eryna and say "what changed between you two, then?"
"Well... he was the favourite... Mum and Dad's, that is... unspoken, of course, but... but incredibly obvious..." Eryna sighed a bit. "Though nothing of it at first... settling for second, and all... wasn't until we were about fourteen, maybe fifteen but it's not really important, that... that I just... asked Mum who the favourite was..."
"Wait, you asked?" Cami went slightly wide-eyed. "Pretty risky, wasn't it?"
"Yes... I suppose it was, actually, ha ha... don't even know why I asked, really, but... but I guess I've always been quite the gambler..." Eryna briefly hesitated as she slightly tightened her grip on the oar she was holding. "Anyway... I asked her, and... she tried to dance around the question, as you do... but then Eret got the shipping job."
Ruffnut butted in again, saying "the one with the wild dragons, right?"
Eryna let out a slightly bitter chortle as she said "oh, yes. That's the one... and when Dad made the formal announcement to the rest of the family, I... I doubt I'll ever truly forget what he said to Eret that day."
"I am truly proud to give you this tremendous honour, my boy. You're the future of the Eret lineage, lad. As Eret XII, I have done many proud, great things, but what is, and will be my greatest creation... is you."
"Eret was my brother, and I loved him more than anything or anyone in the world." Eryna seemed almost like she was about to cry as she looked down at the floor of the boat and added "but he'd done nothing to deserve being called that... greatest creation... Dad had no reason to single him out... call one of us better than the other... not to mention Eret screwed it up anyway, like I ma... like most of us knew he would."
"Ugh... man, that's harsh..." Ruffnut scratched the back of her own head awkwardly as Cami sighed. Eryna looked back up at them as she said "so, you see, Cami... you can't really make true judgement when you only see half the picture..."
"Well, yeah... I mean, I guess we did kinda misjudge you, Eryna." Cami chuckled. "Cause, I know family can be a pretty tough thing to deal with."
"Yeah, take Dagur back home, for instance..." Ruffnut suddenly cut in. "Killed our friend Heather's parents and she went crazy trying to hunt him down and stuff, then it turned out that she was Dagur's sister..."
"That's fascinating..." Eryna was back to her bubbly guise again as she said "well, ha ha... I don't envy that Heather girl, that's for sure."
"Well, you can't make a true judgement if you see only half the picture, right?" Cami said with a brow raised, prompting the three of them to laugh. Eryna then cleared her throat, saying "well, we've not even bothered trying to catch anything, but what d'you girls say we head back to the village?"
