Chapter 9: In the Great Hall

As I sat eating porridge, the girl from the post office walked in, her brown hair and eyes gleaming in the gentle fire light. She sat down a short distance beside me, along with another girl, whose green eyes danced with the reflected flames. At first, they seemed oblivious to my presence, and that of my smaller-than-average Nightmare. Boy, I still don't feel comfortable around strangers. I thought, getting up. As I went to leave, they finally seemed to see me.

"Hey, you're the girl from earlier, right? You came in with your own Terror." I turned back to face them, unsure if they were going to end up being friend or foe.

I slowly drew out the one word I could think to say, "Yeeesssss." It seemed more of a question than a reply, betraying my uncertainty. She looked over at her companion, then patted the bench beside her. After I hesitated again, she gave a small chuckle.

"Hey, I don't bite. Neither does my dragon. I've heard from Asgardnia here that you had a rather rough first day." The black-haired girl beside her looked down at the table, seeming slightly shy about being talked about. "Now why don't you come sit down with us, and stop feeling like such an outsider." But that's what I've always been, an outsider. I thought to myself, sitting down next to her. I've been away from others for years! I slowly put my half-full bowl back on the table, and started to eat again. I could feel her eyes on me. "Now, I know you can talk, and act like a normal person, because you were just fine in the post office. What's different here?"

I looked up into her curious gaze, her friend peering around her side. "Uuhh... I just don't feel comfortable approaching people on my own. At the post office, I was there to do a job, and so were you. Here, it's different. We're just, around." I went back to my porridge, hoping that maybe I could play off my unexpected shyness as hunger.

"Well, why don't we just start over, then. I'm Vica, and this is my friend Asgardnia. Now, who are you?"

"I'm Frostfire, and this is Oakheart." Upon hearing his name, he scampered across the table to sniff at her hand.

"Wow! He's so small! Even Loki is bigger than he is!" Asgardnia picked her hatchling off of her lap, setting the green, gold, and black Nadder on the table next to Oakheart. Just as Oakheart started to approach the other dragon, the doors banged open.

"Ah! My favorite group of ladies!" Snotlout banged down on the bench opposite us, obviously glad to have a group of girls to himself, and no sign of Arlan anywhere.

"Snotlout. How you doing?" Vica grinned at him, a long-time comradery evident between them.

"Awesome, same as always. Hookfang and I just beat the current record for the race time on Fortune Falls."

"It seems that I'll have to go out there and show you what racing is really like."

"Oh yeah? If I remember properly, I could beat you at any track..."

It continued back and forth between them like this for quite a while, the competitive natures flaring at each other. As the energy built, I felt that I was starting to see the real side of Vica: hot-headed and determined to win. Eventually, they went out, each decided that they were going to prove that they were the best racer.

"Whew. I was hoping they would leave before I got sucked into another wild ride on Nesa." Asgardnia breathed a sigh of relief, turning to smile at me.

Now that it was one on one, I felt more comfortable. I really am not usually a shy person, so I just didn't know what had come over me earlier. "Who's Nesa?"

She gave a slightly derisive snort. "Vica's great gray beast of a Nightmare. She is just as competitive and fiery as her rider. Also, she likes to try to beat Hookfang, as they're distantly related. So... all this adds up to me getting sucked into riding her with Vica."

I started to say, "That doesn't sound too bad.", but was quickly interrupted by her upheld finger.

"While they race Snotlout and Hookfang. And you know what those two are like, and what kind of race courses they enjoy."

I had never seen Hookfang before yesterday, but, considering that it seemed that Snotlout hadn't changed much, I could guess at it, and gave a sympathetic wince.

We ate in silence a few minutes, then she looked up at me. "You know, the pretty much the whole school is talking about you. You have to be one of the first students to become virtually famous overnight."

"Yeah?" I gave a quick, angry breath. "Famous for what? For being late? For getting into a fight the first day of school? For getting the world's only miniature Monstrous Nightmare?" I strung out my list of embarrassments, wondering which would become my long-running accomplishment that everyone remembered.

She gave a sarcastic laugh. "Pretty much all of the above." I smacked my bowl away, making her and the dragons jump. I collapsed onto my arms on the tabletop, wishing that I could just disappear. Or go back to being thought of as dead. Either or. She quickly seemed to realize that this was bothering me more than I had originally let on, and softened her slightly bitter tones. "It's not so bad, you know. I heard that Gobber got most of the blame for the hatchery incidents, not you." I didn't look up, wishing I could just fade away into the table. She continued on. "Normally it's the headmaster that gets everyone introduced to the school, and directs them in getting a hatchling. He couldn't be here the first day for some reason, so he had Gobber fill in instead. Gobber did it totally differently, from what the other students said. The Headmaster just lets everyone go in, and find the egg that they can sense is theirs. That's how it normally works. Gobber turned it into this mad competition, causing a lot of outbursts. People wanted certain dragons, and so just fought for them, instead of calmly walking around until they found their specific egg. So, don't worry. I don't think that you'll get in trouble. Besides, there was the fact that you rescued someone else's egg. It would have been terrible had it hatched for someone else. The bond is never the same as when the dragon chooses you." I finally looked up, thankful that this almost complete stranger would go to the trouble of trying to make me feel better. The two hatchlings started nuzzling up to me as well, bringing out a trembling laugh.

"Thanks."

She gave a shrug, seeming embarrassed. "It's nothing. That's what friends are for."

It hit me like Thor's hammer descending from the heavens: I had a friend. "Soooo, where are you from?" Now that I knew that I had a friend, I wanted to know all about her.

"I'm from the tribe of Northern Wanderers. We live up far north, where it stays frozen almost the entire year. Mostly, like the name implies, we wander over the ice, following the fish and seals. There are times during the year, when it warms up some, that we all congregate on our home island of Kirm." She put her right fist over her chest. "I was one of the two chosen to come to the school this year." She struck a noble pose, trying to show me how awesome she was. I just snickered at her humor, causing her to glare at me. I glared back, and we both descended into interminable fits of giggles, which quickly grew to loud guffaws of laughter. "So, what about you?"

"Berk." And I respun my tale of moving, the valley, Glowworm, and then the recent meeting with Hiccup. At it's conclusion, she seemed deep in thought.

"You know, it seems that it's pretty peculiar that you know so much about dragons, and yet didn't even realize you weren't getting a Nadder."

I looked down at the table, rubbing the back of my head in embarrassment. "It was very tense, and I was very distracted after all the events going on around me. Really, in the end, I was just relieved to get my egg, and so didn't even notice that it didn't match." We waited patiently for the other to speak a few minutes, sitting in companionable silence. "So, what's Vica's story? Where is she from?"

"Berk, same as you. She was the girl chosen to come last year. Of course, there is a pretty good range of ages able to get chosen, so even though she is a year ahead in school, we are actually both seventeen."

"Well, she knows better than me, and I'm eighteen." I gave a slight nervous laugh. "So, when did you meet?"

"My family was one of the small groups that would come to trade. We met about two years ago, and then were ecstatic to learn that we would both be at the school." I gave a nod, showing that I was still listening. "She can be just as bad as Snotlout, but you'll never find someone truer or more loyal. Also, just like Snotlout, you can trick her into pretty much anything, because she is super gullible." She gave a slightly devious chuckle. I gave a half smile, and she stopped rubbing her hands together to straighten up and throw her arm around my shoulder. "And now we have you as a friend as well."

I smiled at that, truly happy to hear those words. I repeated the phrase in my mind as we stood up and cleared away our bowls to go to class. Friends- I had friends!