I'M FINALLY BACK! Sorry for the long wait.
This chapter is the longest one so far, mostly because it explains all about the witch.
Chapter 10: The Truth About Fear
...
As the sun rose, brightening up the trench and the area around it, where the riders and their dragons stood, all of them looking at the face of the witch.
The young face of the witch.
"Huh, for an old hag she doesn't look half bad," Snotlout muttered to Fishlegs. That broke everyone's trance of staring and they all rolled their eyes with a soft groan.
"That's because I'm eighteen-years-old, you simpleton," the girl said annoyed, only this time her voice wasn't crackly and awful. She sounded like a normal girl of the age she said she was, with a bit of an accent none of them had ever heard before.
Astrid stepped forward, picking up the crumpled paper sphere. "You're not a real witch, are you?" she asked, not exactly needing an answer to know it was the case. The girl opened her mouth, looking like she wanted to protest, but no words came out as she looked at all their faces. She had never met anyone her own age before, and this was the closest she had been to a dragon without it being unconscious or while trying to frighten it away with eel. The girl closer her mouth and numbly shook her head.
"Okay, what is going on?" Hiccup asked, stepping up himself. All attention quickly went to him. "Who are you?" he asked directly to the girl, calmly but still serious.
The girl looked from Tuffnut beside her then back at Hiccup and sighed. "You want the whole story?" she asked. Hiccup was a bit puzzled by this question but nodded none the less. "Well you've already been in my house and seen my face, so why not? Come," the girl started walking, waving her arm to signal everyone else to follow her.
Hiccup exchanged looks with the other riders while Tuffnut immediately started walking after the mysterious girl. Hiccup was hesitant, but followed none the less. And the others did as well.
After a few minutes of silent waking, the girl had led them back to her hut. The pot hanging over the fire pit was fixed and all the globs of smashed orange goop and seeds were gone.
"I see you cleaned up," Astrid said, looking around the girl's front yard.
"Did you throw those things at us when we were here yesterday?" Fishlegs asked accusingly.
The girl stared rolling three logs and a stump over to the fire pit as she replied. "I will admit, it was a bit rash but I didn't want you sticking around any longer then you were," after the logs were in place around the fire pit, the girl clapped the dirt off her hands and looked to the riders all standing around her property. "And I didn't hit any of you, did I?" she asked, genuinely concerned.
"No, but you almost gave me a heart attack," Snotlout said rudely, crossing his arms.
"Excellent," she said relieved. The riders all gave her odd looks from her response. The girl's eyes widened, realizing how that must have sounded. "Sorry I mean… any of you thirsty? I can make some tea," she tried to turn that around and be humble, gesturing to the logs she just set by the fire pit for them to sit on, with a somewhat forced smile.
When no one sat down, Hiccup looked to everyone, shrugged with a somewhat encouraging face and sat down on the end of one of the logs. Astrid sat next to Hiccup on the middle log, they're backs to the hut. Snotout and Fishlegs sat on the log to their right, and the twins took the log across from them. The stump sat in between Hiccup's log and the twins. As the other riders sat down, the girl busied herself, filling a kettle with water and hanging it over the pit in front of them. As she walked away to get something else, Hiccup signaled for Toothless to light the fire. Hearing this, the girl turned and saw the fire pit lit. Already heating up the kettle.
"Thank you," she said shyly, not sure which one of them to thank because there were five different dragons lying beside the logs where the six strangers sat. Hiccup nodded with a pleasant smile to her.
The girl turned away again, fixing up herbs for the tea at a table up against the outside of her hut. Over the gentle crackle of the fire, the riders could hear a mumbled, but lovely, voice singing.
"How the gentle wind beckons through the leaves
As autumn colors fall
Dancing in a swirl of golden memories
The loveliest lies of all"
The song itself was unfamiliar to all of them, but the voice, Ruffnut recognized immediately.
"So you can sing?" Ruffnut asked from across the fire. The singing stopped.
"Very often, yes," the girl replied, loud enough for them all to hear her from the distance.
"And you were just faking that crackly, old women voice?" Astrid confirmed by asking.
"I had to," she said with an apologetic tone, turning back to them briefly. After sharing a quick look with the riders, she turned back to preparing the herbs. Everything was quiet again until the girl started walking over to the riders with a tray of miss-matched cups. Some ceramic and some wooden. When the girl made it to the circle of logs, she tripped on a rock. But Tuff was sitting right there to stop her from losing any of the cups. After she righted herself, and shared a quick look with the male twin, then turned away with a pink tint to her cheeks. She had never been around other people like these strangers before, so she was a ball of nerves. But for some unfathomable reason, she still didn't mind them sticking around. The girl had taken her cloak off while she busy, now the riders had a better look at the rest of her appearance; she wore a light orange blouse with sleeves just below her elbows, a long blood-red skirt that ends just in the middle of her calves, and a pair of brown boots on her feet. She had also removed her finger-less gloves. "Sorry, I'm not used to having company like this before," she apologized after setting the tray on the ground to her side then sitting on the stump in between Tuffnut and Hiccup.
"Well, when you live all by yourself on an island of tiny Stoker dragons, I'd understand not having too many guests for a tea party," said Snotlout.
"Actually, quite a few people stop by this island. But I never let them stay long enough for tea," the girl said sheepishly, pulling her single, dark blonde braid from behind her head to nervously fiddle with while she talked. "In fact, I think you lot are the longest any strangers have ever stayed here with someone like me around," she gave a nervous chuckle.
"Someone like you?" Hiccup asked, raising an eye brow. The girl looked away, down at her feet shyly. "How long have you lived here?"
Taking a deep breathe to seal herself, the girl let go of her braid, letting it hang over her shoulder before answering. "I was born here. In that house," she said, gesturing behind her to the old hut. "And I've never left."
"So you're alone," Hiccup said, not exactly a question, but he wanted to be clear.
"I wasn't always alone," the girl said, starting to fiddle with her braid again. "I was raised here by my mother and her mother," and from there, the girl began her family story:
"Many years ago, my grandmother lived in a small village in a country on the mainland called France. She was a healer. But her methods were…odd to the other people of the village, so they wouldn't let her become a physician. They wrote her off as wicked and shunned her away. Called her a witch. But she still opened up her home and treated anyone who would come to her seeking help. Usually people who were desperate and could not afford medical treatment. But even so, the main reason people did not go to her, was fear.
Fear kept them away.
Then one day, a group of soldiers from a nearby battle limped into town. They were all injured very badly. The village doctor was overwhelmed with trying to treat them all. Some of the soldiers, while waiting to be treated, overheard some villagers talking about my grandmother. They heard them call her a crazy and wicked person, but they also said she was a healer. Most of the soldiers were also frightened by this and said they would wait for the doctor. But one of the soldiers didn't want to wait to die, and he was not afraid to ask this mysterious healer for help. So, after asking where she lived, the soldier limped all the way across the village and into the woods where my grandmother lived. And as he came onto her property, my grandmother immediately came to his aid and helped him into her cottage.
A few days passed, and the soldier was making a quick recovery in the caring hands of my grandmother. And during that time, the soldier started to grow extremely fond of her. And she did as well to him. And even after the soldier was completely recovered from his injuries, he stayed there with her.
And as weeks turned into months, the soldier and my grandmother fell in love. He didn't believe what the villagers said about her because he knew they were wrong. She was not wicked or evil, or had any kind of magic. She was as kind-hearted and intelligent as any normal young women.
She was just special. Unique.
And after about a year since he came to her, the soldier asked my grandmother to be his wife. And she agreed.
But no minister or priest in the village would marry them because they still believed my grandmother to be a witch. Left with no other options, they had a private wedding of just the two of them, where they simply said their vows and sealed it with a kiss.
And not long after that day, did my grandmother discover that she was pregnant.
My grandmother and her new husband, the former soldier, were over joyed at this news. But when the rest of the village heard, they were outraged. They already did not like a witch around their town, and they would not stand for a child to be 'born a witch.'
My grandmother stayed in her cottage and her husband did his best to care for her and keep anyone who may mean them harm away for the deration of her pregnancy. And several months later, my grandmother gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
Everything was peaceful at their cottage in the woods for the first month of their daughter's life. But early one morning, a mob of people from the village came, demanding the witch and her 'Devil child' be burned at the stake.
My grandfather, trying to save his family, packed his wife's things and told her to escape with their daughter through the tunnel under the cellar while he stalled the mob. My grandmother obeyed, taking my mother with her, she ran through the tunnel and escaped into the woods. And from that distance, she could see the villagers surround her cottage and burned it to the ground.
And she never saw her dear husband again.
After that, my grandmother traveled all the way to the shore, where she purchased a small fishing boat and sailed away with her daughter from the mainland.
My grandmother eventually found this island and settled here, where she raised her daughter by herself. Vowing to never live amongst other people again because they would never understand her.
She later discovered the inhabitants of the island. Little dragons with skin that burned as hot as the sun."
By the time that portion of her story was told, the tea had been made and a full cup of it was in the hands of every young adult in the circle. Each sipping it every now and then as they listened attentively.
"How did your grandmother befriend the Fireworms?" Hiccup asked curiously.
"Pumpkins," the girl simply said. The others looked from her to each other, more confused than ever. "Those things I was launching at you," she explained further. The riders all nodded in understanding, all mumbling 'oh's.
"Those are some weird vegetables," Ruffnut commented with a good-natured chuckle.
"Fruits," the girl corrected Ruff. Ruff and the others looked to her oddly again. "Pumpkins are fruits." Everyone else in the circle just shrugged before sipping their tea again. "Anyway, my grandmother discovered that Fireworms like to eat pumpkin. All she had to do was cut open the top and the little dragons would crawl in and eat all the insides, minus the seeds, leaving her an empty rind and more seeds to plant or cook."
"Cook?" Hiccup asked after swallowing.
"Yeah, if you bake them over a fire with a little sea salt, they are very tasty," the girl explained happily.
"Is that why we always found some at the places you'd been?" Fishlegs asked.
"Yes, I always carry a lot with me to snack on but some do fall out of my pocket," she said while reaching into her cloak pocket and pulled out several of the big, flat seeds they had seen before; slightly darker from being cooked and salt baked on. "Try one. It's like a sunflower seed," she offered, holding her hand out for Hiccup to take one.
Hiccup hesitated for a moment, but looking back at the girl, he saw she looked honest with no signs of threats or deception. So he took one, popped it in his mouth and chewed. "Muhhh, these are like sunflower seeds," Hiccup grinned, liking the salty crunch of them.
"I also use the empty rinds for lanterns," the girl said, passing some seeds to the twins. Hiccup took more from her and started passing them down to the other three riders. Hiccup then gave a few to Toothless. The Night Fury purred, liking them too.
"Lanterns? So they don't glow on their own?" Astrid asked while taking some seeds from Hiccup.
"Of course not. When they're hollowed out, I put candles in them. It's very pretty," the girl said happily. Hiccup nodded in understanding, remembering seeing a hollowed out 'pumpkin' in her hut, as well as a lot of candles.
"I would have said creepy," Snotlout muttered under his breathe. Fishlegs, sitting right next to him, was the only one to hear him completely, and gave him a mindful nudge. Then passed a few seeds into the rude young man's hands.
"Where did they come from? We've never seen veg- I mean fruits like these before," Fishlegs asked, inspecting the baked seed closely before popping it in his mouth.
"My grandmother grew them at her first home on the Mainland and she brought several seeds with her when she came here. So she planted a new garden and started growing more," she simply answered. But there was more she had to explain. "Anyway, as the years went by, a few travelers would dock on her island. But because she didn't want them discovering her and judging her as a wicked and awful creature, she approached them herself and proclaimed herself as a real witch. Saying she did indeed have 'powers' and she would do horrible things to them if they did not leave her island. And they did. They were so afraid of what she said to them, that they just left her be.
And in case they didn't believe her or weren't afraid enough to leave, she always had tricks and other ways of scaring them off.
So instead of trying to convince them why she had to be left alone, she convinced them all to stay away. So no one would ever hurt her or her daughter again.
People's own fear kept them away from her before. So here, the fear she creates herself would kept them all away for good."
"Tricks. Like those floating orbs of light?" Astrid asked knowingly.
"As you saw; Fireworms in paper lanterns," the girl answered.
"What about those 'pumpkin' things flying at us," Fishlegs asked.
"A launcher my grandmother and mother built when mother was six," she stated simply. "It's right over there," she said, pointing to a small catapult-like devise, half hidden in the bushes, right by her hut. Everyone looked over to it and understood.
"What about bones and blood?" Snotlout asked after turning his attention back to the group. "We heard in a story about bones on the ground and blood on the walls of a cave."
"Oh that? Animal bones and the 'blood' was a special mix of water, berry juice, tree sap, and ground rose petals," she explained thoughtfully. "My grandmother's recipe," she shrugged before sipping her tea again.
"But what about you?" Hiccup asked. "How did you come to be?"
The girl began the next part of her story; "Well, when my mother grew into a young women, she told her mother that she wanted to travel a bit. She had never been off the island before and wanted to go to a different place or two then she would be back. She promised she'd be gone less than a year. It took a lot of persuasion, but Grandmother eventually agreed and let her go. My mother used the small boat my grandmother used to bring them here when she was a baby, and sailed off.
A few days later, she arrived at a port town called Murthach. She didn't have any money but she brought plenty to sell and trade for to support herself for a while. Grandmother warned her about other people and how they can be. And mother did encounter quite a few people who were rude and mean, but she also met a lot of nice people. Including my father.
She had met a kind fishermen who was ported with his crew, and while they were there to sell their fish and resupply, this fisherman spent a lot of time with my mother. They grew to love each other very much in the months that followed. And my mother grew to trust him with her life story of living on an island with her mother because the world would always assume people like them were evil and would never be accepted by other people. But the fisherman did not believe she was evil in the least, and still loved her.
More months went by, and the fisherman helped my mother live among the people in Murthach and introduced her to all of his friends. Then one day, my mother discovered that she was pregnant with the fishermen's child.
After she told her lover this, the fisherman was overjoyed and asked her to be his wife. She immediately said yes, but they could not be married yet. The fishermen's ship was going out to sea again. But he promised her that when he returned, the two of them would sail back to her mother's island together and they would all be a family. My mother accepted this and let him leave.
But he did not come back.
His ship was destroyed in a storm and many of the fishermen aboard were lost at sea or killed. Her lover among them.
My mother was devastated when one of his good friends told her the tragic news. After that, all my mother wanted to do was go back home. So, out of sympathy and the goodness of his heart, one of my father's good friends, a world-traveling trader, insisted to giving her a lift back in his ship. He too knew her story and swore himself to secrecy. He swore it to her and to grandmother when he brought her back here.
And ever since then, that trader has been the only one to come to this island without being frighten away by my grandmother or mother."
"So does the trader still come here to visit you?" Astrid asked.
"Yes, once every couple of months," the girl answered. "He trades with me for some of my herbs, vegetables, fruits, and Fireworm honey." Everyone abruptly looked to her, bewildered, after hearing that last thing.
"Fireworm honey?" Hiccup asked, not believing he had heard right.
"That's right. You all know a lot about dragons, yes?" she asked to be sure. The riders all nodded. "Then you know Fireworms eat a special nectar in the combs in their caves that give them their fire."
"Of course," Snotlout said with an obvious tone.
"Wait, so that stuff is edible for people?" Hiccup asked, still greatly puzzled.
"Well by itself, no. But my mother invented a way to process it so it can be. And not only is it quite delicious, but it still maintains the natural heat that the Fireworms feed on, so it is good to eat in the winter to avoid hypothermia," the girl explained.
"Do you have any now? I would love to try some," Fishlegs asked, very intrigued. Hiccup also nodded eagerly, wanting to also try it.
The girl giggled "You already have; it's in your tea." Upon hearing this information, the riders all froze for a second before looking straight down into their cups. "Put it in your tea and you never have to worry about it going cold either," she said happily before sipping hers' again.
"Sister," Tuffnut said quietly to the blonde on the same log as him. She turned to him. "Our dreams have come true," he slowly started turning his head to her, a widely-growing smile of his face. "We ARE flame eaters!"
Ruff and Tuff excitedly bonked their helmets together while they whooped and hollered. "To the flame eaters!" Ruffnut cheered, clanking her mug to her brother's before each took a mighty gulp.
"It is good tea," Hiccup complimented, sipping his again
There was a bit of a pause while everyone more properly enjoyed their tea, before a thought finally occurred to Fishlegs. "Wait, did your grandmother ever talk about a Viking coming here and going into the caves to study the Fireworms?"
"Actually yes. That visitor always stood out to her the most because he was more interested in studying the dragons than anything else. She said she felt the most guilty for scaring him away," the girl answered thoughtfully.
"So that was her grandmother that Bork encountered when he came here," Hiccup concluded.
"So when you talk to people, you speak crackly and hide your face so everyone thinks you're that same old women," Astrid elaborated with her train of thought.
The girl nodded, her face falling a bit as she replied. "Like I said; I had to," she said numbly, looking down into her cup. Everyone looked at her, curious but also sympathetic.
"Um…" Hiccup said, getting her attention back to him. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your mother and grandmother?"
The girl bit her lip, quickly looking back down before looking all around her at the other riders who were also looking at her, expectedly yet sympathetic.
"They're dead. Both of them," she said stoically, but they could tell it was still a bit hard for her to say. "About ten years ago during the winter, we didn't have enough Fireworm honey saved. Mother gave up most of her ration for me and grandmother. She held out fine for the remainder of the winter but when everything started to thaw, mother became very sick. Grandmother and I did everything we could but it was her time. She passed away before all the snow on the island had melted.
And grandmother; her age must have caught up to her health. One day, four years ago, when we were tending to the pumpkin patch, she just collapsed. I got her back to the hut and cared for her all throughout the night. But apparently, her time had come too. And she passed away the next day."
"I'm very sorry," Hiccup said sympathetically. Tuffnut, not sure if he should say it too or not, but wanted to show he cared, placed a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. The girl jumped slightly at the touch, but allowed it for the time being.
She was grateful for the comfort.
"I visit they're graves every day. They are buried by our favorite tree," the girl said mostly to herself, smiling sadly.
"Buried?" Snotlout asked out of the blue.
"Where my grandmother is from, they bury their dead six feet under the ground and mark them with a stone with they're names. But grandmother wanted to do something different and more personal when we were putting mother to rest," the girl explained, putting her cup down, back on the tray she placed on the ground, then she stood. "Come. I'll show you," she said, starting to walk away from the fire pit, back straight and hands folded properly in front of her.
"Come on then," she said over her shoulder, stopping for her guests to catch up.
After another moment, the riders all stood, along with their dragons, sit their nearly empty cups down and they all followed the girl back into the forest.
As they walked, it was silent again. But the riders were paying extra attention to the mysterious girl who was guiding them to another part of the island. She walked very precisely. Her back and neck straight, shoulders down, and her hands folded neatly in front of her as she walked. Despite growing up in the woods with very little human contact, this girl had a very poised disposition to her. Her etiquette was beyond that of the Vikings they were and grown up around.
After a couple of minutes, they had arrived at a very familiar tree. The tree with the ropes and plank of wood.
"This tree again?" Snotlout asked out loud, observing their surroundings.
The riders and their dragons watched as the girl wordlessly walked up to a side of the tree that had unrecognizable writing carved into the trunk. "My mother is buried here," she said calmly, standing in front of the writing. "Facing east, because that is the direction of Murthach." The girl then walked clockwise around the tree until she was in front of a second unrecognizable inscription carved into the trunk. "And grandmother is buried here, facing south because that is the direction of her home land."
"How did we miss that?" Hiccup whispered to Astrid beside him. Astrid just wordlessly shrugged, still watching the girl.
"Did you make this?" Fishlegs asked from the west side of the tree, standing in front of the simple but strange devise dangling from the tree.
"No," the girl answered, walking over to the devise, smiling as her eyes trailed from the plank of wood to the thick branch that the tops of the ropes were tied to. "My grandmother put this up for my mother to play on when she was a little girl."
Every rider once again looked to her, confused.
"You play on this thing?" Ruffnut asked first.
Now the girl looked to them all confused. "You've never seen a swing before?" she asked with a raised brow.
"A swing?" Fishlegs asked.
"We noticed it swings back and forth a little, but that's what it's called?" Hiccup said, wanting the clarification.
"Yes, it's a swing," the girl repeated. "It's for children to play on."
"Are these common where your grandmother is from?" Fishlegs asked further.
"I think so. Although I assumed they were common anywhere," the girl shrugged.
"So, how are you supposed to play with this thing exactly?" Astrid asked honestly, walking up closer to get a better look.
"Well, you sit on it. Like this," the girl said, turning around to face the riders and dragons as they watched her. She took hold of both the ropes, one in each hand, and sat down on the plank of wood. "Then you kick off with your feet and pump them forward and back as you swing," she explained, raising her feet and legs off the ground and moved them in sync together as she bent her knees and straightened them out in front of her again. And as she kept at this, the plank of wood she sat on got higher and higher as it swung back and forth. The other riders watched her, smiling, greatly intrigued. "It kind of felts like flying," she said down to them as she flew passed them again.
That really got Hiccup's attention.
"Really? Like flying, huh?" Hiccup asked, more interested then a moment ago.
The girl dug her kneels into the dirt as she passed the ground, stopping the swing. "That's right. Do you want to try?" she asked invitingly. Hiccup looked stunned for a moment, looked to his friends real quick; they all gave him smiles with encouraging nods.
"Uh… okay," Hiccup smiled back to her before stepped up to the swing as she got off.
Hiccup, being the fast learner he was, copied everything the girl had done. He held the ropes, sat down on the plank, kicked off with his feet; foot and prosthetic, and started pumping his legs as he saw the girl had. And in less than a minute, Hiccup felt flight and smiled.
"Ha! This does feels a little like flying," he laughed, very much enjoying the experience.
The other riders watched their leader, even more intrigued.
"Didn't she just say that it was for children?" Snotlout chuckled, watching his cousin swing higher and higher. But with a secret desire to try it as well.
"Well it is, but I still come here and swing every day," the girl replied. "In fact, I was here swinging when you lot came over here. So I hid."
"And then you ambushed us with those eels and scared our dragons away," Ruffnut nagged, bringing everyone back into asking more questions to this girl. Hiccup stopped pumping his legs and started to slowly stop his swinging as he listened.
"How did you know that by the way?" Astrid asked with a more friendly tone then Ruff.
"That eels terrify most dragon species?" the girl asked to clarify. Astrid nodded. "Something else my grandmother discovered a long time ago when my mother was a little girl. Other dragons, like the ones you have, started showing up on our island. And she hated the idea of violence and killing things. But she still only thought that the Fireworms were reasonable to live on the same island with."
"So your grandmother did what she did with any other visitors of your island. She scared them away," Hiccup concluded, getting up from the swing and going back over to his dragon.
"Correct. At first she didn't know how. But one day when a Zippleback attacked her while she was fishing, the dragon got into a basket of her fish and when he found the eel in there, he was horrified. And then she knew if she wanted the dragons to leave us alone as well, we would only need eels. But other dragons don't come by very often, so we've only ever had to use that method on very rare occasions," she explained. "I myself have seen dragon species like yours only a handful of times in my life," she said, but then her eyes wondered to Toothless, now standing beside Hiccup. "Thou I have to say, I've never seen a dragon like yours," she said directly to the young heir, walking closer to him, glancing down to the dragon.
"Toothless is a Night Fury," Hiccup told her plainly.
"Why can't he fly?" she asked curiously.
"He can fly, but not without me."
"I saw. I mean I saw you all fly in and land here."
"Then you followed us into that cave?"
She nodded before leaning down a bit to get a better look at the dark-scaled dragon. Toothless, no longer thinking she was a threat, calmly looked up at her with dilated pupils. "He's lovely," she smiled to the dragon, and Toothless gave her a thankful little growl in return. "But I was curious when he didn't fly away like the other dragons when he saw the eels. It wasn't until after I got you all away from my hut that I found him in that trench. He looked very upset and scared. I saw him flap his wings and try to fly out but he couldn't. He was freaking out and slamming himself everywhere. I was afraid he was going to hurt himself. So I panicked and threw down a fish I filled with a sleeping sedative. I didn't know if it would work on a dragon like him but it did calm him down a great deal. But it had worn off rather quickly and he started throwing himself everywhere again. So I threw a few more fish with more of the sedative and he was out."
"But what was with the fire you started in the trench when we found him," Astrid asked.
"You did not find him, I led you to him," the girl politely corrected her as she straighten herself up again. "And what was burning down in the trench were some herbs I put. When he was fast asleep I knew it would be safe to go down there and place them around him. Anyway, when they're set on fire, they produce a smoke that instantly undoes the effects of the sedative."
'That must have been when she obtained a few of Toothless' scales to bait them there,' Hiccup thought as she spoke.
"You led us there to get him out," Hiccup stated.
"I wasn't sure what your relationship with them was like, but I thought that after you found him and he was awake you could get him out and you would all leave," she explained, crossing her arms.
"We were about to, but Tuffnut decided to stick around a little longer and see the 'witch,'" Snotlout added, nudging the male twin's shoulder.
The girl stepped a bit closer as she spoke again, this time, more defensively. "I never let anyone else stick around to see anything. Not my house, not my garden, not my swing… Not even my face," she said almost angrily. The riders all looked to her confused by her sudden outburst. She looked wildly to them all before shouting, "Why am I even telling you all of this!?"
The girl turned away, hugging her arms, her shoulders tense. Some of the closer riders could say they even heard a sniffle.
None of them knew exactly what to do to calm her back down. But Tuffnut wanted to try. He had been fascinated and intrigued by the witch that he heard lived here through Bork's story. And after remembering his first encounter he had had with her, one on one, back in that cave, he was even more eager to know the girl behind the witch persona.
Tuffnut stepped up and spoke to her softly. "I don't know. Why are you?"
The girl's head and neck straighten up. They heard another sniffle before she spoke again, slightly turning just her head back to them. "I had to scare them away. Other people just don't accept people like me or my family."
"Really? Cause you don't seem that different from us," Hiccup added kindly. The girl didn't reply right away.
"I kinda felt that too," she finally said. "Which is why I thought that… if I told you everything, you'd understand why I have to stay here. And you'd keep my secret, and you'd leave here, telling everyone else you know to stay away and beware the 'Witch of Fireworm Island.'"
"But do you really like being alone?" Hiccup asked, honestly wanting to understand, and help this girl.
The girl paused for a moment, her hand moving up to wipe at her eyes, before she started turning back to them again. Her eyes were a bit red. "Grandmother always said we could only ever have each other to rely on. So when we made travelers leave, we still always had each other. But now… for the last four years I…" she stopped, getting choked up again.
"You don't want to be alone," Hiccup said. The girl gave a slight nod. "Then why stay here? Why scare people away? Keep other people away."
"Because they scare me," the girl said back with a slightly raised voice, dropping her arms. But she spoke normally as she continued. "If I leave and go to some village, they'll treat me like the people of my grandmother's village treated her. They feared my grandmother, but she was the one living in fear," she paused again, catching her breathe. "And here, she was finally free. She had mother so she was never alone, and then I came along and everything was perfect." She started hugging herself again.
"But now you are alone," Hiccup said, trying not to upset her more, but needed to see. "Just like your grandmother before she met your grandfather. And you now also live in fear of the people who come here… by yourself."
The girl started to tear up again. "I don't want live in fear like grandmother did but… I don't want to be alone anymore," she said, hugging herself tighter.
"Do we scare you?" Tuffnut asked with a hopeful smile that she would say no.
The girl looked to the blonde Viking male, smiling kindly to her. She smiled small back, whipping her eyes quick before answering honestly with a quick shrug. "Not really. Not anymore."
"You've had human and dragon visitors. All of whom you and your family have scared away," Hiccup asked, drawing her attention back to him. "But, before yesterday, did you or your grandmother, ever have humans riding dragons?"
The girl thought for a moment. "None that I can recall."
"So, would say we're pretty weird?" Hiccup asked humorously.
The girl gave a slight chuckle before replying. "I suppose," she smiled with a shrug.
Hiccup smiled back and extended his hand out to her. "Hello, my name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. I am a dragon rider and very weird." The girl smiled, laughing again before taking the young heir's hand and shaking it properly.
"Astrid Hofferson. Also a dragon rider, and also weird," Astrid offered her hand to the girl as well after she dropped Hiccup's. The girl laughed again, once again accepting the hand shake.
"Snotlout Jorgenson, dragon rider extraordinar," Snotlout pushed to the front, also offering the girl a hand shake. Hiccup gave him a nudge to remind him to say the second part. "Also extraordinarily weird," he muttered, but she heard. The girl smiled and shook his hand too.
"Fishlegs Ingerman, very fawned of dragons and very weird indeed," Fishlegs said kindly, offering his hand next. The girl took it happily as well.
"Ruffnut Thorston," Ruffnut introduced herself, shaking the girl's hand too. "And you already know my brother- "
"Tuffnut Thorston, yes," the girl kindly finished for her. Giving both the twins friendly smiles.
"And we are both very much weird," Tuffnut added, earning another giggle from the girl as she shook his hand too.
"So I see," she said, looking around to all the riders, smiling kindly back to her.
"And you are?" Hiccup finally asked.
"Runa. Runa Sauveterre," she replied happily, saying her last name with more of that unfamiliar accent she had. "… and I consider myself pretty weird."
The riders all laughed. Everyone was happy from the trusting exchange, but Fishlegs cut in with an alarming realization.
"Uh, Hiccup," the larger Viking boy said worriedly, giving his leader's shoulder a shake. Hiccup looked back to him, slightly annoyed. "I really hate to cut the most fascinating part of our visit short, believe me I really do, but if we don't leave soon we won't make it back to Berk it time for the bomb fire," he said rapidly. All the riders froze in realization.
Hiccup quickly face-palmed himself. "Oh gods, the bomb fire! The festival! I completely forgot. My dad well go berserk if we're late," he exclaimed, dashing back over to Toothless and mounting up. The other riders also proceeded to mount their dragons as well.
"Bomb fire? Festival?" the girl, Runa, asked as the riders were rushing to their dragons.
"The Harvest Scare Festival," Tuffnut started to explain, standing by Belch's lowered head. "Every year, the people of our village gather to celebrate the harvest by pranking and scaring each other out of their pants. And the last event of the day is a bomb fire were we all tell scary stories to terrify each other even more," he explained excitedly to her. "It's so much fun."
Runa looked at them all, very puzzled again. "You scare your own people for fun, for a whole day?" she asked. But then gave them one more chuckle. "You guys are weird," she said good-naturedly. Everyone smiled to, until a brilliant idea hit Hiccup. As he looked to the others and they, one by one, looked at him back, the idea must have transferred from his mind to theirs. And they all then looked to Runa with knowing smiles. Runa just stood there confused, not understanding the exchange. "What?"
Hiccup quickly cleared his throat before asking, "Runa, how are you at story telling?"
*Sauveterre- safe, land; safe haven
Also, if u go back and check, I have changed all the 'Loki Day's to 'Harvest Scare Festival' (in all the chapters and the summary). I did this in light of the new episode of Race to the Edge; Shock and Awe, where they already have a 'Loki Day' as more of an 'April Fools Day'. Mine is meant to be more like Halloween, with tricks and treats.