No quote today. I couldn't find one. :/
"Now hold you hand up and tell her to sit."
"Sit," Irena said, holding her hand up.
Safira chirped and sat politely, her little tail flicking.
Irena beamed. "I did it!"
"Yes you did." Astrid smiled. "Good job."
"Good girl, Safira." Irena praised the little blue dragon. Safira squawked happily and ran over to her friend for a scratch, which Irena happily gave.
There wasn't too much you could train a Terror to do other than simple commands, but that was alright. Terrors were a great first time dragon. Irena was a quick learner and so was Safira, so things were moving smoothly.
The Wednesday class had wrapped up, they had lunch, and Astrid had decided it was about time for Irena and Safira to have a lesson of their own. It was keeping her busy. Valka and Gobber were out in the village and Ingrid had stuck around and brought Colby to watch.
"Can Colby try?" Irena asked Astrid, looking up from rubbing Safira's tummy.
"If he wants to." Astrid replied, looking over at Colby and smiling. Colby smiled back nervously.
Irena looked over to her friend. "Do you want to try?"
Colby nodded nervously and Ingrid nudged him forward.
Irena put Safira down. "Listen to Colby, okay?"
Safira turned to face the boy, head cocked expectantly.
"Tell her to come." Astrid told Colby.
"Come, Safira." Colby commanded the blue dragon, albeit quietly.
Safira bounded over to the little boy's feet.
"Now tell her to sit."
"Sit." Colby said. Safira plopped down, looking up at the boy. Colby giggled and scratched the dragon's head.
"Now you did it!" Irena chirped. Colby smiled and ran back to his big sister. Safira ran over to Irena, sitting on her head and crooning.
"You did good, Colby." Ingrid told her brother. Colby beamed.
Astrid smiled. Sure, getting a dragon to sit was a little thing, but to a kid it was kind of a big deal.
"Astrid,"
Astrid turned around to see Gobber and Grump in the doorway to the Academy.
"There's something goin' on in the fields. They won' listen ta me or Valka. Mind givin' us a hand, lass? They'll listen to you."
"I'll be right there." Astrid promised before turning back to the kids. Gobber and grump took off. "I have to go to the fields. Would you keep an eye on Irena, Ingrid?"
"Sure," Ingrid nodded.
Astrid climbed up on on Stormfly's back. "Thanks."
"Anytime."
"Let's go, girl." Astrid said to Stormfly. Stormfly took off and they headed towards the fields.
Hiccup had been gone for three and a half days and it had practically been all nonstop running around since then. Astrid had finally gotten the time to do something with Irena and she had to leave her to fix something and the job was split between three more than capable people. Her stupid, stubborn boyfriend did it all by himself. She was going to sit him down and have a very serious discussion about accepting help when he came home.
Hopefully the next few days would go by quickly. Irena's nightmares had, unfortunately, not gone away. Her little arm was still pink from all the rubbing. She was a little trooper during the day now, but at this point, she was a little afraid to go to sleep. Both of them had barely slept the last few nights. Astrid hoped Hiccup coming home would make her nightmares cease permanently.
When Astrid and Stomfly made it to the fields, the shouting was quite loud. Gobber was trying and failing to hush everyone. Valka was standing next to Cloudjumper, looking more or less frazzled. Her communication skills were still a little rusty and she gave up trying, although she felt bad that she couldn't help.
Stormfly landed next to Cloudjumper and Astrid slipped off. Valka looked relieved. Astrid walked to the middle of the small crowd and held her hands up. "Everyone, shut up!" she shouted, effectively quieting everyone but a baa-ing sheep. Everyone turned to look at her, a few looking a little nervous. Astrid was awfully scary and sometimes that was useful. Gobber smiled at her. "Now explain the problem. One at a time."
Toothless swooped down and landed in a meadow. It was getting dark and while Toothless enjoyed flying through the night, Hiccup did not. He was a human and humans always slept at night. Toothless knew this.
Hiccup used the fading sunlight to look at the map. They had flown quite far really. They hadn't seen any new dragons yet, but they had seen a large group of Nightmares the day before. Hiccup had spent a decent amount of time drawing them while Toothless socialized. He had even asked around about Irena's home. No one had ever even heard of Sola, let alone seen the place. Half of his plan had failed already.
Toothless sniffed the air suddenly.
"What is it, bud?"
Toothless made a grumbly noise towards a large tree before heading over there. Hiccup followed, leaving his map open on the ground.
There was a surprised squeak when Toothless stuck his head around the trunk of the tree. The squeak was feminine.
"He won't hurt you." Hiccup promised whoever Toothless had startled.
Toothless bumped whoever it was with his snout until they emerged from the tree's other side. It was a brunette girl about Hiccup's age. She looked perplexed.
"Um, hello." Hiccup said pleasantly.
"...hi," replied the strange girl.
"Toothless didn't mean to scare you." Hiccup told her, scratching the dragon under his chin.
The girl still side-stepped away from Toothless, looking weary, but she introduced herself. "I'm Kristiana."
"I'm Hiccup."
She snickered. "What kind of a name is that?"
"It scares off trolls." he shrugged.
She smiled, clearly amused. "Well that's helpful."
"I'd say it is."
"What are you doing here?" she asked him.
"We're exploring." he motioned to the map behind him on the grass.
"Sounds fun,"
Hiccup shrugged. "I guess."
"Any particular reason why?"
"Why we're exploring? Not exactly. My mother and girlfriend insisted I needed a break."
Toothless nuzzled at Kristiana's hand. She seemed friendly. She didn't move her hand away, but her eyes were wide.
"He really won't hurt you. My four year old plays with him all the time."
Toothless gurgled in agreement and Kristiana opened her hand slowly. Toothless licked it.
"You have a four year old?" Kristiana asked Hiccup, slowly moving to rub Toothless' nose. The Night Fury purred happily. "I find it hard to believe you are married. You can't be any older than me." Kristiana looked about seventeen to Hiccup.
"I never said I was. I just said I have a four year old." Hiccup replied, folding his map back up.
Kristina moved her hand to Toothless' neck. "So you're telling me you knocked up some girl four years ago? I'm hoping it was your girlfriend."
"No." Hiccup put his map back in his armor. "She's adopted, thank you very much."
"No need to get testy," Kristiana's nose crinkled. "I don't know you, remember?"
Toothless turned away from his scratcher and came to Hiccup's side.
"Sorry, nobody has really asked me that before." Hiccup shrugged.
"That's okay." the brunette replied, swatting her hand through the air. She changed the subject. "Are you going to sleep here? In the middle of the forest?"
"Why not? I've got food. And a dragon." She hadn't asked about Toothless yet, oddly enough.
"Nope."
"What?"
"You're coming with me." she insisted. "My mother will come back from the dead if I don't make you come stay with us." Us?
"But you don't know me! I could be a serial killer!" People on Berk were warm and welcoming for the most part, but never like this! This was dangerous kindness! Toothless snorted. Serial killer? Yeah, right.
Kristiana seemed to have the same thought. "You hardly look like you could punch someone hard enough to actually cause pain. No offense."
Hiccup smiled a bit. "None taken."
"If you don't come with me, I will have to drag you."
Hiccup rolled his eyes. If this girl was Astrid, the moment he said he was fine where he was, Astrid would have left. "Fine." he sighed. "But I warn you now, I have to get up early so I can start heading home."
"That's fine." Kristiana replied. "Now follow me."
So he did. Toothless was immediately to his left. The pair followed Kristiana on a winding path out of the woods.
"Are you going to tell me where I am?" Hiccup asked the girl.
"Are you going to tell me where you're from?" she countered.
"Berk," Hiccup replied. "Your turn."
"Dreki,"
Eventually, they arrived at a house. It was of a decent size and looked to be two floors tall.
A small girl darted out of the house, she was probably six and her curly copper hair was cut to her shoulders. "Sissy! Nessa called me-!" The little girl stopped short when she saw Hiccup. "Who're you?"
"I'm Hiccup." Hiccup replied, putting his hand on Toothless' snout to keep him from investigating the tiny girl.
"That's a weird name."
"I know." he smiled. "What's your name?"
"Elida. Your dragon is cute."
Toothless let his tongue loll out of the side of his mouth to prove her point. Hiccup chuckled. "Thank you."
"Can I pet him?"
"Sure," Hiccup took his hand from Toothless' snout, allowing the dragon to sniff Elida.
"Sissy doesn't like dragons much. I do. They're pretty." Elida explained, rubbing Toothless' neck.
"Do you have a lot of dragons here?" Hiccup asked mostly Kristiana.
"No, they only come around once a year." Kristiana responded.
"Toothless sleeps in my room."
"Lucky," Elida breathed.
Kristiana had six sisters. She was the oldest at nineteen, then Helga who was fifteen, Signy who was fourteen, Torid who was ten, Nessie who was eight, Elida who was five and finally baby Brenna, who was only ten months old. Their mother was dead, so Kristiana had stepped up to matron of the household and that required minding all the girls while her father was working.
All the girls were in bed, though. Except for Kristiana.
She had explained to Hiccup that the girls had thought they'd heard a dragon's roar and she promised to investigate and left Helga in charge, which was how she found him and Toothless. All the girls had been head over heels for Toothless when they saw him.
"You're an only child, huh?" Kristiana asked him.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Hiccup was shocked. Toothless was curled up next to him, fast asleep. He had missed playing with Irena and he had six girls to play with. He was exhausted.
"You looked overwhelmed with the seven of us all in one room." Kristiana smiled. "My mother always said that a house with less than three sets of running feet was a boring one. Sorry, I should've warned you."
"It's fine. I like kids."
"Are you going to have more?"
"I don't know." Hiccup shrugged, running his hand through his hair. "I'll let you know after the wedding."
"You lied to me." Kristiana announced.
"Huh?"
"You said you had a girlfriend, not that you were getting married!"
Hiccup shrugged. "Sorry? Habit."
Kristiana sighed dreamily. "I wish I could get married."
"Why can't you?"
"No, no! I can get married, just not the way I want. My mother is dead. She can't make my dress."
"...oh..." Yeah, her mother was dead. "How'd she... how'd she die?"
"She was older when Brenna was born. She didn't live long enough to see her."
"I'm so sorry." was all Hiccup could say.
"Don't be." Kristiana said quietly, looking down.
"I-I lost my dad a few months ago." Hiccup admitted equally as quietly.
"Not during childbirth, I assume."
Hiccup chuckled. "No."
"Wait a minute..." Kristiana looked up slowly. "Stoick the Vast... Berk.. you're... chief, aren't you?"
Hiccup shrugged. "I-yeah."
"Oh my gods," Kristiana shook her head. "I can't believe I didn't put that together before! The Night Fury, the map, the leg!" She stood up. "You're a legend! And I brought you into my house with six wild sisters." She collapsed back into her chair and buried her face in her hands. "I am so sorry."
"Seriously, don't be! I'm only a year older than you! I don't need to be treated special or anything! Trust me, Kristiana. I'm fine."
She didn't move.
"My girlfriend punches me really hard when I'm being an idiot." he said sheepishly, trying to make her feel better. "My daughter agrees. I am very much an idiot."
"What's her name?"
"Who's name? My girlfriend or my daughter?"
"Both, I guess." Kristiana looked up.
"My girlfriend's name is Astrid and our daughter's is Irena."
"Divine beauty and woman of peace. Do their names fit them?"
"I'd say so."
Kristiana smiled. "Lucky guy."
He grinned. "Very lucky."
"Well, I'm going to go to bed." Kristina stood up. "I don't know if you'll be here in the morning, so I guess this is goodbye." She held her hand out towards him. He took it.
"If you're ever around Berk, make sure to visit."
"We will." she promised. She pointed him to the spare bedroom. "My dad won't bother you and I doubt he'll care that you're here. Good night, Hiccup."
"Good night, Kristiana and thank you."
She smiled at him and went up the stairs to her room. Hiccup bent down. "Come on, Toothless." Toothless whined and stood up. He followed Hiccup into Kristiana's family's spare bedroom. Toothless curled up next to the bed. "We're heading home tomorrow, bud."
Toothless grumbled happily.
"Hopefully Irena's nightmares aren't too bad... I really miss them, Toothless."
Toothless pulled his ears to his head tightly and closed his eyes.
Hiccup chuckled. "Alright bud, let's go to bed."
A/N: Sorry this took so long! I'm back at school now and it was stressing me out for so long! This chapter was hard and didn't end up the way I wanted to, but I hope it's okay! One more chapter and then the next will be the wedding! YAY! Thank you guys so much for reading this probably crummy chapter and for being so patient!
Please let me know what you thought in a review!
