Kassandra looked around the room, a defeated expression on her face.
"Well, I'm not from here. I came from a land very far away from here."
At that moment, she noticed a man and a woman walking in through the door, followed by 2 dragons. The man was big and buff, with a black ponytail and weird tattoos on his chin. The woman looked to be elderly and had really long hair in 3 braids. She was actually quite astounded. Nobody in her village had hair that long. The green dragon that sticker close to the man's side was green everywhere by his face-that was red. He looked to be made of armor and had an angry face. The other dragon, however, was tall and pink and brown all over. It had a wide looking head and big, yellow eyes. That one stayed closed to the woman's side. Hiccup seemed to be oblivious to this as he continued to stare at Kassandra.
"Obviously you are not from here. What is your homeland called.?", Hiccup asked.
"It's called Athens and it's not so much a homeland, it's a city of Greece", Kassandra answered as she focused her attention back on the man.
"Greece? What is that?"
"It's name of the country. It is located near the Mediterranean Sea."
"Where's that?", Astrid asked.
"You don't know where the Mediterranean Sea is?", Kassandra asked back. It then dawned on her that they wouldn't know since they are on an island far from her home.
"Uh, it's a big body of water that borders Greece. I wouldn't expect you all to know where it's at", Kassandra added.
"Alright. So the bigger question is: why did you come here?", Hiccup inquired.
"Well, I really ran away from home and my family. I didn't like what was going on over there, so I left", Kassandra sighed.
"So you decided to run away because you didn't like it there? Have you any idea how worried they all are? Have you even considered that they are going to look for you?", Astrid chimed in.
"First off, don't talk to me like a child; I'm a grown woman. Secondly, I don't expect you to understand. You don't know what I've been through. You don't know my life. Trust me if you were over there, you would want to run away too. And thirdly, who are you?", Kassandra retorted.
"I'm Astrid, his wife", Astrid replied while pointing to Hiccup.
Kassandra looked back and forth between Hiccup and Astrid with confusion.
"How did you end up with him?", Kassandra asked.
"Long story", they replied in unison.
"Anyways, what happened over there?", Fishlegs asked.
Kassandra whirled around to face Fishlegs. "And who are YOU?"
"My name is Fishlegs. And to refrain from you exhausting yourself over who is who, that is Snotlout, the twins:Ruffnut and Tuffnut, Eret, and Hiccup's mother–Valka. Their dragons are Hookfang, Barf and Belch, Skullcrusher, and Cloudjumper. Astrid rides that blue Deadly Nadder named Stormfly while Hiccup rides Toothless, the Night Fury", Fishlegs quickly explained.
"And last but not certainly least, I ride the cutest dragon in the world: Meatlug. She's a Gronkle", Fishlegs giggled as wrapped his arms around Meatlug's neck. "And we, are Vikings."
"What are Vikings?"
"That's who we are, duh! We are the fiercest warriors across the sea!", Snotlout boasted.
Kassandra mentally scoffed at his remark.
'If only they could meet the Spartans', she thought to herself. She then scanned the room, a look of deep thought on her face.
Her eyes eventually made their way to the Draconians.
"Who are they?", Kassandra asked as she locked eyes with Aurora.
Before Fishlegs could answer, Re spoke up.
"I am Re. I am the king of the dragons' homeland called Draconia. This here is my mate Aurora. She is the ruling queen. The black dragon to my right is called Tenor. He is the prime minster. We are the royal dragons of Draconia", Re announced.
"What's a prime minister?"
"Whenever a dragon has a problem, they answer to me. If it's a really big problem with tremendous impacts, then I bring it up to the king and queen", Tenor responded.
"So what was so bad that you had to run away?", Hiccup asked, getting back on topic.
Kassandra sighed as she rolled her eyes. "I'm getting married to someone I do not love."
All the Vikings had looks of realization and understanding. They perfectly understood where this woman was coming from. In Viking culture, parents were the ones who decided who you got married too. In many cases, the bride and groom don't even see each other until the day of the wedding! Once they actually settle down and get accustomed to each other do they grow to love each other. It was rare when a Viking couple married out of love, like Hiccup and Astrid did.
"I can definitely understand your fear and nervousness. Many of Viking marriages are arranged. While it is uncomfortable at first not knowing who your spouse is, I can assure you that with time you will grow to love him", Valka explained.
"So I'm assuming this village treats its women like property", Kassandra hissed.
"Well women need to learn their place here if they wanna survive here", Snotlout interjected.
That prompted Astrid to turn around and quickly connect her fist to his jaw, sending him sprawling to the ground in pain.
Kassandra gasped. In all her life, she had never seen a woman ever raise her hand to a man.
"Did you just hit him?!", Kassandra cried out.
"Well duh! Us girls are just as strong as men", Ruffnut commented.
"While most marriages are arranged here, every marriage is balanced and based upon mutual respect. And if it remains like that, love will surely bloom. If you and your spouse work on making the marriage the best it can be, it can be the best thing that ever happened to you both", Valka continued.
"When you put it that way it actually sounds bearable, but I don't have the satisfaction of marrying a man here. Where I'm from, women have no say in society. We have no right to speak up for ourselves or vote in the democracy. We are nothing. We have no control over our lives whatsoever. We are meant to follow the kyrios and serve the oikos to the best of our ability", Kassandra said, hate laced in her voice.
"What's an oikos and a kyrios?", Astrid asked.
"Oikos means household or family, composed of the husband, wife, children, and the slaves. A kyrios is the master of the house. It is usually the eldest male", Kassandra explained.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You guys have slaves?!", Astrid exclaimed.
Kassandra tilted her head in puzzlement. "What? Do you guys not have slaves?"
She was answered when all the Vikings shook their head in negation.
"Huh. A village without slaves. That's a first", Kassandra uttered.
"So if your life was meant to be nothing but a submissive housewife, then where did you learn to fight like that?", Hiccup asked.
"My father taught me. He was a warrior in the Athenian army. 'You will grow stronger than any man I have ever faced or will face in battle' he always told me. He knew I would be more of a fighter than a quiet wife, so he taught me how to fight and defend myself. Even though he was the kyrios of my household, he arranged me to marry a Spartan", Kassandra smiled.
"What's a Spartan?", Hiccup asked.
"They are the fiercest warriors in Greece. They are brave, ruthless, cunning, and can easily wipe out any city. Trust me when I say you don't wanna mess with Spartans", Kassandra beamed with pride.
Everybody except Hiccup, Valka, and the dragons scoffed.
"Well...if that sounds as perfect as you make it out to be, then why did you run away?", Valka inquired.
Kassandra's faced turned into a scowl. "My brother took over as kyrios when my father died a couple of months ago."
"Oh dear. I'm sorry to hear that", Valka said soothingly. Hearing that made her think of Stoick.
"There is no need to be sad. He died honorably", Kassandra said flatly.
An awkward silence ensued for a bit before Kassandra broke the silence.
"Anyways, this all started when my father died and my brother became the new kyrios. He has no idea how to run an oikos and just ended up making problems worse. We always bickered but it got worse when he became kyrios. One day, he decided to break off my engagement and rearrange it to where I would marry one of his friends instead. He said it didn't matter who I got engaged to because all I'm ever good for is to make and take care of the children. But I wasn't going to have it. I ran away in the night and traversed difficult terrains, putting as much distance between myself and him. I knew he would find me if I remained on land, so I decided to take a boat and sail up north. No way my brother would venture that far. But...I got caught in a huge storm and eventually ended up here. And I'm kinda glad I ended up here. There is no way he is ever gonna find me here."
"Unless we give you back to him", Hiccup said flatly.
Everyone in the room was shocked at his words.
"Hiccup!", Astrid gasped.
"No! Why would you do that?!", Kassandra exclaimed.
"Well I can't be harboring a runaway on my island. Even if you said they can't find you, I have to take every precaution to ensure my village's survival. The last thing I want is war. Besides, how do I know you won't go and hurt more people? I don't know you. I don't know what you are capable of. With that weird weapon of yours, you easily defeated their son", Hiccup explained, pointing to the Draconians.
"I didn't mean to hurt him! He just popped up out of nowhere and snatched me up into the air! I thought he was gonna eat me or something!", Kassandra exclaimed.
Everyone chuckled at this.
"What? Dragons don't eat humans?", Kassandra questioned.
"Not usually. We prefer fish. And humans taste bad anyways", Tenor laughed. That sent a shiver down Kassandra's spine.
"Well, if you promise not to cause any trouble while on my island, then you can stay here", Hiccup decided.
Kassandra opened her mouth a little in amazement.
"Really?", Kassandra asked happily.
"But, if you are going to be a resident of Berk, you need to pull your weight around here and work like everybody else", Hiccup asserted.
"Of course!", Kassandra smiled.
Hiccup then held up Kassandra's whip. "You'll get this back when you earn my trust."
Kassandra whined but nodded her head in agreement.
"And if you decide to betray my trust, you'll answer to them. Got it?", Hiccup added as he pointed to the Draconians one last time.
Kassandra looked at them and back at Hiccup, then nodded in agreement. She did not want to end up on their bad side.
"Great! Now to ensure you don't do anything you aren't suppose to, I'm going to assign someone you watch over you", Hiccup declared.
"Really?", Kassandra asked, disappointed.
Hiccup turned to the Draconians. "Do you think Raeya is willing to watch over her? To make sure she doesn't get into trouble?", Hiccup asked Re.
Re was surprised. "Why her?"
"Because whenever she is around Raeya, no problems happened. I honestly think she is the only one Kassandra feels...safe...around."
"Hmm. Raeya, would you mind watching over Kassandra to make sure she doesn't get into trouble?", Re asked as he turned to her.
Raeya was in the back minding her own business. She didn't know why, but she hoped nothing bad would happen to the human.
"Raeya!"
"What?", Raeya asked, snapping out of her stupor.
"Could you watch over Kassandra and make sure she doesn't get into trouble?", Re repeated.
'So that's her name', Raeya thought.
"Yeah I can do that", Raeya nodded.
"Raeya is gonna watch over you and make sure you don't do anything you are not suppose to do", Hiccup asserted as he approached with Raeya at his side.
"Her?", Kassandra said dubiously.
"Yes. You can't escape a dragon. Once you prove yourself around here, she'll stop watching over you", Hiccup said.
"O-okay", Kassandra said, looking up at the dragon.
Little did she know, but meeting this dragon would change her life forever.