Disclaimer: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon. All credits go to Dreamworks.
"You can't be serious! Letting that she-demon back here!"
As soon as Stoick and the young Vikings returned to Berk, Stoick announced an immediate council meeting to discuss Hanna's compromise.
Stoick groaned, brewing a headache. "Mildew, my daughter will only return if Berk is willingly learn her ways with the dragons."
"Then don't be willing!"
"We can't change everything just so you can keep your daughter." Spitelout said.
"Hanna's got a point. She knows she doesn't fit our ways." Mulch reasoned. His fondness for the girl overtopped his dislike for dragons.
"She was born a Viking and she betrayed us for the dragons. Us, her own kind!" Mildew ranted.
"But all she did was ride them instead of killing them!" Bucket protested protectively over Hanna.
"She found the nest and didn't tell us!" Sven reminded.
"She found out why the dragons were raiding and defeated that big ugly queen dragon, all by herself! No other person, Viking or not, has ever done that." Gobber proudly declared. "She has different strengths. Some people are just…different than others. Right, Stoick?"
Stoick turned away. But the memory of Valka pleading to stop killing dragons the burnt in his mind.
"We're Vikings! We raid all the time! So what if dragons raided us? They were only trying to survive!" Gobber continued to rant. "Things have been slow since the dragons stopped raiding and now that Dagur is out of the picture, maybe its time for a change."
"Even if to say we agree to change tradition, how would that benefit our village?" Spitelout questioned.
"Hanna would have a few ideas for that."
"That girl, so resourceful and intelligent…" Mulch mused.
The doors suddenly threw open and in walked the young Warriors, Alaric in the lead.
"Did you decide yet?" Alaric asked.
"We're still discussing, lad." Stoick answered firmly.
"I wonder what's its like to fly?" Bucket wondered out loud, daydreaming whimsically. He didn't really see the point in fighting dragons anymore.
"You really think the old coots will give up dragon-hating to bring Hanna back?" Snotlout whispered.
"I'm more concerned what would happen when they make either choice." Fishlegs replied.
"I say bring on the dragons!" Ruffnut exclaimed.
"Can you image the destruction we can make?" Tuffnut wondered with devilish glee.
Mulch gulped as he saw the twins' wicked grins. "On second thought, maybe learning to ride dragons have a few disadvantages."
"At least Hanna never destroys everything on purpose like those two!" Bucket pointed out.
The doors opened for the second time and in entered Gothi, still alive, and a young redheaded girl.
"Gothi," Stoick stood up from his chair, hands flat on the table. "What brings you here?"
"Gothi has something she like to share." Kerstin explained, opening a case of black soot.
The mute old woman dipped the end of her staff in the soot and drew her words on the wooden floor. Gobber got up from his seat, walked over to the soothsayer and looked over her small form, peering at the Norse symbols she drew.
Gobber took his time in reading Gothi's stick-writing, making the hall tense with suspense.
"What's she saying, Gobber?" Stoick asked.
"She says…An eye of newt, a moose and a golden flute? What the- OW!?"
Gothi shook her head, holding her staff firmly, while Gobber rubbed his head.
Looks like he got the runes wrong.
Again.
"She says she chose Hanna those years ago at the killing ring because she showed the most potential with dragons." Kerstin corrected, folding her arms.
"But she wasn't killing them!" Spitelout protested.
Gothi wrote one rune for Kerstin to explain.
"Exactly." Kerstin glanced at the new runes Gothi wrote. "She says she saw that Hanna has a great destiny ahead of her." Her mentor wrote more. "This village will not survive this season if we do not let change take its course." As she read the runes, her face was made more worriedly. "We must…" She trailed off.
"What?" Stoick demanded. "We must what?"
Kerstin looked up, staring at her chief. "Accept Hanna as she is."
"They'll never change."
Hanna paced back and forth, ranting her heart out.
"What was I thinking? They're VIKINGS! Might as well argue with a rock!"
Her mother and their dragons just watched her.
"You said so yourself, mom, some people won't change."
"You gave your father what he need." Valka reasoned softly. "He needs to know that he can't force you to return unless the Vikings listen."
"But what if he's too stubborn to change? What if he chooses pride over love? What if Berk decides I'm not worth the effort to change?" She sighed after ranting so much. "Mom…How you did end up with dad in the first place?"
Valka was taken aback by this. But nonetheless, she sighed and then said. "I was different, much like you. Growing up in Berk wasn't easy. I wasn't much of a fighter , I'm more of a thinker. I weird and everyone knew it, even your father. But still…" A soft smile graced her aging face. "Your father was persistent. But I'm afraid…I feel…like we were never gonna work though. I have to stay away, I'm too different. But you…you have a chance to make a difference." The woman reached out and cuffed her daughter's face, staring into the same green eyes. "You're braver than I. I know you can face your fear and not fall."
Her thumb wiped a tear that Hanna shed. The younger girl's eyes blinked a few times.
"What if I do fall?"
"You get back up. If anything, you're just like your father: yak-headed!"
The women ended up laughing, the tense mood lightening.
The dreaded day came.
The Dragon Riders accompanied Hildr and her ships to Berk. It took all of Hanna's willpower to not turn around and fly away when she saw the cursed isle in the distance.
Eventually, Berk came to view. The ship in the lead docked and the same bulky Berserker stood on the edge of the ship, arms out for another dramatic entrance.
"Presenting the High Chief of the Berserker tribe…defender of peace, tamer of beasts, the great and wise…Hildr the Sane!"
Boltstriker flew down, landing on deck with a gust of sandy wind caused by his powerful wings. His rider slipped off his saddle effortlessly, no trouble in flying in a dress. Hildr was always the more feminine and polite out of her friends so this was usual for her.
Hildr wasn't the girl she was before. Sure, she was still sweet, calm and cautious, but she has matured more regally and strongly, in mind and stature. She was clad in new clothes, appearing mature and regal, a chiefess. She had worn a yellow dress with long flowing sleeves and slit sides, black leather leggings underneath, white scaly boots and a black belt with a silver buckle embedded with a Skrill, her tribe's symbol and her dragon. Her hair was gathered mostly to the top of her head, braids running alongside the sides of her head.
The Berserker bowed low with more respect for her than for Dagur and stepped aside for her to walk regally down the plank and onto the pier. She walked slowly toward Stoick, accompanied by his council and the young Warriors. Tuffnut stared at Hildr more differently than he did with Hanna. It was mildly lusty with more admiration and another emotion unacknowledged by Vikings.
"Chief Stoick."
"Chiefess Hildr."
They stared at one another, hard.
"Well?" Hildr asked.
"Berk will change and learn the ways of the Dragon Rider in hope for a better future."
"Shoot!" Vipermei hissed.
Hanna groaned in agreement. She was hoping he choose sticking to the old and easy dragon-killing ways, like the old-fashioned Viking he was. Or supposed to be.
Hildr sighed. "Then let's get to work."