Chapter 2: The Home of Kittens

The next day, she met one of the small Vikings. The first one was the bear's-blood boy, with dark hair and a curly horned helmet. He was walking on her deck, inspecting her horse as if he had every right. She took one look at him, grabbed an oar, and beamed him on the head. It was a kinder fate than allowing Windstreak to steal a few fingers.

"Ow! What was that for?" He demanded, bringing all his weight down to bear on the younger girl.

"It was for ill-mannered boys who trespass on my ship!" She shot back accusingly, poking his chest with the oar.

"What business do you have here? Make it quick, I've got animals to feed and children to mind!" He seemed slightly daunted at the brisk scolding she had given him but she'd had plenty of practice with her brothers.

"I want to ride your horse." He pronounced the thing funny, more like hoarse. He didn't ask, he demanded.

"Windstreak only lets me and my brothers ride her, if you touch her she'll bite off some fingers." She warned him. The boy scoffed and reached out to pat the horse's mane. Like quicksilver the mare pounced, catching his arm and drawing a shriek of pain. The mare quickly spat him out though; she'd been rather kind actually, only drawing a little blood.

"Told you she's picky of her riders," Mira said, "Now don't be bothering her no more, get out before I let her have her way with you!" She reached threateningly for the latch that kept the stall door closed.

"Fine, a real man does his own work anyway!" He roared before stomping off. She watched him go, and then she went to finish her chores.

She'd gone to the beach to set up lobster traps when she met the dragon's-blood boy. He seemed too skittish to approach her at first, although he made a strangled noise when she removed her work dress and stood in her under things. Her brothers watched and Betty lay in her basket on the shore as she waded in. The water stung, she dreaded the moment when she'd be immersed completely, but it would all be worth it if they had some lobster to eat soon.

"H-Hey, what are you doing?!" The boy called to her once she was chest deep. She was working up the courage to take the plunge when he finally spoke.

"The water's freezing you know! You'll catch your death of cold!" But Mira grinned, and waved, and sank beneath the water. Once she was moving she could almost forget the cold. The slope of the beach had been gentle, there was no undertow to drag her away, and she'd tied the ropes to a rock anyway. It was short work to set the traps and come up again for air, which she only did when her lungs made clear the amount of pressure they were working under.

The air was even colder than she'd anticipated. Her eyes pricked with tears at the painful sting. She hadn't wanted to get in the water, now she hated to get out. It just wasn't fair. She clambered onto shore on limbs that suddenly felt much clumsier than before, and took off running. Her brothers laughed and cheered her on as she ducked and dived over the sand to warm her body. Soon she was breathing hard and sweating again, she felt she might survive if she put on a dry dress.

"Are you insane?" The boy demanded in a squeaky voice. "What if you'd gotten a cramp, or drowned?" He began listing other horrible afflictions that came of swimming in frigid waters, most of which culminated around the central point of freezing to death.

"Doesn't matter, need to set traps and that's the only way to do it." She shrugged. He was bigger, but he wasn't as overbearing as the first boy had been.

"Mira's the best swimmer of all!" Jon proclaimed proudly.

"Yeah, she can dive really deep too!" Joe added, as if it would make this great hulking stranger understand how amazing his sister was. Mira left them talking as she again ran up and down the beach, this time fully clothed. She was starting to feel human again.

"I'm Fishlegs, you know, if you were wondering." She hadn't been, but she didn't say so. She introduced her little family, changed Betty again, and they went back to the ship. This time the other three small Vikings were there, along with the first bear's-blood one.

"Yeah, you know, well I can ride this thing anytime I want." He was boasting. He leered at the blonde female without the helmet. "So Astrid, do you wanna—?"

"I'll pass." She cut him off, nodding in Mira's direction. The boy seemed to be frozen for a moment. She gave him a look that firmly communicated her opinion of his being.

"Ha, guess you aren't so tight with the stranger after all, huh Snotlout?" Laugh one of the twins. This one didn't have braided hair, and now that she was closer she could definitely tell that the other twin was a girl.

The boys were excited. They'd never seen another set of twins before. They burst forward with a million and one questions, so Mira occupied herself by grabbing an oar and approaching the boy.

"I thought I made myself clear this morning, you was not to trespass on my ship again or I'd let Windstreak have her way!" She waved the oar threateningly.

"You idiot, we're basically breaking into her house." The girl, Astrid, heaved a punch that drew another cry of pain from the boy's, Snotlout's, lips. "I'm sorry about this."

"Did he touch Windstreak or my cats? If not, then no harm done." She nodded. Satisfied that retribution had been wrought if not by her hand. Besides, this time she was carrying a baby and Snotlout appeared to be a violent boy.

"What are cats?" One of the twins, the girl this time, asked. Mira pointed straight up, where an orange feline had made himself comfortable and was watching the proceedings.

"That is a cat. They catch mice and things, and I've got two of them, only Silverwhiskers is going to have babies soon." She answered.

"They catch mice?" She repeated.

"And eat them, but they also like fish too." Mira looked from the twins to the adoring eyes of her brothers. "I'm Mira, and these two are Joe and Jon, on my back's Betty."

"I'm Tuffnut Thorston and this is my lame sister, Ruffnut." The male twin introduced himself, getting much too close to be mannerly. He did a smile that he might've thought was dashing but made Mira wonder if he'd been eating rocks. Every tooth was crooked, and one in the back was missing entirely.

"Mira, Mira, they're twins!" Joe informed her, as if she hadn't eyes to see for herself.

"Like us!" Jon added. She nodded and made a thoughtful noise, to satisfy her brothers that she had indeed found the connection. Soon she bid good bye to the small Vikings, and was able to get Windstreak out to the village.

Joe and Jon went to see if they could find the twin blondes again, leaving Mira and Betty to do what work they could for the Berkians. There was a new couple who asked for help hauling more lumber to rebuild a burned house, and one very strange old lady who did not speak but merely gestured to a big pouch of fish and a house in the center of the village.

"Ah, Mira, how are you and the little ones settling in?" Gobber called from his smithy. She trotted over to him and vaulted off Windstreak's back.

"Not bad, the boys are around somewhere looking for those other twins." He looked vaguely uncomfortable at this information but did nothing more than jump a bit and pale slightly.

"Well, I'm sure they're fine." He shrugged, returning to hammering a sword into shape. Behind him the smallest Viking returned to work, having stopped to ogle the stranger as well. Gobber frowned, "They couldn't have that now, could they?" he thought worriedly.

"Hiccup, I think we're good enough for today, we're just about ready for the beasties, why not get to know Mira here and show her around!" He suggested, catching the boy on his hook hand and thrusting him out the door, heedless of his protests.

"Gobber!" He gave one final breath of frustration before awkwardly turning around to face the only one on Berk shorter than he was. He didn't want to be anywhere near the monster that Snotlout swore had nearly taken his whole arm, but the girl with the baby refused to move away from it.

"Um, welcome to Berk." He said unnecessarily, clapping his hands and throwing his gaze around for some topic.

"I don't know if you've noticed or not, but we've got hiking, fishing, and a charming view of the sunsets." He shuffled uncomfortably close to the animal, darting away as soon as he could and taking a position on her left. There was probably something to be said about using a girl with a baby as a shield but as his father wasn't around to say it, he didn't think it was that important at the moment.

"I went for a ride yesterday, the forest is very nice, and I saw the sunset, but I haven't had a chance to do much fishing yet." She spoke back to him. She nearly stumbled when he came to an abrupt halt, staring at her as though she'd spoken another language. He looked as though he hadn't expected any sort of reply.

"Naagaaa!" Betty's squeal startled them both. Mira smiled and swung her around so now she was lying against her older sister's chest. She babbled some more in the way of small babies, falling asleep as they began walking again. Whatever had surprised Hiccup earlier seemed to have faded now, and he continued talking.

"There's only one big problem." He took in her questioning look and answered. "We've got these pests, see, they come around every once in a while."

"Pests? Like rats?" Mira asked.

"Dragons, actually," He corrected softly. Automatically he stiffened, awaiting a blow that would never come.

"I already knew about the dragons. I've never seen one before though." She chose not to mention his expression, which brought to mind of a fish on dry land.

"Killing a dragon is everything here." He told her as they walked by the center of the village. From there they could see the Great Hall, which was their final destination.

"It means you're one of us." They didn't say anything else until they got to the Hall, and then it was only for her to ask if he was sure it was alright for Windstreak to go inside. They got some food and settled down to eat, neither feeling much like talking.

"How old are you? I'm thirteen." She asked, having been unable to figure it out herself.

"Fourteen, and you're only thirteen and you're taking care of your brothers and sister all by yourself?" Mira nodded. Her mouth full of the delicious mutton stew he had recommended.

"I'm used to it. I'd normally watch them while my parents focused on bringing in the catch." She informed him.

"Well, you didn't really come at the best of times. The big Freeze is almost here and then we have winter. Then Devastating Winter, then Almost Spring, then we have two weeks of spring before summer starts." He said this all in his sarcastic nasal drawl. Mira wasn't sure what to make of this. She'd always known only the four seasons.

"Uh, so, is there anything you really want to see?" He asked in a way that implied he would much rather prefer her answer to be no.

"No, but thank you for the offer, it's around noon now, so I think I'll do some fishing before finding my brothers." She waved to him from atop her steed, kicking her into a canter. They'd start the real ride once they were out of town.

She caught twelve river fish within the next few hours, and after another hair raising ride returned to the village to find her brothers. They must still be with Ruffnut and Tuffnut, but everyone she asked seemed to go a bit pale and stocky before listing several places she could try. Eventually she found them by the forest line that came up to the smithy. Ruffnut and Tuffnut had been trying to start a fire.

"Hi Mira!" Her brothers clambered to greet her, darting between the mare's hooves. Windstreak stood with utmost patience in order to avoid stepping on the human foals.

"Hey Mira, we were just about to start a fire!" Tuffnut waved to her, his flapping arm resembled a sail in a fierce gale.

"You could join us if you want!" He pushed his sister down when she started making kissing noises behind him. Mira waited a moment, but it seemed they had forgotten about them in favor of wrestling with each other.

"They keep doing that." Joe told her, obviously confused.

"They like it." Jon whispered back to her. They both looked positively awestruck, as if the notion had never occurred to them. Honestly, it had never really occurred to Mira either, but as always she played the part of the all-knowing older sister, and gathered her brothers to take them home.

The next day she scaled the fish, chopping up some guts and chunks for the cats and then cutting the meat into strips for smoking. She built a good fire on the beach and watched the smoke curl around the catch. Now she shrugged off her outer clothes again, and waded in to her waist so she could draw in the traps. She tested them, tugging them lightly to see if they had a catch. Three of them did, and she brought them up, leaving the other two where they lied on the ocean floor. Four lobsters looked up at her, reaching out with pincers to grab tender skin.

She probably wouldn't get many more lobsters with winter almost there. They'd be going into hibernation until spring, and spring was a long time coming here. It took many hours for the fish to be done smoking, and by that time she had nicely boiled two of the lobsters. One she shared with her family and the other one she wrapped up to be eaten for dinner.

She continued on this way for a week before the ice set in. Now she bundled the boys in their new Viking-winter style clothes, and heated Betty's blankets by the fire every morning. She used some yak hair that she had traded some lobster for to make mittens, scarves and to line the inside of their boots. She didn't have enough for hats, but Ruff and Tuff's mother had given the boys her own twin's baby helmets, so the boys' ears were kept warm.

She was just sitting the boys down, trying to get them to eat their greens, when a knock sounded on the door. She put Betty in her basket and opened it up, shivering against the sudden icy blast as a gale suddenly rocked the ship on the water.

"Hello there lassie, I'm Mulch, this here's Bucket." The short rotund man from before and the man wearing the bucket on his head!

"We came here because we heard you got animals that catch mice and rats." Bucket said excitedly. He was almost bouncing up and down.

"Cats do catch mice and such things, um," She craned her neck to look at the room behind her. "Why don't you two come in and get warm, I know it's a bit of a walk from your farm isn't it?" They gratefully accepted her invitation and she got out two more plates for the last of the lobster.

"Oh yum, I never had this before!" Bucket smiled, digging in to his food right away.

"I'm not likely to get anymore lobsters for some time. They sleep all winter long, so I can't catch them." She had only caught three more since that first big catch.

"Well, listen here Mira." Mulch started, having finished half his food already. "We've been having problems lately; rats get into the grain bags that we use to feed the chickens. Now, we heard from Jorgenson who heard from Thorston who heard from their twins, that you've got a female getting ready to have her babies."

"If we could trade for one of the babies, that'd clear out our problem in no time!" He finished, digging back into the food, lest it grow cold.

"Baby cats are called kittens, you know they won't be able to leave their mama until they're four or five weeks old though, don't you?" She informed them. The kittens had already been born last night. They were down in the hold, nestled in some old cloths she had thrown away.

"Aw, is five weeks very long, Mulch?" Bucket pouted. "I want a baby cat!"

"Quiet down, Bucket. Are you five years old?" Mulch scolded him. "You can't take the baby from its mother before its ready." He turned back to the girl, "Can we have a look at them though, just so Bucket here can decide which one he wants?"

"Alright, they're down in the hold right now." She told the boys that they could go and play with Ruffnut and Tuffnut now, since they'd eaten all their food, and then put Betty in her sling. Mira shows them where Silverwhiskers nested along with her kittens.

"Aww, look at their wee faces Mulch!" Bucket cooed when he saw the four little kittens. He picked up one that was nearly solid black except for a white crown on her forehead and hind feet. "This one Mulch, oh look at it!"

"That one's a girl, Bucket." Now he turned to Mira to begin negotiating. "One of our hens managed to hide a clutch of eggs from us. How about in exchange for the kitten when it's grown we give you the nine chicks."

That was how Mira learned that everyone on Berk owned some animals, not just those who lived on farms. The ones who worked the farms took care of the animals in exchange for some goods, and all the animals wore leather collars with small metal plates that had the mark of whoever owned the creature. Mira agreed to trade for the nine chicks, who would not be layers for a year, when the crowned kitten was old enough to leave her mother.

What followed were more Vikings, eager to stave off the lesser pests with her small animals. A woman who introduced herself as Phlegma was revealed to be Astrid's mother, and traded some boar's meat for an orange tabby kitten. Mira began putting little rope collars on the kittens to show other Vikings if it had been claimed yet or not.

Another young woman came by, this one toting around a small boy not but a year older than her brothers came by, and offered to trade her son, although she was talked down to a lamb that had been the runt of its litter. That woman got the white kitten with black fur on his feet and tail. Mira asked Mulch and Bucket to look after the lamb for her, and commissioned a handful of collar plates from Gobber in exchange for the last kitten, which was mostly brown save for some white on the sides that looked a bit like tiny flames.

Winter had settled in by the time the kittens were grown enough to leave Silverwhiskers. She had already dropped off Gobber's kitten, which he'd named Flecks, and Gustav's mother's kitten, now named Muddypaws. Now she knocked on Phlegma's door, trying to keep the wriggling kittens from jumping to the ground and running away.

"Mira?" Astrid answered the door.

"I brought the kitten your mother wanted." Mira held up the orange ball of fluff, who managed to swipe her hand and draw a pearl of blood.

"Oh right, she said you'd be by soon and told me to stay here so I could give you the boar's meat." She let Mira inside and unhooked a large shank from the ceiling. Mira taught her how to butter cat's paws so by the time the cat licked itself clean it would accept its new home. Astrid thanked her and Mira awkwardly tied the wrapped up shank to Windstreak's saddle horn.

Now she only had Mulch and Bucket's kitten to deliver, and rode to their farm north of the village. They were waiting for her, and showed her the lamb that had started putting on weight and the nine chicks, all yellow and soft. The kitten was named Crown.


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