By the time the sun set, Eulianna's hair was fully dried from the ocean breeze and her dress and cape was almost dry. She's been rowing since she departed from the ship, not pausing even for a second. Large waves helped as they pushed the boat, hopefully closer to Berk. She wished she snatched a compass because she wasn't sure if she was still heading in the right direction. She's passed by two islands which she deemed wasn't Berk because she saw no humans on them.

Eulianna was approaching another island which was on the left, she squinted to see if she could see a human, but instead saw winged, scaly creatures. Some green, some red. They flew into the air but never left the island. One spat out some smoke and that's when she realised.

"Dragons," she marveled. At last, she got to see the magnificent beast with her own eyes.

One of the dragons on the island sniffed the air and spotted Eulianna in her small row boat. It leapt into the air and flapped its wings and glided towards her.

"Oh, gods." Eulianna held her breath as a deep red dragon sat on the tip of the boat, slightly tipping it forward causing Eulianna to fall off the boat seat. Its slitted yellow eyes stared at her and it's teeth protruded from its jaw. It had antennas that looked like a vine of leaves and a horn on its nose. Eulianna didn't blink. She was completely frozen. She thought if she stayed still, it would leave her alone. Instead, it approached her and detected the bag of carrots near its body. It grabbed the bag with its claws and looked at Eulianna.

"Wait, those are my carrots that I stole," Eulianna tried speaking to the dragon who growled when she leaned forward to grab the bag. "Okay, okay. They're your carrots now." Eulianna didn't try taking the bag back. She held her hands up next to her face, palms facing the dragon. The red reptilian roared at Eulianna before flying back to its island.

"So that's definitely not Berk. Definitely, definitely not." She was glad the dragon spared her the apples.

She rowed the boat away from the island of dragons as quickly as she could and within an hour, she arrived at a small island that appeared uninhabited. She decided that she needed to rest up for the night before continuing to search for Berk. She reached the shore of the island and pulled up the boat onto the sand. She fell onto the sand, taking a couple of breaths before opening the bag of apples on the boat and devouring enough to keep her full. She used her cape as a blanket to stop her shivering from the cold as she laid on the golden sand. Her eyelids were heavy and within a minute, she fell into slumber.

—

Rorik laughed as Ilda stared at him in complete confusion.

"What's so funny about this?" Ilda cried with her arms crossed and holding onto her upper arms. Ilda met up with her boyfriend and showed him the letter Eulianna left her.

"I can't believe she actually did this… A couple days ago, Eulianna was telling me she has an uncle who lived on another island and she had ideas to bring him back to Hjalfadargin to prevent her aunt from being queen. And something about dragons too," Rorik explained.

"Why didn't she talk to me about this? Does she not trust me?" Ilda felt tears forming in her eyes. Rorik immediately noticed this and embraced her, holding her head to his chest.

"Of course she does. I just don't think she wanted you to worry. And you know her… If she believes in something, she'll put her mind to it." Rorik stroked Ilda's hair, helping her calm down in hopes to take her mind off her friend. "I'm sure she's managing just fine."

—

"My apples that I stole!" Eulianna screamed a dragon, or what she believed was the dragon she encountered yesterday, flew off with the bag of apples. She swore the dragon cackled at her as it flew back to its island. Eulianna sighed, "I want to cry a lot right now."

Eulianna was sleeping soundly but was rudely awakened when sand blew into her face. And when she woke, she saw the wings of the dragon propelling sand towards her and it's claws gripped on the sack of fruit.

Her eyes moved from the retreating dragon to a ship sailing in the distance, which only meant one thing.

Humans.

Which could possibly mean another thing.

Berk.

The dragon stealing her apples were now the least of her worries. She threw her cape into the boat and pushed it into the water. After tripping into the boat, she started rowing towards where the ship departed from.

"Please, please, let it be Berk," Eulianna begged the gods.

Within a couple hours, her boat passed between two large statues which wore horned helmets similar to the one Gobber wore in the illustration. The princess gazed up at the island before her. It was rather small and the tall, pointed rock that almost leaned over was the first thing Eulianna noticed.

Taking a deep breath, she rowed to the docks and saw two figures on the beach, one taller than the other and both having large beards. She rowed to the wall of the island and grabbed a loose rope that was secured to the dock.

The two men didn't notice the arrival of the girl until she cleared her throat. The shorter men had a brown beard and those horned helmets, whereas the taller one had a blond beard and instead of a helmet, he had a bucket on his head. Both had one prosthetic hand, both replaced by a hook.

"Good morning, good men." Eulianna looked at the men who just looked at her. When meeting strangers, she couldn't help but enter 'princess-mode', a term started by Rorik. 'Princess-mode' was head up, shoulders back and her best attempt at formal and polite conversation. "This island here. Is it Berk?"

"Well, yes it is, young miss!" The shorter one was the one who replied, a thick accent that Eulianna heard when she once visited a kingdom in the east. "But who is asking?" His tone changed from welcoming to threatening. "Are you a berserker?"

"No. I'm Eulianna Ursuline Ljungbergsen, princess of Hjalfadargin. I bring no danger," Eulianna bowed down.

"A princess! Did you hear that, Bucket? From that place that has festivals for apples."

Eulianna had to stop herself from pulling a face at the fact the guy wearing a bucket is named Bucket. And the man wasn't wrong. She didn't know other regions knew about Hjalfadargin's plethora of festivals.

"I've never met a princess before! Have I met a princess before?" Bucket wondered aloud.

Eulianna was regretting mentioning her title. "May I request for you to not tell many people of my status? But anyways, can you take me to your king?"

The two men looked at each other. "Uh, our king? Do we have a king, Mulch?" Bucket asked. These men had quite odd names, Eulianna thought.

"I guess that would be Stoick," Mulch mused. "Alrighty, your royalness. We'll take you to Stoick. C'mon, help her out, Bucket. Be careful, she's important!"

She expected the tall man to offer her his hand or hook, but instead he picked up the whole boat. Eulianna yelped as the boat was raised above Bucket's head. "We'll take you to Stoick, princess!" He started going up the flights of stairs that lead to the village.

"This is all so unnecessary, I'm able to walk!" Eulianna shouted, holding onto her belongings in case they fall out. Never has Eulianna been ever carried like this before. She was ranking this moment as the scariest in her life, of course after the dragon encounter.

As Mulch led the way, Eulianna observed the island. A bunch of wooden houses all sharing a similar arched shape reminiscent of the frontal of ships, all near one another with a large empty space in the centre. The villagers shared common features of pale skin, light eyes like the natives of Hjalfadargs. The people of Berk couldn't help but notice one their own carrying a boat with a girl in it and started muttering to themselves. Eulianna was beginning to feel self-conscious of her appearance. For the first time, no one looked like her. She couldn't spot anyone with a warmer complexion. She was sure no one here was of Nirhongan or even far eastern descent.

"Almost there, your majesty!" Mulch announced, gaining whispers from some people close by.

Bucket stopped in front of a house built on stone with two wooden dragons framing the front door. Mulch pounded his fist on the door and the owner of the house opened it. "Here we are!" Bucket said as he set her down on the ground next to him.

"Stoick! This girl here says she's the princess of Hjalfadargin! I looked in her boat and she's got a crown too!" Mulch pointed to Eulianna. Eulianna looked at Stoick, a large muscular man with a red beard braided at the ends. Eulianna thought everything about this man screamed authority.

Eulianna stepped out of the boat with her satchel and approached Stoick. "Good morning. I understand you are Berk's king?" Eulianna inquired.

"Uh, I'm the chief, Stoick the Vast." Stoick corrected the girl. "Berk doesn't have that type of feudal system. You're from Hjalfadargin?"

"Princess Eulianna Ursuline Ljungbergsen," the girl introduced herself as she curtsied. She sometimes hated how unnecessarily long her name was. A couple of the other villagers nearby 'ooh-ed' and 'ahh-ed' at her introduction. Eulianna opened her satchel and showed this picture of Gobber to Stoick. "I'm looking for this man."

"Oh, that's Gobber!" Mulch exclaimed.

"This man is my uncle and the true heir to Hjalfadargin," Eulianna declared confidently.

Everyone surrounding the girl hushed when they heard Eulianna's bold statement.

Stoick stared shocked at the girl before asking, "Are you sure about that, girl?"

"I'd like to meet him. Now." Eulianna tried putting on her authority voice that sometimes appeared when she was in 'princess-mode.'

Without any further questioning, Stoick asked Mulch to bring Gobber to Eulianna and in a matter of seconds, the man appeared to them.

"Morning, Stoick! What's the problem?" Gobber said and noticed Eulianna staring at him. He looked pretty close to his picture. "Who's this then?"

"Your niece," Stoick deadpanned.

Gobber's jaw dropped as he looked at Eulianna. "There must be a mistake here." Gobber laughed nervously as he eyed Eulianna. "I don't have a niece!"

"Then what is this?" Eulianna opened the chest of letters and shoved one of them into Gobber's hand.

Gobber skimmed the letter and his face softened, realising who Eulianna was.

"I think it's best we discuss this in a more... private environment," Gobber suggested. Gobber ushered Eulianna into Stoick's house and Eulianna asked Mulch and Bucket to mind the boat with her belongings.

Eulianna sat across Gobber and Stoick in front of the fireplace. She heard light footsteps on the second floor but elected to ignore it.

Gobber sighed as he looked into the fire. "I'm sorry, but I'm not your uncle."

Eulianna tried to refute, "The letters-"

"I know what the letters say. But your dad isn't my actual brother. When I was much younger, your dad washed up on Berk one night. I was the one who took him in and cared for him. He stayed in Berk for four years until he returned back to Hjalfadargin," Gobber explained.

"Her father's Andor?" Stoick asked.

"It seems so. I only called your father 'brother' because I treated him like one. He may have only been a viking for four years, but we built a brotherhood in those four years. He was practically a Berkian, ya know? Everyone called him Andy! You know your father stopped writing to me years ago? I've been sending letters and even accused the trader of throwing my letters into the sea," Gobber chortled, trying to bring up the mood a little.

"He… Both my parents disappeared when I was a kid," Eulianna whispered loud enough for the two adults to hear.

"I-I'm sorry to hear that, lass. I wish I had known," Gobber apologised, looking at the ground. "So you're here because you wanted to ask me about your dad?"

"Actually, before I found out you weren't actually my blood-related uncle, I came to Berk to bring you to Hjalfadargin. I assumed that you were my dad's older brother and so the rightful heir to the throne. My aunt was trying to marry me off to a prince of another kingdom, just so she can rule Hjalfadargin, but she's just going to throw all the Nirhongans off the island because she hates them, which basically started when she met my mother for the first time and-"

"Woah, calm down there, your, uh, highness." Stoick interrupted her. Eulianna didn't realise how rapidly she was speaking.

"Eulianna. You can just call me Eulianna," Eulianna informed.

"Eulianna," Stoick said with a bit of hesitancy. "We have nothing to offer for you here at Berk. We're sorry you came all this way just to be disappointed. We can provide you a ship back to Hjalfadargin, if you wish."

Eulianna pursed her lips as she was silent for a minute. She had no other plans or ideas in her head until she revisited the story Gobber had just divulged to her.

"No."

"No?" Stoick and Gobber said in unison, perplexed at the word that just escaped Eulianna's lips.

"Stoick, chief of Berk," Eulianna spoke. "If you don't mind, I'd like to stay on Berk for a while."

"What?" The two adults looked at her. A thud from the floor above was heard by the three of them.

"I'd like to stay on Berk. Just until I figure out what to do. Is there a place I can stay in the meantime?" Eulianna smiled at Stoick.

"Uh-"

"If you could excuse us, Eulianna," Gobber interjected and turned him and himself away from Eulianna who was sitting there looking too hopeful. Gobber lowered his voice to a whisper, "Stoick, please think about this. Let her stay. Cause, one, she travelled all this way by herself on that tiny rowboat. Two, you can't just reject a princess. Three, she's Andy's kid! Imagine what everyone would think when they find out we turned away the kid of one of our own. Four, she is my goddaughter. I'd feel horrible seeing her sail away when I just let her down from telling her I won't be able to be the king!"

"I don't know, Gobber."

"She's just a kid."

—

Eulianna happily skipped out of the chief's home and saw that Mulch and Bucket were standing by her boat. "Thank you, kind sirs," she sang out to the vikings.

"Is everything alright, princess?" Mulch questioned.

Before Eulianna could answer, Stoick and Gobber exited from the house. Stoick notified Eulianna, "There's a small house a couple houses away from mine that used to be the place of one of Berk's families before they decided to have more kids." Stoick gestured to a house to his right, just off the stone foundation of his house. "You can stay there."

"I truly appreciate it, sir. Thank you!" Eulianna lilted.

"She's staying! Is she staying?" Bucket chimed in.

"Yes, Bucket, she will be. I trust you will make sure the princess enjoys her stay here." Stoick said before declaring he had duties to attend to.

Eulianna smirked to herself. Being on Berk meant she had no duties to attend to and she could avoid her aunt and meeting Prince Espen. She hasn't decided how long she would stay on Berk, but she knew she wasn't going to be leaving anytime soon.

Gobber helped Eulianna bring her belongings to her new house and he chatted to her about what can be found on Berk. He didn't show it, but Gobber was frightened of what the future had in store for Eulianna. Berk was without a doubt, different from Hjalfadargin and she had to transition from living as a royal to a mere villager.

If her father could do it, so could she, he thought.

Gobber opened the door to the small house, revealing a dusty and empty area with a small flight of stairs that lead to a small room above. It was quaint and humble and perfect enough for Eulianna.

"We'll get you a bed and whatever else you want for your new house. If you ever need me, I'm usually at the blacksmith making sure we're all ready for raids," Gobber let her know as he walked backwards towards the door and turned to leave.

"Gobber." Gobber turned to his goddaughter. "Thank you." Eulianna softly smiled at him in which he gladly returned.