A/N: Thanks for the reads!
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Mariah: Don't wanna reveal too much but! Perhaps? Maybe?
Hertha was a warm, loving viking woman who was glad to help Eulianna out with her clothing situation and was a bit stunned when one of the first things that came out Eulianna's mouth was, "I want to look like a viking." Eulianna remembered Astrid's outfit which consisted of coloured and torn fabric, her spiked skirt and metal shoulder guards.
Hertha reminded Eulianna of Linnea and for the first time, Eulianna thought of the people she left behind. She could only imagine how they reacted once they realised she was no longer on the island. Her aunt surely must be rejoicing and Ilda must be so furious that she didn't tell her the whole plan. The people of Hjalfadargin would've been divided. She knew there were people who loved her and people who hated her. Even so, she reminded herself that being on Berk, she didn't exactly have to worry about what they thought. She had the chance to not care and allow herself to be in a new environment with new people.
The viking pulled out all the accessories and bits for clothing and tested them on Eulianna to see what suited her best. As she unravelling the remaining cloth she had, Hertha's eyes flickered to Eulianna's face and she cleared her throat. "I'm afraid I don't have enough fabric at the moment to make you a shirt," Hertha said apologetically.
"Oh… Well, if that's the case..." Eulianna looked at Hertha through the mirror. Eulianna lifted up her orange dress she had been wearing and quirked her lip and furrowed her brows.
Hertha was picking out a pair of fur lined boots for Eulianna to wear when she took notice of the dress the princess was wearing. It was made from the finest material Hertha had ever seen and almost glistened when the sun hit it. The design was rather plain and simple with a scoop neck and a-line shape with few gold details. She admired the craft of whoever made the gown and was dazzled, until the princess used a spare pair of scissors laying by to rip the skirt, creating a massive slit that ran up the princess's leg.
"Oh gods!" Hertha exclaimed. "What are you doing?!"
"I thought maybe my dress could be altered instead? Into a shorter skirt?" Eulianna looked at Hertha innocently and blinked twice.
"I suppose so," Hertha muttered. "Let me help you out, dear."
She took the scissors out of Eulianna's hands and trimmed off the long skirt into a short one which ended at Eulianna's thighs. She gave Eulianna a pair of brown leggings to cover her legs with and Eulianna slipped on the wrapped, fur-lined boots Hertha pulled out. It was a huge change from the shoes she'd been wearing previously. Much more comfortable and gave enough room for her to stretch her toes. Eulianna also asked Hertha to rip the long sleeves off the dress, leaving her shoulders to show. Hertha gave her an old, fur vest which was cut to be much shorter than it originally was. Hertha took the remaining cloth to wrap around Eulianna's forearms to create arm bracers. Unfortunately, the bracers could barely cover her whole forearm and ended up only wrapping half her forearms. Eulianna left the necklace on as well as the gold bracelets that were stacked on her wrist and the small earrings with tiny gems on her earlobes.
Eulianna was pleased with her new look and twirled around to see the full look. She smiled at her reflection and flipped her long hair behind her shoulder. She remembered Astrid's braid, Ruffnut's three braids, and looked at Hertha's hair which was also in a braid. She combed her hair with her fingers and separated into two parts, creating pigtails and twisted a braid in each of them. With her pinky, Eulianna pulled out some strands of her hair at the front, framing her face.
After thanking Hertha for all her help, Eulianna skipped out of Hertha's home when she bumped into Snotlout who did a double take because he didn't recognise Eulianna in her new look.
"Oh, hey princess. Lookin' good," he hummed. "I do miss your princess dress, though. You wanna see me workout?" Snotlout asked as he pushed out his chest. "Do you have a workout room or a gym in your castle? Maybe I could visit it one time," he said as he leaned towards Eulianna who immediately leaned back. Eulianna questioned what a gym was, because she had never heard of one before.
"Uh, well there's a training room for spar practice?"
"Gods, I deserve a castle. Did you know I'm basically royalty here?" Snotlout babbled on.
Eulianna frowned and asked, "Wouldn't Stoick be considered royalty? Since he's the chief?"
Snotlout shuddered, "If Stoick was anything like a king, that means Hi- Astrid!" He interrupted his own sentence when he spotted Astrid walk past behind Eulianna. "Sorry angel, gotta talk to my babe," he said as he rushed towards Astrid and tried to place his arm on her shoulder to which she grabbed his hand and twisted it.
"Not interested, Snotlout!"
"Ow, ow, ow!"
Eulianna giggled as she watched the two walk away, Snotlout desperate for some affection from the blonde girl. Astrid looked back and inspected Eulianna's new look to which she sent an approving smile her way.
The brunette ran back to the forge to show the apprentice her new look. She rushed into the forge and struck a pose, with her hands on her hips.
"How is it?" She asked.
The boy turned and raised his eyebrows, scanning her head to toe. "Wow… I mean, looks really good," he complimented. "Different from all the princess dresses and lip tinctures, huh?"
"How could I ever live without some colour on my lips. Quick, mix some balm and berry juice together!" She sighed for dramatic effect, earning a quiet snort from the boy, a huff of air out his nostrils. "Thanks though, Freckles," Eulianna said, awaiting his reaction to his new given nickname.
"Freckles?"
"Yeah, duh, cause you got freckles. Also cause I keep forgetting to ask your name," Eulianna pushed herself up onto the workbench and sat on it, swinging her legs back and forth.
"So, instead of asking me… You just resorted to calling me 'Freckles'?" He furrowed his thick brows.
"Yep. Or would you rather 'Scarface'?" Eulianna pondered as her eyes glanced at the small scar on his chin. His hand ghosted over the scar.
"Hmm… 'Scarface' makes me sound tough and a little cool, I must say."
"Alright, 'Freckles' it is then. It's cuter too."
"Well, while it isn't the most creative nickname, it's definitely the least insulting one."
"What do you mean? Who's being mean to you?" Eulianna's face changed from amused to interest and concern as she slid off the table.
"Hah, you'll see what I mean," he laughed it off.
"What is your name, though?"
"It's-"
"Excuse me, prin- Eulianna." Stoick's voice emerged from nowhere and he appeared into the forge. He turned to Freckles and said, "I need to talk to you about something."
Eulianna excused herself in order to give the chief and Freckles some privacy as she headed back to her house, frustrated she still wasn't able to get Freckles's name.
—
It was dinner when Eulianna met another teenager on Berk. He was sitting by himself, excitedly examining a scroll. A little too excited for Eulianna's liking. He introduced himself as Fishlegs and according to him, there was no need for an introduction from her. "It was hard to not hear Gobber," he had said. He had a fair amount of knowledge about Hjalfadargin which surprised Eulianna because no Berkian had shown this much interest in her home.
"Is it true you have a festival for flowers?" Fishlegs asked jovially.
"Yeah, we do. Everyone is basically dressed in flowers the whole time," Eulianna told him, reminiscing Ilda and her weaving flowers into their clothes and decorating the collar of Ilda's watchdog with daisies and forget-me-nots.
Eulianna sneaked a peek at the scroll Fishlegs had in front of him and saw a sketch of a dragon, just like the one she met on her rowboat. "Hey, I saw that dragon," Eulianna mentioned.
"You saw a Changewing?!" Fishlegs gasped. "They're great at camouflage and they shoot acid!"
Eulianna found Fishleg's enthusiasm about dragons endearing and wished she had her own passion. If anyone asked her what her passion was, she'd probably joke and say, "getting away from my aunt." Or if she was to be more serious, she'd say, "find her parents" but she has no clue where they could be, that is if they were still alive. Or perhaps she would say, "find the dragon who gave me this burn," but that wasn't really a priority for her.
"Yeah, I met one on my way here," Eulianna replied to the excited boy. "So, Fishlegs you seem to know a lot about dragons, huh?"
"Only a little."
How humble, Eulianna thought. "Then do you know any dragons that have big eyes that stand out? Kinda sleek too."
Fishleg's eyes squinted as he thought. "There's quite a lot. I could show you the Book of Dragons! It has every dragon we know. Maybe you could find the dragon you're looking for in there."
Eulianna agreed to meet Fishlegs the next morning where he would show her the Book of Dragons after breakfast. Fishlegs brought out a large, brown book with an engraved image of a swirling dragon. Eulianna flipped through the book to find the dragon she encountered when she was still a child.
"Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope." She said at each image and when she finally landed at the part of the book where it was blank. "And… nope," she sighed. "Maybe Berk hasn't discovered the dragon I'm looking for."
"That's so cool! I mean, it's cool there's more dragons out there. Sorry you couldn't find the dragon you're looking for," Fishlegs mumbled, scratching the back of his neck, voice lowering at the last bit.
Eulianna felt terrible for worsening the mood and diminishing Fishleg's excitement, so she remembered, "You know, my mother is from Nirhong and she said there's dragons there too. But they don't look anything like the dragons in this book."
Fishleg grew enthusiastic again as Eulianna told him the story her mother told her years ago that she never forgot about.
—
A small team of guards were set for sail to DunBroch in hope to find Princess Eulianna, as ordered by Duchess Gerda who was doing her best to entertain Prince Espen and his parents who were staying in the castle as they awaited for the princess's return. Prince Espen was a master at concealing his expressions, but his parents presumed that he was annoyed and growing impatient.
Rorik's father encouraged, or in Rorik's view, forced Rorik to be acquaintances with Prince Espen in order to entertain him. Rorik did his best to be friendly with the prince, however Rorik found that trying to please Espen was one of the hardest challenges he's ever faced.
"So, Prince Espen! Have you been around Hjalfadargin yet? The villagers are excited to see a prince on the island," Rorik forced himself to start the conversation, plastering an ingenuine smile on his lips. "I'm sure they'd love to meet you, or even see you once more."
"Hm." Espen didn't even look up from his book.
Rorik cleared his throat and tried again. "Seems like that must be a great book. I'm honestly not much of a reader myself, but I do dabble in some fiction."
Converse to him about subjects he likes, Rorik thought.
"Hm."
Rorik was wondering why he was even bothering trying to get more than one syllable out of the Prince's mouth.
"So… do you spar?"
"No."
It took every muscle of Rorik's body to not rip out the oh-so-interesting book from the prince's hands and fling it out the window and into the moat.
—
Eulianna found herself at the blacksmith forge again the next day, in hope to see Freckles, but saw Gobber who was switching out his prosthetic arm from a saw into a hammer.
"Oh, Eulianna! What do you need?" Gobber secured the hammer into his arm, making sure it wasn't going to fall off.
"I was looking for...you!" She fibbed. She wasn't sure why, but she wanted to get to know Freckles better. The boy made himself out to be an outcast and she was curious to know why. Despite her being the newcomer, the people on Berk seemed to be warming up to her. She assumed Freckles has been there his whole life, but the people seemed the slightest bit hostile, as she would describe it, towards him. Gobber and maybe Fishlegs seemed to be sort of friendly to him.
"Oh! Wanted to spend some time with your godfather, your unbiological uncle, huh?" Gobber grinned. "If your dad wasn't at home, he'd be at the forge." Gobber bringing up the subject of her father made her question his life on Berk and how the vikings saw him.
"Gobber, you said my dad was on Berk for four years-"
"Was almost five years!"
"During those four years on Berk, was he actively trying to get back home?"
"Well, at first he was desperate to get back home. He was so worried about his parents and his parents were probably worried about him too. He was only fourteen when he came to Berk. Just a bit younger than you." Gobber pointed to Eulianna. "We did offer to take him home, but we weren't sure where Hjalfardagin was at that time. But then one time, he said, "I'll get home eventually." And he wasn't so worried anymore. Because he figured he was just fine where he was. And he was happy here! They found him after four years. You must be wondering why it took so long, huh?"
Eulianna gave a small nod as she listened intently.
"They were travelling far out west when he fell overboard so apparently they've been only looking at that part of the world when really they only needed to head up north to find him. If you ask me, I think they were delaying the search party. Not sure why, but someone in my bones tell me there was something else stopping them from finding him," he speculated.
Eulianna did also agree that it was quite bizarre it took the royal guards and knights to find her father. "Did he want to go back home? Once they found him?"
"I'm pretty sure he did. He did cry a lot when we said our goodbyes. But I do remember him saying something I would always tell him."
"What was that?"
"'Once a viking, always a viking.'"
"That's... a bit corny," Eulianna commented as she was waiting to hear something more different or original.
"But it's true!"
"Did he… kill dragons, too?" Eulianna asked scared to hear Gobber's reply. She never thought of her dad to kill animals. Sure, he ate meat but to see blood on his hands wasn't something she could imagine.
"No, he didn't. He couldn't stand to see the sight of a dead dragon. He literally puked everytime he saw one! Funny Andy," Gobber laughed as he reminisced Eulianna's father hurling into a barrel after tripping over the neck of a dragon. "Maybe you'll kill a dragon before your dad did!" Gobber beamed as he hobbled over to the sharpening wheel.
Eulianna gulped and looked outside the forge and up into the sky. Her fingers fiddled with the necklace on her neck. After Fishlegs gushed over dragons to her, her fascination with dragons grew. She wanted to learn more about them and moreover find the dragon she met all those years ago. If being a viking meant killing a dragon, she wasn't sure if she was ready to be one.
It wasn't until later that night that Freckles walked into the forge, barely noticing Eulianna who was sitting behind a workbench hunched over, mind racing with a million thoughts about her father, dragons and Berk. Freckles weaved his way around stray weapons until he reached a large object that was blanketed by a large cloth.
Eulianna realised he had walked in and looked at him hovering around the mysterious object. She spoke up, "What's that?"
Freckles screamed as he whipped to face her but as he did, his hip bumped into the covered machine, which activated the springs and shot a bola in Eulianna's direction, whipping off the cloth in the process.
Eulianna screeched as she ducked, barely missing the bola as it flew past her out of the forge and capturing an unsuspecting viking who yelled out, "Hey!"
"What are you doing here?!" Freckles cried out at the girl who was on the ground, eyes wide and mouth gaped in shock.
"I've been here the whole time! What was that?!" Eulianna screamed back.
Freckles covered his face with his hands and breathed deeply before saying, "The Mangler."
"Who?"
"The Mangler. I made it," he said, hoping to possibly receive a compliment for his handiwork, but instead Eulianna looked scornful, much to his dismay.
"You made a killing machine?! Is it meant to go off randomly like that?" Eulianna rose from the ground, dusting off any dirt from her clothes.
"No! It-it's still in the works. Sorry, I didn't mean to shoot it at you," Freckles bit his lip with his brows turning downwards. "It's actually meant to shoot down dragons. I've been working on it for quite some time now and I'm planning to use it in the next raid. "
"So, you're hoping to catch a dragon with that. Why?"
"'Why?' Eulianna, once I catch a dragon, or better kill one, they will finally accept me as one of them," he explained.
"You are one of them."
"I'm not! They remind me everyday that I'm not. They may not say it out loud, but the way they look at me, I know they think I'm not 'viking' enough, that I'm not enough."
"Is that what you truly want?"
"Them thinking I'm not enough?" he asked dumbly.
"No," Eulianna crossed her arms. "Acceptance. That if you kill a dragon, all your problems will be gone?" Eulianna felt her head heating up as she looked sadly at Freckles.
"...Yeah."
"I know killing dragons is the 'viking way', but you don't need to do that just to prove yourself," she said.
"Look, you don't get it. That's what vikings do! They kill dragons! And it's probably the best way for them to finally look at me differently. It's okay, I don't expect you to understand since you're from Hjalfadargin and since you're a princess." Eulianna scoffed. "You didn't need to prove yourself; everyone immediately accepts you!"
Eulianna shook her head as she stared at him in disbelief. "You don't know that." The boy was startled by Eulianna's current demeanor as her eyes darkened. "Just because I'm a princess doesn't mean it's easy for me."
"So, you should understand what I'm saying!"
"You can be worthy of their respect without harming a creature!" Eulianna raised her voice, gaining looks of some vikings who walked past the forge.
"So what, you're also choosing to not be on my side with this? Really thought we were bonding here."
"There's no sides. Acceptance doesn't mean you should conform to the 'viking way', Freckles."
"Then, there's no point in you trying to understand," he retorted, grabbing a tool to work on his contraption. It was clear that he didn't want to continue arguing with her.
Eulianna acknowledged that and rolled her eyes, storming out of the forge and making her way back home, not sparing him a glance, whereas he looked at her one last time before directing his focus back on the Mangler.
—
Eulianna was sleepless, tossing and turning on the stiff bed still furious at the last conversation she had with Freckles. She put herself to bed hours ago and managed to get some shut eye for an hour before she woke up.
She shut her eyes, doing her best to force herself to sleep but seconds after she closed her eyes, she heard a loud boom from outside.
She shot up and heard a couple more booms before she ran to the window to see Berk ablaze.