Not so easy to Persuade:
"Searching for you three of course!" Astrid retorted, maddened they didn't see the obvious.
"Have you guys been here all this time?" Snotlout asked.
"Not quite," Hester answered.
"Just what exactly is that dragon?" Fishlegs asked, ecstatic as a child at a celebration as he gazed at the dragon beside his brother.
"That is a Tifespinner," Sigmund introduced with a straight glance. "Her name is Tifespike,"
"Are you seriously focused on a new dragon right now?" the affronted Astrid demanded. "We just found your brother!"
"Of course I'm relived!" Fishlegs said offended.
"Really, because you seem to too focused onnnnnnn…" Tuffnut drifted off looking at Tifespike.
She tilted her face a bit, looking confusedly at the Viking who knew her rider.
"What exactly is this thing?" Ruffnut asked.
Smacking his face, Sigmund sighed. "Did you not hear what I said. It's a Tifespinner,"
"It looks so pretty," Tuffnut sounded as if he was in a dream. "And those tails…" he was gazing dreamingly at her tail spikes. "And those spikes…" he attempted to touch them.
"Ah – uh – uh!" Sigmund shouted. "Don't touch her tail spikes. They are very poisonous. They'll kill you instantly the moment you touch them,"
"Awesome!" he jeered out.
Sigmund groaned loudly.
Tuffnut smiled in an anxious state. "Not so awesome?"
"Let's just focus back on the subject please," Astrid insisted. She addressed to the Trio next. "We've been searching for you guys since yesterday. We need you guys to come back to Berk. We need you Hester,"
Hester huffed. "No one needs me. You've wasted your time searching," She was mount to back on Toothless.
"We don't want to go back," Sigmund supported, mounting his dragon. "We want to stay here,"
"But we've come all this way brother," Fishlegs reasoned.
Sigmund glared at him. Was he really calling him that? After all those years of resentment? "Are you really calling me that?" He wanted to stomp up at it and punch Fishlegs in the face, but Garsir's palm on his shoulder kept him at bay.
"Easy Sigmund," he implored.
"Can we at least talk?" Astrid beseeched beggingly.
Hester sighed. She wasn't going to give up that easily. "Okay," she agreed. "But only with you Astrid,"
"I am not leaving you alone with
"Fine!" Sigmund sighed. "Since you seem to be focused on knowing what kind of dragon it is, I'll be the one introducing it,"
"And I am goanna keep an eye on you guys," Garsir pointed at Snotlout and the twins. "To make sure you don't disturb the peaceful state of this island. This island belongs to these Tifespinners. And they don't not like any damage done to it,"
"That's right," the Boneknapper replied, growling a bit.
"Hey back off," Barf snarled.
"Yeah back off," Belch supported.
"So, no blowing up anything,"
Ruffnut and Tuffnut growled.
"No firing on the vegetation. No eating too much fish. These Tifespinners have a very complex diet of both flora and fauna. And they need to have equal amounts of both these types of food,"
So the group were split up. Sigmund, Tifespike and the Tifespinner pack took Fishlegs and Meatlug down to the cove where Sigmund began to teach his brother about this new type of dragon.
Garsir and Skullbones had Snotlout and the twins and their dragons stay where they were so they wouldn't cause trouble. To amuse them, Garsir decided to entertain them with the story of how and his best friends met the Boneknapper, proving once and for all the stories of his father facing this bone dragon were true all along.
Astrid and Hester went to a different part of the island on their dragons.
"What's all this about me needing to go back home?" Hester questioned, leaning against Toothless and crossing her arms.
"Look – a few nights ago, Thor came to us in a dream. He warned us that there was danger coming to Berk, a danger that we can't stop with dragons. But only you can,"
"What kind of danger?" Hester inquired.
"Hester – you're going to find this insane. But the Red Death gave birth to an heir,"
Hester was flabbergasted. So was Toothless. "An heir?"
Astrid nodded grimly. "Yes. He calls himself Rafashfear, and he controls an army of dragon-daemons that even dragon fire cannot penetrate,"
Toothless noticed Hester struggling to breathe where she was standing. He wrapped a wing around her to keep her protection. As he did Hester wondered: If these dragons had skin that could not be penetrated, were they made of crystal? Like the ones back on the island where she had touched that crystal and where she and her best friends were attacked by those crystal creatures?
"They're called Tifespinners because how they can spin around in circles at a fast pace. And they can even shop down anything. Almost like a Timberjack," Sigmund explained the reason for the species' name.
"Can you show me?" Fishlegs excitedly asked. Meatlug growled softly in approval.
Sigmund sighed. "Can you show them girl?" he requested to his dragon.
"Sure," Tifespike flapped her wings. Once she was high enough, she started spinning around in the air, stretching out her arms as if she was a spinning dancer in the air. As she spun, she started spinning around in circles and slicing every tree her spikes came into contact with as well as the rocks.
Fishlegs was so awed by that ability. Even Meatlug was.
Sigmund was heatedly annoyed by his bubbly nature with watching a new dragon. It seemed he had cared more about this new dragon rather than making amends with him.
Back at their point, Astrid rose up the crisis of the bad news. "Rafashfear is on his way to Berk to destroy it. But Thor told us in each of our dreams that only you could stop him. He said that you had something inside you that no one else has,"
Hester was sceptical about her claims. "Did he tell you what it was?" she desired proof.
"No," Astrid had to admit. "He doesn't even know. All he said was that it was to do with something that the Dragon Spirits had descended down onto our world a long time ago?"
Hester turned to Toothless. "Who are the Dragon Spirits bud?" she asked him, knowing he could possibly know.
"They are the gods of dragons. The ones who created our kind. A long time before humans came into this world," Toothless explained. "It is a story carried down through centuries of our existence,"
Hester was intrigued by these Dragon Spirits. But she would not be swayed into come back to Berk. "I don't want anything to do with Berk," she declared. "How impossible can it be to defeat it? All you have to do is get your dragons to blast inside Rafashfear's mouth like Toothless did into his mothers,"
"We don't know if that would work or not," Astrid pointed. "We need you to come back to Berk,"
"Did you not hear anything I said?!" Hester demanded.
"You cannot let innocent people and their dragons die," Astrid pleaded. "And your father…"
The moment she mentioned 'father' Hester flew into a fiery tantrum. "He is not my father Astrid!"
Astrid felt blown back by her shout. Even Stormfly did.
"He is a selfish chief who can't keep his mouth shut and who can't listen to people. Second! He hates me! He never accepted me for who I am. He didn't listen to me. And then he smacks me!" Hester could never lift the image of Stoick delivering a mighty smack to her face with his hand that knocked her to the floor in tears. "Astrid! He ill-treated me my whole life! You have no idea what that feels like!"
"You think I don't?!" a softened Astrid asked. "I was pushed my whole life by my parents to become the best warrior on Berk. They told me that it should be my important focus on life,"
"Oh really? They expected you to see friendship as a weakness?" Hester asked. "But it was still your choice whether to ditch Garsir and me,"
"Hester!" Astrid shouted, attempting to gain the upper hand. "Don't you have any fault in how you were treated?"
Hester blinked, and her voice calmed down a bit. "Excuse me?
"You never listened to him," Astrid pointed out. "If you had just stayed where you were instead of trying to help out, which actually, led you to causing more havoc, then maybe he wouldn't have grown so hard on you,"
"Well maybe – if I wasn't bullied by the village for being scrawny and not as strong as them, I never would have wanted to keep disobeying him in order to get a chance to prove myself," Hester counter-argued. "And how is it fair that while you and the others get to do something useful, I can't do anything except be forced to work in the blacksmith shop with the boys. Everything I ever did was just to prove that I was more than just a neglected scrawny heir who everyone could call 'Hicca!' – just because of how I looked. Garsir and Sigmund accepted me for who I was. And Gobber. They didn't care what I looked like. They cared about me because of how I was kind and good. Which is more than can be said for you and the others who only care about glory and being best at everything,"
"Yeah Astrid," Toothless snarled. "I love Hester for everything of who she is. Selfish beings like you and those Vikings back at Berk aren't deserving of anything,"
Astrid couldn't understand him. But he didn't care. The only thing he cared was that his hatred was shown at her, clear as crystal.
Astrid would not give up. She had promised to find Stoick and take Hester home. "He talks about you! Every day! Every night he can't even go to sleep! I even heard him singing a ballad about his desire to change the past and to prove to you how much he loves you, how much he's missed you,"
"I don't believe you," Hester sceptically refused. "You think a chief who smacks his daughter thinks of her, thinks that he can just the past and go on with life like it never happened?!"
"Hester," Toothless interrupted. "You're letting your anger consume you," He had never seen his human-sister more angered in her life than ever. She was not the same kind compassionate girl he was saw.
Taking her dragon's advice, Hester calmed down. Her calmness gave Astrid a chance to speak again.
"Look Hester, believe it or not, he misses you. And you must come back with us, back home,"
"This is my home," Hester gestured to the beautiful island that they were on. "This is where I'm happy, where I'm free, where I'm constantly given kindness and compassions,"
"Don't you think Garsir and Sigmund miss home?" Astrid argued.
"They seem happy here," Hester pointed out.
"Only because you're here too. Don't put your selfish desires above their wants to go home,"
"Now you're calling me 'selfish?!" Hester shouted.
Stormfly growled, ready to fire. "Back off girl!"
"You back off!" Toothless jumped in front of Hester and snarled at the Deadly Nadder, preparing to fire on her too.
"Stop!" both Astrid and Hester shouted, pulling their dragons back and calmed them down.
"Please Hester," Astrid begged. "If you found it in your heart to rescue us from the Red Death, surely you can do the same again. WE need you. Only you can defeat the Red Death's Heir and save us all,"
"Why can't the gods do it?"
"Because it is against the covenant, they made with the Dragon Spirits centuries ago before our beginnings to not harm any dragon,"
Hester was fuming by the second. How is it that Berk has to rely on her again instead of the gods? She turned her back on Astrid and went into deep thought. Toothless watched her carefully. Although he hated the Berkians for how they treated her and how they had chained him up, he did not want Hester to go down a dark path. He loved Hester for her warm heart. But her heart was slowly turning cold. No matter how much she despised Berk for its ill-treatment towards her, she could not turn dark. Much like Rafashfear or his mother.
Finally, after a moment Hester spoke again. "Just give me a moment to think about it," she requested. "I need to be alone," She proceeded to walk away but she noticed Toothless following her. "No bud," she shook her head. "This is something I need to discuss by myself,"
"Please don't go," Toothless begged.
"I'll be fine bud," Hester promised, kissing his snout. "I'll be back soon,"
Toothless trusted her judgement and let her go.
Hester walked to the far side of the island over to a cliff. She sat down on a rock and started out towards miles of open ocean. It was beautiful with the blue layers of sea and sky. She wondered: Could I go back to Berk? Could I really risk my lives for people who mistreated me again? Am I really being selfish influencing Garsir and Sigmund to stay with me? She felt lost. She felt broken in her heart. If only a god would come like last time and help me make the right decision
"Hester…" a voice called above. "Hester…"
Hester stared up at the sky. She stood up and stared up too. It must be another god. Her belief was confirmed when she saw a giant head appear in the clouds from a spectrum of bright sunlight.
This time, it was not Odin. This God had blonde hair that fell down to his shoulders underneath a shiny silver helmet with wings and blue eyes.
"Alright Thor," Hester bowed down.
"Hester," he addressed proudly. "I have been waiting a long time to see you,"
"I never I would be visited by a god again," Hester confessed. "I remember your father,"
"I remember him leaving Asgard to descend down to speak to you. And now I have come,"
"I'm glad you came Thor. I feel so lost," Hester confessed.
"I know. I witnessed everything between you and Astrid down below,"
"Did you really have to influence them in their dreams? Couldn't you have just come down instead of sending them out?"
"I only warned them of the danger and that only you could stop. I never actually decided that they would be the ones to look for you. They decided that themselves,"
"I don't know what to do Thor," Hester slouched down on her seat again, burying her face in her hands.
"Look Hester, you must rise above it," Thor complied. "The teens and their dragons came out here – all by themselves – just to bring you and your best friends home. You can find it in your heart to see past it. Just like you did. You could have allowed them to get killed by the Red Death. But instead, you rose above your pain and saved them. Don't succumb to that pain now,"
"I just find it so hard," Hester confessed, her voice both a mixture of anger and sadness. "How can you ever feel like saving people who have never cared for you?"
"Not everyone on Berk hated you Hester. There was Gobber and Gothi," Thor reminded. "They never judged you for who you were. Besides, you cannot repay them by abandoning them to die. More importantly, you'll never be any different than them if you just stay here. Let me tell you this. Everyone on Berk admires you. I hear what they say about you. They wished they could take everything back and make it up to you. Save them. Prove to them who you really are. A Hero. Not a misfit who holds back,"
Hester turned her head away. In an instant she realised that should she allowed these people to know she would be no different from them, she felt as if she had allowed her anger to supressed her kindness and compassion, she felt as if staying away meaning influencing Sigmund and Garsir to stay with her meant being selfish. She couldn't go through with it.
"You're right Thor," Hester approved. "There are others on Berk who were good to me aside from Sigmund and Garsir. I cannot let them die,"
"You are a very brave kindred girl," Thor spoke proudly. "In all my year since I was born, I have never once – I mean never – seen anyone, as unique and special as you,"
"Will you stay with me?" she asked.
"I will. I will be watching over you always," Thor's face disappeared.
Hester turned around and walked down the hill, determined to do the right thing. And not the selfish thing.
Wow. Hear that. Hester is going to do the right thing. Thank goodness she didn't go down a dark path.