A huge thanks to everyone that has read, reviewed, added to favorites, or put this story on alert. You guys are awesome and I am so glad that you guys are enjoying the story so far. Also, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! They are what kept me from really working on this chapter.

I Take a Wrong Turn

It was not until the next afternoon that Stoick arrived to speak to Halla about whatever had happened in the meeting after we had left. She had taken the bandage off my head that morning, saying that it was looking very good so I no longer had that wrapped around my head. When Stoic arrived, I was promptly shooed out of the house and told to drop off some stuff at the home of Phlegma the Fierce, which Halla had pointed out to me the day before. The hard part was remembering just which home it was that she had pointed to when she had said Phlegma's name. Which level of the village had we been in when she had pointed it out? So until I remembered or until someone around the village took pity on me and pointed me in the right direction, I was stuck wandering through the various levels as I tried my hardest to remember where exactly Phlegma's house was.

Remembering locations of places was not that simple for me. It usually took me at least two weeks to be sure of where my classes were located every year in high school. Before that time, I'd constantly need a map in my hands so I knew where in the world I was going. I was even doing that my senior year, when I had been seeing the same campus every day for three years. You would think I'd have the campus memorized like the back of my hand by that point, but sadly not. Now, stick my directionally challenged self in an animated film and I was screwed.

I sifted the small woven basket in my hands as I turned a corner to head around one of the buildings and found myself knocked to my butt. Something metal clattered to the ground. I let out a breath and tightened my grip on the basket, which thankfully I still had a hold of and did not lose its contents. I really did not want to explain to Halla that I lost the contents when I ran into someone while lost. I wanted to do this for her. After all, she had taken me in when she did not have to.

"Oh gods, I'm so sorry!"

I looked up to see that I had walked right into Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, who was fumbling as he tried to pick up whatever it was he had dropped in the collision. Something had been wrapped in cloth, though he grabbed it before I could figure out what it was. Poor kid looked extremely embarrassed.

"It's okay," I replied as I put the basket under one arm and pushed myself to my feet. "No harm done. I'm Kendra, by the way."

He finished wrapping up whatever he had dropped and stood up. "Um, Hiccup."

I blinked, trying to look as if I was thinking about who he was. "Hiccup? It was you that found me."

He blushed slightly and ducked his head. Good God, this kid was adorable. Sure, he was different but why that stopped anyone from being his friend was beyond me. "Yeah."

I smiled at him. "Thanks for getting me help."

He shrugged slightly, still looking down at his feet, embarrassed. "Eh, it was nothing."

"You didn't have to get help, but you did," I responded. Some of the others may not have helped some random girl that had just shown up in the middle of the forest. Like that one dude that wanted me thrown off the island before the elder spoke up. I cleared my throat. "Anyway, any chance you can help me find Phlegma's? Halla wanted me to drop whatever this is off, only I can't remember where Phlegma lives."

Hiccup nodded after a second of just studying me. "Sure. I was going there to drop off these knives she wanted sharpened, actually."

"Great," I replied as Hiccup began heading in the direction that I had come from, gesturing for me to follow him. "What exactly does Phlegma do?" I asked as I fell into step beside him as we made our way through the village.

"She's the village midwife," he replied as he led the way down into another level of the village. "Though most of the time she's just a warrior."

"Ah," I said as we continued walking. Oh come on, there had to be something I could say to keep the conversation going. "So you sharpened her knives?"

Ah yes, that was a good one. Of course, I knew that he probably had since he worked with Gobber, but no one had actually told me anything about that. I looked over at Hiccup when he nodded. "Yeah. I've been working with Gobber, the village blacksmith since I was little," he said before glancing down at himself. "Well, littler."

The corners of my mouth turned upward. Yes, he was shorter than me, but I had a couple years on him. He had been like fourteen in the movie and I had to be somewhere before the movie started since dragons were not all over the place. "Well, you're how old?"

Hiccup frowned slightly as he glanced toward me. "Thirteen. I turn fourteen in four months."

Yup, before the movie. How long? No idea. I grinned. "Well, there you go. You're still young. You'll probably hit your growth spurt in a few years."

Hiccup just looked at me, the cutest confused expression ever on his face. God, this poor kid needed a friend. Someone that praised him for being the way he was, not put him down like the entire village seemed to do to him in the movie. Sure, he would have Toothless someday, hopefully soon, but even before that the kid needed a friend.

He seemed to shake himself for a moment before he looked away from me. "That's her place," he told me, pointing to a house on one of the lower levels of the village. Halla's place was up on the next level…I think. Hmm, I'd have to ask for his help to find my way back to her place, it seemed. Phlegma's place looked similar to the other homes I had gone past while searching, a carving on a Nadder at the crest of the roof. But unlike some of the over carver Nadder heads I had seen, this one was green in color. Okay, now that I could remember.

We walked up to the door and Hiccup rapped his fist against it twice. We heard movement inside and the door was pulled open a moment later. The woman was large. Muscular and tall, though not as tall as Stoick or Fishlegs. She had a small horned helmet set upon her auburn hair and large green-blue eyes. She smiled at Hiccup. "Ah, I'm guessing those are my knives?"

"Yup," Hiccup smiled, handing the bundle to Phlegma.

She pulled one of the knives out and inspected it for a moment before nodding. She returned the knife to the bundle and then turned her attention to me. Her smile faded slightly as she looked me over. I held out the basket to her with a smile. "Halla sent me to give this to you."

She took the basket from me and peeked inside. She glanced up at me as she closed the lid, the corners of her mouth going back up. "Ah, this will be a great help," she said. "Be sure to thank Halla for me."

I nodded. "Will do."

With one last smile, she closed the door. Hiccup and I turned and started walking away from the midwife's house. "Any chance you can show me how to get back to Halla's?"

Hiccup let out a soft laugh and nodded. "Yeah."

"Thanks," I said, smiling over at him. We walked in silence for a little bit, but it was not an awkward silence. It was a comfortable one. Well, not really that comfortable but not very awkward either. It just…was. I sighed and wished I had pockets to put my hands into. "So, you're a blacksmith?"

"Apprentice," he told me. I glanced over at him, nodding as we approached a house that I vaguely recognized as Halla's. "It's up one level from here."

"Cool. If I get shooed out again, I know where to go," I told him, stopping before the door to Halla's. "Thanks for keeping me from getting lost."

"Eh, it was nothing," he said, looking down at the ground. "I've got to get back to the stall."

"See you around, Hiccup," I told him before pushing open the door, seeing that Stoic was gone and Halla was nowhere in sight. I looked out the door as I closed it to see Hiccup walking away from the house. He was a good kid and he needed a friend. I smiled as the door closed. Well, I was going to make sure that he would have one before Toothless arrived.

Halla came down the stairs at that moment and spotted me. "Ah, you're back. Got lost?" she asked, a small smirk tugging the corners of her mouth.

I nodded as I moved away from the door. "Yeah, but someone finally took pity on me and showed me to Phlegma's. And then showed me back here."

She chuckled as she headed over to one of the tables and began cutting up some ingredients. "Did you get the name of whoever helped you?"

I walked up to the side of the table and watched her cut. "Hiccup," I responded. Halla stopped her cutting and looked toward me. "He seems nice."

Halla simply looked at me with an unreadable expression for a moment before looking back down and resuming her cutting. "Aye. Hiccup Haddock. Always coming up with ideas and contraptions, he does, things that often cause more harm than good. He's just….different."

"Everyone's different," I responded after a moment. Halla stopped her cutting and looked at me again with that expression I could not figure out. "Not even twins are exactly alike."

She just continued to look at me. Okay, that look was starting to make me uncomfortable. "What?" I asked after a moment.

That seemed to shake her back to Earth for she looked away and resumed her cutting. "Can you get me the mortar from the table by the bed?" she asked.

"Sure," I said slowly. I pushed myself away from the table and headed over to the one that was closer to the bed I was currently using. Guess the conversation about Hiccup was over.