Hiccup began by explaining how he'd met Toothless, trying to shorten the story so it wasn't boring. But he quickly observed that Zyrah was the most curious to learn about him and Toothless. But once his part was done, Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ana, and the twins spoke up and shared their details, sharing a few laughs over recalling old memories.
The discussion fell somber when Hiccup then recalled the events of only a couple of months ago, when Drago brought his dragon army to Berk's shores, and nearly took Toothless away from Hiccup. But through their bond as dragon and rider, they were able to defeat Drago and his Bewilderbeast; they did not fail to mention how Drago's Alpha had defeated Valka's Alpha. Valka being his mother.
The three teenagers were understandably in awe of Hiccup's journey, from how he met Toothless, to becoming chief of Berk.
"Man, and to think Blueheart attacked me in the forest! Not nearly as interesting!" Zyrah snorted.
"She attacked you?" Astrid echoed, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, I was going into the woods to get firewood alongside my big brother, but I got distracted. And then I heard this terrifying screech, and I was smart enough to know that meant it was time to go home, with firewood or not," Zyrah made sure to send Blueheart a playful glare, which was responded with a good smack on the head with her wing. "Anyway, she'd been hiding up in the trees, and then she just straight-up tackled me into the ground! She scared the daylights out of me, but I got away and got home safely. But then she made quite the scene when she followed me!"
"Our village has had peace with dragons for generations, and everyone knows about Night Furies, but no one had ever seen one in person, not even a passing glimpse until Blueheart showed up quite literally out of nowhere. We've been stuck with her since!" Rurik finished.
"Fascinating, two different encounters!" Fishlegs noted.
"So she just kinda… showed up?" Hiccup asked. Zyrah nodded in confirmation.
"Night Furies have never been seen in the woods on our island ever. She was pretty young too. Not a baby, but we think she was a teenager? We're not sure. She doesn't look exactly like Toothless, especially not in the eyes…" Zyrah observed, trailing off as she glanced between the male and female.
"At least they're getting along." Konall offered.
"Well, there's plenty of time to learn more, we'll be staying for a while. We want to set up some trade deals and other diplomatic stuff. But since we're still here, we wanna know more about you guys." Hiccup said, gesturing to the three of them.
"What do you wanna know?" Zyrah asked, leaning back in her seat.
"First, you guys are all the same age?" Snotlout spoke up immediately. Zyrah, Rurik, and Konall all glanced at each other.
"About so yeah. Rurik's the oldest, I'm a few months younger, and then Zyrah is about 9 months younger than Rurik." Konall explained.
"Zyrah and I are the youngest of five. She's the baby sister, we have Olsen, Alvar, Eindride, and then me."
"I'm confused though," Ruffnut said.
"Why?"
"I mean, you two are 9 months apart, but it seems unlikely your mom got pregnant that quickly after having a baby." The blonde observed. The others in her group seemed surprised by her observation, but they couldn't disagree with her.
"I hate to say it, but she does have a point. Seems a bit weird." Rurik and Zyrah looked at each other uncomfortably, unsure of what to say.
As if by chance, their mother called their names, making her way over.
"Oh, hey mom!" Zyrah greeted, "is everything okay?"
"I've been looking all over for you, Dalla just went into labor." Rurik and Zyrah stood instantly, "you can wait here or go back to the house, but your brother wanted me to pass it on to you." Dalla, Olsen's wife, had been due for over a week, and everyone was anticipating the birth. Now that she was finally in labor, they could rest easy knowing the baby was on its way, no matter how long it took.
"Oh, congrats!" Konall said with a huge grin. Eðla returned with a beaming smile of her own as she left the hall.
"Your brother is how old?"
"Uhhh… I think 31 or 32 now? He's twice our age." Rurik offered with a shrug, which was then followed by a laugh, "he did always say my birth was super easy on mom." Zyrah raised an irritated eyebrow at her brother, unsure of why he said that. But now that she thought about it, she'd heard Olsen talk about Eindride and Rurik's births before, not Alvar since he was too little to remember.
But no one had a story about her birth.
"Zyrah?" Came Konall's voice.
"Huh? Oh, sorry… got lost in thought for a moment." She awkwardly apologized, playing with her braid.
"It's alright! We've all heard crazy birth stories ourselves."
"Yeah, Hiccup here was the tiniest baby!"
"We're all the same age, Snotlout-" Hiccup groaned.
"Your mother did mention it." Astrid reminded him.
"Gods damn it." Zyrah felt uncomfortable at the thought of talking about the birth stories of others.
"Changing the subject! Hiccup! How did you learn to train with Toothless? You didn't mention the details, but I'm curious!"
Enthusiastically, Zyrah led Hiccup and the Night Furies out of the great hall towards Firewind's training ring. For generations, instead of training to be dragon killers, children were taught how to become dragon riders.
Zyrah eagerly wanted to show Hiccup where she'd been trained, not just as a dragon rider, but one of her village's best sword fighters.
Hiccup was still reeling from the fact that there was a female Night Fury keeping in pace with Toothless just behind them.
"Uh… remind me again how old you were when you and eh… Blueheart? When did you two meet?" Hiccup began.
"Oh, about 11? Yeah, 11!"
"Gods, that's insane. Imagine the chances of you and me bonding with the only Night Furies in the archipelago!"
"I know! I always wondered if there were more out there, and I'm glad I wasn't disappointed!" Zyrah turned her attention to Toothless, whose ears were up and alert. "He looks incredible. Eh, Blueheart?" She winked at the female, who scoffed and rolled her eyes.
Hiccup couldn't help but chuckle.
"Ah geez, he's not much of a sight?" He teased.
"She's pretty moody, dunno why." Zyrah sighed, crossing her arms.
"Something tells me that's just a Night Fury trait."
"Oh yeah?" Hiccup smirked, absolutely ready to tease Toothless.
"He's a drama king. His moods switch as fast as a snap of the fingers. And he makes sure to let you know when he's not feeling it. Very dramatic for the Alpha."
"Funny! Blueheart doesn't show her emotions much, but she's always carried a moody vibe. You just know sometimes. And I'm occasionally a poor victim of her outbursts." Zyrah drawled.
"Maybe Night Furies are just permanent teenagers." That comment received indignant growls from both dragons, glaring at their snickering riders.
Hiccup and Zyrah hung out for another hour or so when Zyrah noticed the sun starting to come down.
"Let's head back to the chief's house. I'm sure your friends are waiting for you! Oh, and Kjarr has a place for you guys to stay right?"
"Right you are. Half of us are staying in his house, the others at Grimar's place. Don't worry, there'll be plenty of time to get to know our dragons!"
"Sounds good to me!"
"Also, if I'm not mistaken you have a niece or nephew on the way, you ought to go check on that!" Zyrah acknowledged his observation, calling Blueheart over so they could get to her brother's house quicker.
As soon as she was gone, the gang joined Hiccup and Toothless.
"So what did you learn about her?" Ana asked.
"Well, we ended up mostly talking about our dragons, especially in how apparently Night Furies are always moody!" The group shared a chuckle. "We didn't discuss much else, but I feel like there's a lot more in store. What about you guys?"
"Well, we learned something interesting about Zyrah from her brother," Astrid said.
"Oh? What's that?"
"Apparently she's adopted!" Fishlegs answered.
"Huh? Seriously?"
"Yep. Just like Heather. Except in her case, she just showed up out of nowhere on her parent's doorstep."
"That's insane, but I'm guessing that she doesn't know?" The gang all shook their heads no.