— Aster —
He had expected scarring, maybe a pearly white eye like an older woman in the village had. But he wasn't expecting what he saw next.
The girl was actually extremely pretty, her face sloping and gentle. Her auburn hair was wild and short, her bangs fell into her forehead. The tip of her nose uplifted a small amount while freckles dotted their way on her cheeks and her nose. Her rosy lips are parted a small amount and there's something different about them but that's not what captured his attention.
Her eyes are an extremely rich green, with small, lighter green specks flecked throughout them, but her pupils. They aren't the small perfect marbles that he's used to. Instead they're stretched more, not slitted but more like a curved diamond.
They were dragon eyes.
Ever since he'd been a boy, he'd been trained to fight dragons. Kill on sight. That's what had been drilled into his mind since day one. Kill on sight, kill on sight, kill on sight. Dragons are heartless monsters who lust for blood and murder without hesitation. He'd lost his mother to a dragon raid. Everyone lost someone at one point, no matter how fiercely they tried to protect them. The chief had lost his wife and daughter to a dragon raid long ago. At least twenty years ago. So when he saw the eyes of a beast within the body of a girl, he didn't know what to do.
It was as if her gaze had stopped his brain and confused his thoughts so that they lay in twisted knots that kept on squirming and tangling themselves further.
When she turned around, their gaze breaking and her cloak swirling behind her, he snapped out of his frozen state.
He pushed himself up and walked over to where she was picking her way by the forest, stooping down and picking up fallen tree limbs and slicing through them with her knife as if it were porridge.
"What are you doing?" he asked and began picking up some wood with her.
"A fire." she responded before walking away from him. She'd clipped her helmet to her belt and he was able to really examine it. It was made of the same black and brown as the rest of her outfit was, two large spikes, similar to what her dragon has, erupted from the back but otherwise it's lined with smaller spikes.
"So why am I here?" he asked.
She didn't respond.
"Don't you have the decency to at least tell me what I'm here?" he demanded, following her. She began picking up small twigs and sticks so he begun doing the same.
She didn't respond.
Anger built up inside of him, a dam that was threatening to break yet he knew if it did that it wouldn't matter. He couldn't beat her. From what he'd seen she was extremely fast and skilled at fighting, she had a dragon, and he was stuck on an island full of the beasts. It only made his rage grow.
A yell escaped him as he threw the timber in his hands to the ground before he wheeled around and punched a tree that wasn't too far away.
His knuckles split and blood began to trickle from the wound. He was breathing heavily, his chest heaving as he clenched and unclenched his jaw.
Several clicking and low growls sounded behind him so he wheeled around to find the girl not too far away from him. Her bright green eyes still unnerved him but he found them beautiful in some way or another.
Wait? He did?!
He mentally slapped himself.
"What?" he asked, his hand beginning to throb.
"Nothing." she mumbled and took a few strides forwards to grab his hand, examining it under her green gaze which was so unnerving. Not beautiful. Nope. Not at all.
There was silence. Silence was often welcomed in Berk, as vikings are a rowdy bunch. Often times he would escape to the forest where he would simply throw his axe around, burying it deep into trees to calm him or get his anger out. But this silence was unwelcome.
"So, what's your name?" he asked. He expected her to ignore his question or give him an answer that often confused him more or didn't even answer the question.
But instead she looked up, her green gaze searching his for a second before she smiled. He found out what was off about her mouth. Her canines were much longer than normal, extending over the lower teeth like fangs. No, they were fangs.
"Hicca." she answered and dropped his hand before moving back towards the small stack of wood that she had assembled.
He wasn't sure what had done it, but the anger had disappeared. In that moment she looked so human, a startling difference from how he'd viewed her earlier. And now she had a name.
Hicca.
The name sounded familiar, but he quickly brushed it away as he moved to sit down next to her, a slight smile on his face and he watched her stared into the fire.
She was crouched, not sitting down, as if she was ready for something to attack any second. This worried him so he tensed up himself which made her look at him.
"Sorry." she mumbled before plopping down.
The sun was grazing the tops of the trees now, casting orange and golden light throughout the sky and filling it with warmth. He let out a puff of air and was surprised when it didn't materialize before him like steam. It was much warmer on the island than on Berk, which he hadn't really noticed until now but he smiled. On Berk one was lucky to get a day without the biting winds.
It was a stark contrast to the warmer weather and gentler breeze. Though it was still harsh, any normal person would've been wearing a coat or some furs but he liked feeling the cold.
— Hicca —
Surprisingly, he seemed a bit more peaceful since his outburst. Vikings are so impulsive. Well, so are dragons.
He at least wasn't angry anymore, a small smile making it's way onto his face. It was the first time I'd seen him smile.
The silent moment was interrupted by a growl. I jumped out of my skin, already in a crouch and a dagger already pulled out.
"Oh, sorry." Aster said and his face was slightly red. "I'm just a bit hungry." he shrugged.
Right. People get hungry. Like everything else.
Gods I forgot.
I made my way over towards the pond, moving slowly as to not disturb the fish that skimmed the surface by the banks. The body of water was almost a mirror that had been melted into the land. The banks didn't drop and instead merely slid down towards the center. It was one of my favorite places to be.
Flipping my dagger through my fingers I edged myself closer to the water where a fish was languidly swimming by the bank. In an instant I thrust my dagger forwards, spearing it in the side as it thrashed and squirmed but the dagger was barbed so it couldn't wiggle out off of it.
The water was kicked up as I yanked the fish up as it continued to squirm before slowly falling limp.
"Whoa." Aster said as I sat down next to him again. I smirked.
"How do humans collect fish?" I ask and turn my gaze to him as I begin skinning the fish and slicing it up.
"With nets. And rods. But we don't really eat fish, the yaks and the sheep are often enough. Plus, we have a lot of grain and eggs." he shrugged.
"Hm."
"What to dragons eat? Humans?" he snorted.
"No. I'm not eating you now." I point out and I look up at him to see his face is completely red which kind of confuses me but I just decide to explain further, "We generally eat only fish. Some dragons eat fruit or certain plants but mostly fish."
"We?" he asks, his face slowly turning back to its normal color
"We. I'm considered as much a dragon as I look like a human." I shrug and finish skinning the fish.
"Oh." he says.
Quickly I stand up, grabbing one of the flares from my ankle and pointing it skywards. With my thumb I snap it in half, the top part falling off as a white ball shoots from the end that I'm holding. It screeches through the air before dying once its way about a hundred feet up.
"What was that for?" he asks as I sit back down.
"A flare. Like a summoning signal." I shrug.
"For who?"
"Toothless." I say. A small dart of black shoots out from the nest.
"Toothless? Who's that? The Natter?" he asks and I swear I hear a glimmer of excitement in his voice.
"No, my NightFury. The Natter's name is StormFly. Do you like her?" I turn to him as the black speck looms overhead.
"Well, yeah. I've always kind of liked Natters. Is that a problem?" he asks just as Toothless lands behind me, eyes narrowed.
"Are you okay Hicca?" he asks and moves towards me, wrapping his tail around me and making Aster scoot away a bit which was okay with me.
"Yeah, I just thought that you'd like to eat with us. Plus, you cook excellent fish." I say and he relaxes a bit.
"Okay, but if he even comes near you-"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. You'll use him for target practice." I smirk. Holding out the skinned fish he sends a small blast, instantly turning the outside golden brown. From experience I know that the fish is going to taste amazing. It always does.
"Here." I say and slice the fish in half down the middle and handing a piece to Aster.
"Thanks." he mumbles before beginning to pick out strips as I did. It tasted like home and melted in my mouth as I sighed.
"Wow, this is good!" Aster exclaimed and I laughed.
"At least he recognizes good food when he eats it." Toothless grumbles and I laugh.
"Toothless thanks you for the compliment."
"No I don't" he squawks.
"Well, as close as a Nightfury will thank a human." I laugh. Aster surprises me by chuckling along with me.
"Wait, what do you mean by 'a human.'" he says.
"Um, humans haven't always been the best to dragons." I somber up, my eyes flicking to his. "You should know this." I say and the words hang in the air. He only nods.
He doesn't try to defend himself or protest abut out dragons raid them. He just acknowledges it. He's different. In a good way.
"So, how did you tame the unholy offspring of lightening and death?" he asks and I choke on my food as Toothless beams.
"Does he mean me? I like this kid even more." Toothless states and I clutch my sides in laughter so I'm leaning into his side. "What? Am I not intimidating?" he asks.
"Around Dragon Nip? Not so much." I say as he scowls.
"What?" Aster asks.
"Nothing, it's just. Well, the dragons that you so hate are my family. And besides, after you've seen a dragon around Dragon Nip you may want to think twice about calling him the 'unholy offspring of lightening and death.'" I snicker and Toothless's tail whips around to smack me.
"Hey!" I shout but he laughs.
"How can you even talk to him?" Aster asked and leaned forwards.
"Always have," I lied even though I knew exactly why. I was the princess, it was in my blood, "but you called Toothless a him, not an it?"
"He is a he, right?"
"Well, yeah, but I don't believe that most vikings like dragons." I said.
He was silent for a second before he spoke. "From what I've seen Toothless really likes you, listens to you even. He has emotions, and also I would rather not be blasted to the next island over by offending him."
"Wise choice." Toothless hums behind me and I laugh as the sun sinks lower in the sky.
"He said 'Wise choice.'" I answered his unasked question.
"Ah." he smiled. "So, besides your name, I don't know much about you, Hicca." he said and I nodded, finishing my half of the fish off.
"Well, there's not much you'd probably be interested in." I shrug.
"Oh come on. You're a dragon rider for Thor's sake! I think you have some pretty cool tales to tell." he said.
I felt my face heat up slightly but pushed the response down quickly. "Well, for a while we traveled around the world. It's amazing how big the world is! How diverse the cultures."
"We?" he interrupted.
"Yeah, me, my mom, Cloudjumper, and Toothless." I nodded. "But it's amazing! You won't even believe the different lands. We even made a map of everything that we found. It became so big that we had to hang it up on the wall!" I was talking animatedly now, my hands expressing my excitement as he watched, transfixed as I told him about the different places we saw. He asked questions occasionally but most of the time he just listened as I told him about our adventures.
I told him how mom had become obsessed with this fruit called grapefruit and how she ended up bringing a small seed back so that we now have a tree of grapefruits every year. He listened as I told him about all of the cultures, the people we'd observed from a distance. I told them how they'd sing and dance and get drunk on mead late into the night. And he just listened, like it was the most interesting thing in the world as he asked questions and made comments that had us wiping tears from our eyes. I told him about the things we saw that how many different places there were and how sometimes it was so boiling hot it was almost like a forge.
He listened as I rambled on for so long I lost track of the entire point of the conversation before we'd eventually make our way back. he would tell me stories of people and weird trappers he knew and for a while, the limitations and barriers fell down. It was nice.
"And the dragons! It's almost impossible to count how many species there are. We made a book though. Mom wrote in it mostly and I drew the pictures, but now it's about this thick!" I showed him with my hands.
"I think you might need to add the Bright Shadow to the book." he said and both of us laughed.
"Right along next to the Obnoxious Viking." I smirked as he pretended to be offended. It was then that I realized how much my guard had dropped. But it was hard not to. He just seemed to have a magnetic pull to him, and I then realized that he'd almost… befriended me.
My laughing stopped short and he looked at me curiously.
"You okay Hicca?" he asked and I nodded as I pushed myself up. Toothless noticed and uncurled from around me, stretching as he stood up.
"I have to get back soon. Here." I grab a couple of blankets from the pack and toss them to him.
"So you're just going to leave me out here without weapon, alone?" he asks.
"You won't be alone." I tell him before sliding onto the saddle and taking off. StormFly was going to have a fun night.
—-
"Mom?" I call through the house. Moonlight now shines in through the nest and illuminates the sleeping dragons.
"Someone was certainly out late." I see my mom leaning against the edge of the door frame as she smiles.
"Sorry, I was making sure Aster was comfortable." I tell her and she freezes.
"Where did he say he was from?" she asks as we both sit down on some cushions that lean against a wall.
"He didn't. I haven't asked him yet, but I've learned that he likes StormFly so I had her go watch him for the night. He seems to still fear dragons, but he doesn't try to kill them, so that's good."
"Well, the King said it is far due that you got yourself a human friend, and who knows. We could finally start a revolution." she said with a painful smile and I just nodded.
"He saw my eyes." I told her and by the sharp intake of breath I could tell she was surprised. "He didn't run though. Instead he asked me why, and I was afraid to answer him." my voice got thicker and thicker, like it might before I started crying.
Which was stupid because the only time I'd ever cried was when I'd gotten lost on a separate island while we'd been trading. I remember being so terrifyingly scared, thinking that the vikings might come and get me, or the possibility that I would never be found again by my mother. Luckily Cloudjumper had found me within minutes, as he is a tracking dragons. But in that time my eyes had shed little droplets of water which had confused me.
Crying was for pain. Not for fear.
Hey everyone! Thanks for the reviews and I seriously hoped you enjoyed! I welcome critics, but don't be too mean please.
shutupandreview11: Thanks for the idea, but my brain was just kinda like; nope. she will be anonymous to him.. hehehehe and my brain is not one to be persuaded. Which often enough gets me in trouble for pretty stupid things. Oops.
AnonymousStalkerFriend: No offense taken! And thanks for the correction, but if you don't mind I'll keep it as Nadder in the previous chapters otherwise it'll take a while to go back, fix them and update the story. But thank you for caring :D
TigerLily the Wild: Sorry but I don't really get the question... *sweat drops*