Hiccup

Two months before Snoggletog. A month before her birthday.

Where was Siren? Where did she go?

Hiccup thought he might return to Berk for Snoggletog, but decided against it. He wasn't going home until his princess was found, dead or alive. Hiccup wanted her to be alive. He wanted his princess to be alive. His beloved Princess Siren.

He could remember when she was three years old. He called her Princess, because he was the chief and she was his daughter, maybe one day to take the duty of running Berk once her father was gone. He would've liked her to, because he felt that she was a smart, bright little maiden, and that she could be a great chieftess. Astrid thought he was crazy for calling her Princess, but he could hear her calling her that when his wife took their princess to sleep.

"I love you, Princess Siren," she whispered not so quietly. Astrid kissed her tiny little hands and tickled her belly. The sight of a mother with her daughter made his heart melt. Nothing could ever change a mother's love.

Siren

"What was it like riding Toothless?" I asked Al. His hair was wild in places, and his eyes were wide enough to see the veins. He was panting hard.

"I'm gonna assume it was not fun." I pulled his hand and took him up the stairs to my study room.

We were at Dragon's Edge, and I took Al here via Toothless. I made Toothless fly as fast as possible so we could have more time to teach Al. Something told me this was Al's first time riding a dragon, and it was a slightly frightening experience. It was the same with me when I was small. I was so scared I was going to fall off, but Daddy held me tight. Mummy would give me a piggyback ride once I got off Toothless. All I remember about her piggyback rides was her bouncing me up and down.

"Sit," I commanded, as soon as we were inside the study room, which was full of books, each organized by the language it was written in. I didn't even understand some of the languages, but I still took them because I thought they could be somewhat useful. I noticed that in the Arabian Empire, they studied the human body and how to cure certain illnesses. I had decided that once I was done studying Korean, I would start studying Arabic to translate these books. They could save lives.

I also had books written in Latin, Hebrew, and Greek, none of which I understood. I knew that sooner or later, I would have to learn them otherwise there was no point in having the books there.

"We'll start with the Celtic language and dragon riding," I explained, taking out my book about the time I spent with the Celts. Beside it was a book about the customs, and on the other side, a book about the Celtic gods. I had written both while I had been captured by the Celts. If there was one thing the Celts' customs had told me, it's that they were barbarians. One of the things I learned was that if a Celtic warrior learned that he was going to lose the battle, then what he was to do would be killing his family and himself. I don't understand the reason for this, but what I know is that it's very barbaric for a person to kill his own family.

I sat across from Al and started with the basics: Hello, Goodbye, Thank you, My name is, so on.

"They say 'bonjour' as a greeting?" Al asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oui," I said, not looking up from my Korean manuscript.

"Is that their way of saying 'yes'?"

"Yup." Al was a lot less frustrating than the students I taught. He actually paid attention, and he was more mature.

"Okay," he said. I could hear the sound of his pen scratching the paper he was writing on.

Alastair

We continued on for about three hours. I was getting very weary of having to learn the Celtic language, but I reminded myself that it was for the better. I heard once that the more you understand your enemy, the more likely you are to prevent war. Try telling that to my pop, though.

Sire, as I called her, wanted to go outside and check her crops, so that left me to go through her study. Brunhild mentioned that she was bringing her books after exam week for the kids to study from. I was curious, so I figured, hey, why not read what she's going to make them read.

There was one book sitting right next to what Sire called a Korean manuscript. I couldn't understand the drawings on the manuscript, but I could read the writing on her book: My Time with the Celts. By Siren Hofferson Haddock. Below, there was the title written in the Celtic language.

I picked up the book and opened it to the first page. I began reading. Sire was captured by the Celts' last year. She'd been taking a bath in the river when a naked man covered in blue with many tattoos and a large horned helmet came. Heads hung around his waist, and he carried a large spear. Siren described him as being over six foot five and highly intimidating.

She was underwater at the time, so she didn't hear him coming until he pulled her out of the water. Sire was unconscious at the time. When she woke up, her legs and arms were chained, and she had bruises all over her body. She'd been kicked, beaten, and starved. There were many other girls who were way worse off than she was. The men would force these girls, most of whom were probably virgins, to give them pleasure and favours in return for food. Part of it involved giving up their virginity, even if they resisted.

Sire was not one of the girls who lost their virginity in such a manner. However, she does describe being beaten and starved for not obeying. It took Toothless some time to find her because he couldn't fly unless he had a rider since he lost one tail fin. When he did find her, he released her from her chains and she mounted him. She successfully escaped. Siren, at the time, was beaten within an inch of her life. When she first saw a bowl of rice, she describes wolfing it down in less than five minutes. Supposedly, she was still regaining her health as of right now.

That was a brief outline. It was only the stuff I read in Nordic that I knew. I didn't know anything else other than that.

Siren wrote about how she didn't really want to negotiate a treaty, but the text said that she thought it was the only way to keep the Celts off the Vikings' back. It might have been the only way to keep more Celts from torturing Vikings.

The stuff I read pissed me off. How could they treat her like that? It was going to leave scars for the rest of her life.

Come to think about it, when I first saw her in the arena, she looked pretty thin, even with all the layers of her kimono. Her spotted cheeks did have quite a bit of colour, though, so she was getting better, getting her strength back.

Still, I thought to myself, I should protect her. She's teaching me, so I should pay her back. I'll do that by making sure the Celts don't kidnap her again.