The good thing about having a pregnant stepmother?
The baby makes her tired, so she doesn't yell at you that much because you nearly lost your life.
The bad thing is that she still wants to forbid you to see your best friend.
Thank the Lord, that her papi understands how important her bond with Hiccup is.
Without him, she would be all alone on the island. The other Viking teens, even if they are a year younger than her, don't associate with her either.
Oh, they let her heal them, but like with the adults, she was the weird foreigner.
Nothing more.
It had hurt, but one day Leandra decide that if people didn't like her for her then they weren't worth her time.
It was wasted energy and with it, she could do more.
Like spending her time with Hiccup who always has liked her.
Anyways, she could still be friends with Hiccup but her parents grounded her. She should stay for the next few days in her room, only getting out for food and when she needed to do her healer job with Gothi.
Nonetheless, to say the second her room door was closed, Leandra strapped her dagger, last year's Snoggletog/Christmas gift from Hiccup, on her brown belt and made her way over to her window.
With years of practice breaking out, she opened it without a sound and reached for the tree that grow beside it. She gripped the tree branch and hosted herself up to it. Then she put a piece of wood on the window frame so it was closed and wouldn't make sounds, but she could open it without a problem getting back to her room.
Mindful of her blue dress with her black kirtle she climbed down the tree.
When she was on the ground she made haste to Raven Point.
Knowing Hiccup so good as she did, he was surely already out there searching for the fallen Night Fury.
She wouldn't leave him alone on his quest. That's why she took her dagger with her.
If…If they needed to end things.
Leandra hoped not, she didn't think she had the stomach for it to actually kill something, but if it was Hiccup and her life against the dragon…then she would choose them.
Still, it didn't make her feel good about herself. Probably because she wasn't a Viking and doesn't have killing dragons in her blood.
Her father was actually a merchant before they landed themselves on Berk.
Leandra hears his nasal voice before she sees him: "Ugh, the gods hate me. Some people lose their knife or their mug. No, not me. I manage to lose an entire dragon."
"Then maybe you could try my god?", she calls for him.
He turns around and blinks surprised at her.
"Lee, they let you out? No wait for a second, you broke out, right.", he corrects himself.
"Of course.", she replies nodding. "I wouldn't leave you alone with the dragon. Brought my dagger with me too."
She points at it, while Hiccup grins.
"You are the best friend someone can ask for."
"Aww shush, best friend till our death even beyond, right partner?"
A crooked smile forms on his lips. "Could be difficult since we have two very different versions of the afterlife."
"We will find a way, we always do!"
"Yeah if we only could find this dragon."
Frustrated Hiccup whacks a low-hanging branch. It snaps back at him, hitting him in the face.
"Damn Hic!", shouts Leandra worried, and checks his eye. "All good?"
"I can still see if you were worried about that.", he answers her drily.
"Well, you didn't poke your eye out so I count this as a win."
That's when both teenagers see a snapped tree trunk. Their eyes, one pair green, one brown, follow it to a long trench of upturned earth.
"Do you think…"
"…That the Night Fury is this way, yes I do, Lee."
Together the two teenagers follow it. Hiccup has to help Leandra since in her dress it is difficult to walk on the upturnend earth. This are the moments in life where the young girl thinks it must be nice to be a Viking girl and be allowed to wear Tunics with pants under it or skirts with pants.
She and Hiccup nearly faceplanted a few times.
They see at the same time the downed dragon and formally fall down on the forest ground to hide from it.
"Do you think it is death?", Leandra whispers to Hiccup.
This would make things easier for them.
The brunette boy checks at the dragon again.
"Lee, I will go near it, you stay here.", he suggests to her.
"The moment something is happening, I'm coming."
"Thanks for always having my back."
The black-haired girl nods and pats his back.
"I got you, bro!"
Careful Hiccup walks over the downed, black dragon, its body and tail tangled in a bola. It really appears dead.
Hiccup approaches, beaming.
"Oh wow. I did it. I did it. This fixes everything. Yes!", he celebrates. He strikes a victory pose, planting his foot on the fallen Night Fury. "I have brought down this mighty beast!"
Suddenly it shifts!
The boy springs back, terrified.
"Hic!", hisses Leandra from her hiding place, ready to jump out.
"I-It's o-okay! Stay!", he stutters taking out a tiny dagger. The girl deadpans at the thing, the one he made for her is bigger than this little something. "Stay where you are."
"I hope you know what you do!"
Yeah, Hiccup hopes it too.
He creeps along the length of the weak, wounded dragon, dagger poised to strike. As he reaches the head, Hiccup finds the Night Fury staring coldly at him. He tries to look away, but he's drawn back to its unnerving, unflinching stare.
With the dragon safety tangled in the ropes, Hiccup jabs with his dagger, puffing himself up with false bravado.
"I'm going to kill you, Dragon. I'm gonna cut out your heart and take it to my father. I'm a Viking. I am a VIKING!", he yells the last part.
Meanwhile, Leandra got her own dagger out and is ready to jump on Hiccup's side any moment.
This is so nerve-wracking!
The brunette raises the dagger, determined to prove his Viking-ness.
The dragon's labored breathing breaks Hiccup's clenched concentration.
He opens an eye, uncertainty leaking through.
The dragon holds the stare.
Something profound is exchanged.
Finally, the Night Fury closes its eye and lowers its head resigned to its fate.
Leandra swerves she is going to have a heart attack. What is going on? Why won't Hiccup finish the dragon off?
She answers her own question, at the same time Hiccup lowers the dagger.
Her best friend is a lot of things.
Loyal.
Kind.
Brilliant.
Sarcastic.
But he is not a killer.
Even if it's a dragon…in the end it's a living creature and Hiccup hates to hurt other beings.
"Hiccup…", she whispers quietly.
He stands up, ashamed of himself, and turns away from the dragon.
"I did this…"
His eyes find the eyes of his best friend. He only sees understanding in the warm brown orbs. Leandra will not think less of him, because he couldn't do it.
Actually, she seems relieved that he didn't do it. At least he will always have her on his side.
He turns to leave.
Pauses.
And glances back at the dragon, chest heaving.
"Lee.", he calls out to her. "I'm about to do to something crazy, stay where you are, okay? I don't want that you get hurt."
"What are you about to do-HICCUP?!", the last part she shrieks as she sees how Hiccup starts to cut the robes that hold the dragon.
Oh no, she will not leave him alone.
She leaves her hidey spot and joins him in cutting the robes with her own dagger.
"I told you to stay out of this!", Hiccup reprimands her.
"Yeah, and I can't let you do it alone. We both kinda did this to the dragon!"
As the last rope falls free, the Night Fury suddenly pounces!
In a blur, the dragon is upon them, pinning Hiccup and Leandra down, and grazing their necks.
It's looking like it's about to kill them.
Hiccup is paralyzed. Leandra can't even think.
The dragon's breath ruffles their hair.
The boy opens his eyes to find the Night Fury's wolf-like stare boring into him.
The exchange is intense and profound.
The dragon draws a deep breath, as though it's about to torch the two teenagers, then lets out an ear-piercing scream instead.
It turns and takes flight, flapping violently through the canopy of trees. It bashes against a nearby mountainside, recovers, and drops out of view some distance away.
"Dios mio!", huffs Leandra shocked.
They are alive!
Both carefully stand-up and help each other. Holding each other hands tight the two teenagers want to leave, and that's when Hiccup faints and nearly drags Leandra with him to the ground.
It is also when Leandra can't hold her tears anymore and she cries beside her fainted friend.
"It's loco….LOCO!", the girl cries, still holding the hand of her best friend.
They should be dead, they aren't dead.
What.
What.
WHAT?!
Leandra doesn't know for sure how long Hiccup was out, but she checked him carefully after he finally woke up.
Not that he hit his head.
In silence, the two best friends return to their homes.
About what could they talk? How they freed a dragon and it showed mercy on them?
It was unheard of.
It was mindblowing!
Anybody for themselves needed time to work through it.
So they said goodbye to each other with a wave and enter their respective homes.
As she lies in her bed, her parents non then wiser about her little breakout, she can't help herself putting her hand on her still beating heart.
It is the only proof that she really is alive.
She falls asleep, the green eyes of the Night Furry haunting her.
The next day Leandra is collecting herbs for Gothi, when she sees her best friend with an axe on his way to the Kill Ring.
That…is strange.
"Hiccup!", she calls out to him. "Yo, Hic, you got a minute?"
He looks relieved to see her and stops by her side.
"Hey, Lee, getting herbs for Gothi like every morning."
"Yeah, that's normal for me. What isn't normal on this morning is you with this axe.", she remarks drily. "And on his way to the Kill Ring."
Hiccup makes a face, while she crosses her arms.
"My dad put me into Dragon Training.", he answers her.
Leandra's chin meets the floor.
"He finally let you in? Didn't you always say he was against it?"
"Change his mind, only the gods know why."
Warily she looks around. None of their neighbors seem to give them any attention.
"Hic, you aren't a dragon killer.", she whispers to him. "We both actually prove this yesterday, how the heck do you want to survive Dragon Trainer?!"
The poor boy signs loudly.
"I tried to tell my dad that I didn't want to join, but you know him. He never listens to me-"
"-And when he does, it's always with this disappointed scowl. Like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich.", adds Leandra, having heard this often enough from him. She gives him a sympathetic look. "I know better than to ask, sorry. Just…yesterday was crazy."
"Who are you telling this."
Both best friends smile wobbly at each other.
"I better go."
"I better get these herbs to Gothi."
"See you, Lee, probably."
"Till later, Hic, surely."
The rest of the morning is normal for Leandra. She gets these herbs to Gothi and both make ointments. Then the old wise Viking woman teaches her some new healing techniques, till it's time for the ointment deliveries.
Practically Leandra wastes her time till lunch by running around the village to go from door to door to give her neighbors some new ointment or even tea which are good for the health.
She is like Berk's own Red Redding Hood, just without the hood, the wolf, and the grandma.
When it's finally time can go to the Great Hall for lunch, she sees how Hiccup sneaks into the forest.
For a second she really had to battle with herself since food made her happy and she was hungry like a wolf, but she couldn't leave Hiccup alone.
Only god knows what crazy thing he is doing again, so she better follow him.
Leandra reaches him as he studies the remnants of the discarded bola. You know the one who hold the Night Furry the other day and they both cut through.
"So...why didn't you?", mutters her best friend to himself.
"Who, so why didn't you?", she repeats.
Not expecting another person Hiccup shrieks like a little girl and turns to her.
"Lee! You scared me!"
"I can see that. So what has your pantys all in a twist?"
He motions for her to follow him. They take the path the Night Furry took when it flew off.
While walking he tells her about what happened at Dragon Training and Gobber's words who didn't leave him alone.
A dragon always goes for the kill.
But the Night Furry didn't kill either of them.
So what was up with that?
That's why Hiccup is searching for it. Maybe if he sees it again, he can understand it.
"That's crazy.", deadpans Leandra. "And I'm also crazy because I actually agree with you and follow you."
"Maybe it's an outcast thing.", Hiccup tries to joke.
"That we lost our marbles, sure, Hic, why not?"
They drop into a rocky crevice and follow it to a cove complete with a pristine spring pool. Both scan the high stone walls then Hiccup notices a single black scale on the ground. He crouches and picks it up, studying it.
"Lee, look."
The girl puts her hands on her knees and leans forward to look at the scale.
"Well, it was definitely here."
"I don't see it.", responds Hiccup shaking his head. "Well, this was stupid."
They can't even look that fast as suddenly, the Night Fury blasts past them. Both teenager recoil and grip the arms of the other.
"Woah!", can't Leandra helps it to shout.
The Night Furry struggles to climb the walls. It flaps violently, then peels away to a rough landing. The dragon is clearly trapped.
Leandra and Hiccup let go of each other and watch fascinated by how the dragon tries to leave the cove.
It fails miserably each time.
That's when Hiccup pulls a leather-bound book from his fur vest and flips past drawings of weapons to a blank page. He sketches the dragon quickly, desperate to record the image.
"Why don't you just...fly away?", wonders Hiccup.
Leandra pinches her eyes. She asks herself the same. It is then that she notes the problem.
"His tailfin, Hiccup.", she reveals to her best friend, gripping his shoulder and shaking him a bit. "He misses a part of it!"
Hiccup corrects fast his drawing.
"Is…is this our fault?", the girl asks feeling bad.
Not only feeling bad, she feels guilty. She has seen how much the dragon is struggling and can't even catch himself some fish to eat.
They freed it, but it seems doomed anyway.
Before Hiccup can answer her he accidentally drops the charcoal stick. It rolls off of the rock outcropping that hides him from view and bounces into the cove.
The Night Fury raises his head, spotting Hiccup and Leandra.
The dragon and the boy such exchange a profound, unflinching stare that Leandra feels like an intruder.
Like she wasn't meant to be part of this.
It is a strange feeling.
Leandra sits at her windowsill looking out the storm which is brewing on Berk.
Rather would she be in the Great Hall with Hiccup eating, but this goes against her grounding. She is only allowed to lunch there since after it she still helps Gothi out.
Oh yeah, Gothi.
Whining she rubs the bump on the back of her head courtesy of Gothi's Stick. She earned this because she came back to the old Viking woman way past lunchtime.
Finding and watching the Night Furry and getting back to the village had taken some time.
The black-haired girl is just glad that Gothi scolded her for being late, gave her the bump, and wouldn't say anything to her parents.
The village elder wasn't someone who snitched. She rather resolved problems alone.
Whatever, she was back home and wished rather be on the side of her best friend.
They had talked a bit before they left to do their daily chores.
Sadly it was nothing really enlightenment.
They knew nothing about Night Furries.
So there was not much to discuss.
Only Hiccup promised he would find a way to search for some more information.
What they would do with it?
No idea…maybe just understand the dragon better?
Leandra signed and stand up.
Nervous she walked around her room.
It didn't leave her mind that the dragon was hurt because of them.
She may only have become a healer to not die of boredom on Berk, but after a good four years with Gothi she had healer instincts.
And that instincts told her to help to heal the clear wound the dragon had on his missing tailfin.
"I hope I won't regret it.". she mumbles to herself.
The girl sits down on her desk and grips her first book with healing plants in it.
If she wanted to heal the dragon, then she needed the right ointment, so better check all her healing books to find the right plants.
It was going to be a long night.
Hello to all my readers. ^^
I hope you are enjoying till now Leandra's story.
Now I have a question for you since I need your help.
I can't decide what dragon Leandra should get.
I narrowed it down to two awesome ones, but I can't decide.
So you guys are going to vote.
I'm putting on fanfiction net and Quotev a voting poll with options.
So please go to one of the sites and vote.
I will give you a week.
Also 11.02.2023 is the last day you can vote, alright?
Thanks already for your help!
Have a nice day/night!