Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and knowing my luck, I probably never will. All rights go to the author of the books, Cressida Cowell, and the company that made the much-loved films and series, Dreamworks. However, I do own Brenna Bloodsword and Starlight the Night Fury, as they are my OCs. This disclaimer will change over time, as I may add more OCs to this story.

A/N: Here's a code I made up for you so this is easier to read.

Bold: Dragons are talking
Italics: Humans are thinking
Bold italics: Dragons are thinking
Underlined: Any language being spoken that isn't either Norse or Dragonese by bilingual/multilingual characters. It will be written like this for humans:

*Language goes here "Insert speech here."

And like this for dragons:

*Language goes here "Insert speech here."

If there isn't a language in front of the speech, assume that they are speaking Norse if they're human and Dragonese if they're dragons. Sorry about giving such a long A/N, but I felt I had to explain this for you.

In the early hours of the morning, Starlight snuck back into the house and was caught by Brenna. "Where were you?" the witch asked.

"Just out with friends," Starlight replied. It wasn't like it was a lie. She had been out with Stormfly and Meatlug . . . being tickled senseless all night long.

"Oh, never mind. I'm just glad you're back," Brenna smiled, as a hand scratched the dragon's stomach. Starlight forced down giggles as she squirmed away from her mischievous rider.

"Brenna, no! You know that's a sensitive spot!" Starlight whined. "I bet Toothless doesn't have to deal with the same antics with Hiccup."

While this was going on, Toothless was sneaking back into the house through the open window and woke Hiccup up. "Where were you?" the blacksmith's apprentice asked. Toothless replied using the written word.

OUTSIDE.

"Oh, very funny, bud," Hiccup replied. "What were you doing outside?"

GETTING MYSELF SOMETHING TO EAT. I WAS HUNGRY.

"And what did you get to eat, seeing as you were so hungry?" Hiccup asked. Toothless froze, and his rider grinned. "Thought so, bud. You're about a good as liar as me, and I'm a terrible liar." He poked and prodded at Toothless' sides, and the dragon muffled his laughter. It was utterly adorable, and it wasn't any less cute when he started pounding on the floor, pleading for mercy in Dragonese.

"No more, Hiccup! Get off me!" Toothless pleaded. "I bet Starlight doesn't have to deal with the same antics with Brenna."

"Come on, baby boo," Hiccup teased. "We've got a fighting lesson to go to. You don't have to do any work. "

"Again? I remember the last lesson and it didn't go well," Toothless sighed, as they took off. They got there just in time to help Gobber set up some fighting dummies. They were basically wooden, spiky totem poles that had a sword in one hand (or at least, at the end of one horizontal stick near the top) and a shield in the other. The front of the dummy was covered in spikes and a worn tunic. (The worn tunic was probably for the sake of making it look slightly like a real person.) There were two poles near the bottom, purely to trip people up while they were fighting the dummy. As the other teenagers filed in, Hiccup saw that Astrid was rather nervous and refused to look at Brenna. Starlight would occasionally glare at Astrid. Brenna had no such nerves, which was one good thing.

"All right, kids, today you'll be practicing how to fight using these dummies," Gobber explained, as he pushed a cart of weapons into the arena. "This should be relatively simple concept to grasp, just grab a sword and shield from the cart and start practicing." The teens groaned and obliged. The next few minutes were dedicated to the teens being beaten up by training dummies.

"OW! Where did that come from?" Hiccup yelped.

"By the gods, that hurt!" Astrid complained.

"No more!" the twins pleaded.

"Right in the gut!" Fishlegs choked, as he got a shield to the abdomen.

"I can do this! I can do this! I - AAARGH!" Snotlout screamed, as he narrowly avoided a sword to the face. Brenna was simply fine with it. She avoided the dummy's sword with the shield and jabbed at the dummy with her sword, ducking and weaving to escape the training dummy's sword. Gobber was impressed.

"Brenna, have you been up against these before?" Gobber asked.

"I've seen them before," Brenna replied. "It's simple once you get the hang of it."

"Really?" Hiccup asked, just as he got hit in the head by the dummy. "Where did you see them before?"

"Back in my old village," Brenna explained. "They would put kids up against dummies like this to toughen them up and prepare them for the army. My dad bought one off them and kept it so he could test it out on his kids and nephews."

"Where is your old village?" Astrid asked, as she got tripped up on the poles near her feet. Brenna froze up and stepped back from the training dummy.

"I'd . . . rather not talk about it," Brenna muttered.

"How do you navigate this thing?" Snotlout babbled.

"Stop the sword by blocking it with the shield and jab at the dummy with your own, dodge the sword and keep your feet moving to escape the rotating poles," Brenna explained. "It's easy once you think about it." She stepped forward and started to attack the dummy with more vigour than before. The shield was punched out of the dummy's hands (if you could call them that) and the head was knocked off of the dummy's shoulders with her real foot. Everyone was stunned.

"Brenna, you're excused from this to help other students," Gobber replied. Brenna nodded and went to the person who was the most beat up. Obviously, this was Hiccup. Poor kid.

"I'm blocking it with my shield and nothing's happening," Hiccup replied.

"You need to put more force behind your arm to stop the sword," Brenna explained. Hiccup tried it and it worked.

"Thanks!" he smiled.

"You're welcome!" Brenna replied, smiling back. Astrid was secretly livid at that simple friendly gesture.

"And how do you dodge the poles that sweep your feet out from under you?" Snotlout asked.

"You'll have to keep moving your feet," Brenna advised. "You're fighting the training dummy like your feet are glued to the ground." Snotlout nodded and continued with the training, not looking at Brenna so she didn't notice his blush. Astrid refused any help from Brenna. She refused to let Brenna show her up, even if it meant letting the dummy beat her up. Ruffnut and Tuffnut didn't ask for help because they had already been knocked out before Brenna could get to them. This was definitely going to be a more interesting lesson that would happen again and again until their bruise's bruises had bruises.

"All right, lesson's over, you can go," Gobber yelled. "Brenna, good work."

"Thank you," Brenna smiled, as she left. Astrid seethed at how happy she was. Brenna had even smiled at her boyfriend. That was unforgivable in her eyes. They rescued her and her dragon from an uninhabited island to receive this as their thanks? Today felt like a day for chopping down trees (something Astrid did to compensate for being unable to throw the axe at people). She sighed, attached the axe to her hip and went into the Great Hall with her friends for lunch. They gravitated towards Brenna and ignored her.

"That was so cool!" Snotlout yelled, attracting attention from a couple of hungover nearby Vikings, who tutted at the obnoxious teen making their headaches worse. "Who taught you to do that?"

"My father did," Brenna replied. "He wanted me to be able to defend myself in case someone wanted to abuse and take advantage of me, so I trained with a dummy like that while he taught me how to kick and punch and how to properly wield a weapon. No child of his was going to be a weakling and he would make sure of it himself with every spare moment we had. If he didn't have the time, then he would hand me over to an uncle so I could train alongside him and my cousins. It stepped up after I had finished the recovery period for my leg."

"You have cousins?" Snotlout blurted out. Brenna gave him a sceptical look.

"Of course I have cousins. Everyone has cousins, unless both of their parents were only children or neither of their parent's siblings had children. You've just never met my cousins," Brenna told them.

"Do you have brothers? Sisters?" Fishlegs asked.

"I have two older brothers, twins. The closest I have to a sister is Starlight, though," Brenna explained, as she took a bite of some mutton. This was the first time hearing of Brenna having any family to speak of, and they clung to it. It made her seem normal, more likeable. "It was hard to leave, but I had to. I couldn't take it."

"Couldn't take what?" Astrid asked. Starlight answered for her.

*Norse "The people that thought it was funny to make her life a living nightmare," she explained. *Norse "The village she comes from isn't good to people with prosthetic limbs, and it was never the same to her after she and her father ran into a bunch of pirates having a bad day. They didn't like me either, and one day we decided no more. We got a saddle, a few changes of clothes and some money for food and we left in the middle of the night. Brenna left a note for her parents explaining that it wasn't their fault but they had to go before it got worse for us. We were travellers after that, going from place to place searching for a home. Eventually, we settled on the island, after having to flee from one place to the next. Then you found us, and we're here telling you this." The gang stared at them, shocked.

"How bad were they?" Hiccup asked.

"That's . . . another thing I don't like to talk about," Brenna sighed. "I left my birth village because I needed to get away from my past, but answering all these questions makes it seem as if it follows me and I can never escape it and who I am. There always seems to be something that reminds me of a past I'd rather forget." She took a melancholy bite of mutton and chewed her reverse nostalgia away. Nearby, a rowdy bunch of Vikings were having an axe throwing competition between themselves.

"Come on, Sigurd, three sheep says you've lost your touch," Gobber laughed. Sigurd, a fat man with a blonde beard, glared at him and stepped towards the target as if it had insulted his mother and defecated on his doorstep. (The target in question was a barrel painted to look like a bullseye.)

"Watch and weep, smithy," he growled, as he steadied his arm, poised to hit the bullseye with the one-handed axe. But something went wrong with the axe. The head slipped off and went flying behind him. The other men laughed, but stopped once he saw that it was about to hit a little girl. She saw the axe head coming and screamed, putting up her hands to defend herself. It seemed like it was all too late, and everyone in the Great Hall shut their eyes so they didn't have to see the horrible moment.

But it never came. Eventually, everyone opened their eyes to find the axe floating there, suspended by what looked like blue flames. People gasped and pointed, whispering. This was magic, plain and simple. But who was doing it? Whoever it was had saved a little girl's life.

"There is some sort of witch or warlock among us!" a woman cried. "Let's search for them!" A wide berth had been formed around the floating axe head, and Brenna now knew that it was safe to let it float to the ground. It couldn't hurt anyone now.

The little girl was curious. While the axe head floated to the ground, she started looking around for the person that helped her. Brenna was busy letting the axe slowly descend down to the floor. Originally, she was going to stay away from the teenagers, but there was something about the girl with the red hair in a bun that was intriguing to her. She looked at her hands and saw the same blue ribbons. "Mommy, it's her! She did it!" she yelled, loud enough for everyone to hear. People stared at Brenna, who tried to make herself seem smaller and less noticeable. It wasn't working.

"Was that really you?" her father asked. His eyes were full of happiness aimed at the person who saved his daughter. Brenna had been caught. She could only hang her head and admit to all of it.

"Yes, it was me who stopped the axe head in midair," Brenna admitted. People cheered.

"You saved her life!" her mother sobbed, hugging a very confused Brenna. "How can we repay you?"

"Let's throw her off the island!" Mildew yelled, halting the festivities of a child not dying a tragically early death to throw out the girl he never liked the look of in the first place. "She is a witch and that goes against everything Berk stands for, so she and her dragon must be exiled from Berk and all the waters under its control!"

"She saved a kid's life by being a witch!" Gobber yelled. "You're not seriously trying to get rid of someone who just saved a life, are you? I always knew that you were a heartless old grouch."

"She's dangerous!" Mildew yelled. Nobody believed him.

"Ah, shut up, you cabbage-loving old fart!" Gobber yelled. "He hasn't got the power to throw anyone or their dragon off the island. Don't worry about him. You're a hero, just you remember that."

"Thank you, Gobber. By any chance, do you know where that little girl is?" Brenna asked. "I'd like to properly meet her." She felt a tugging at her pant leg and saw the girl. Now she could properly see the girl, she noticed a few details. She was a brunette with blue eyes, and they stared up at Brenna adoringly.

"Hello," she shyly replied. Brenna kneeled down to talk to her on her own eye level.

"Hello there, little one. My name is Brenna Bloodsword. Who are you?" Brenna asked. The girl smiled at her.

"I'm Hilda Svenson," Hilda replied. "Thank you, Brenna, for helping me."

"You're welcome, little one," Brenna smiled.

"How are you able to do the magic thing that you did earlier?" Hilda asked. "I want to see something like that again!" Others were also eager to see more magic. They'd never met a witch before.

"Oh, you do, huh?" Brenna asked. "I can show you a bit of magic with some paper." She produced some paper and a small stick of charcoal (pencils hadn't been invented yet) and started to draw a butterfly. It was beautiful and very realistic. Hilda giggled.

"Can I keep it, Brenna? Please?" Hilda pleaded. "It's so pretty!"

"Shhh, I have something to show you," Brenna grinned. "Watch this." She seemed to pick at the drawing with her fingernails, and people watched in awe as a black and white butterfly fluttered away. Hilda watched in awe, before excitedly running back to her parents. Her mind had been utterly blown. Astrid was very interested in this new revelation.

"Why didn't you say anything about you being a witch?" Astrid asked.

"A lot of people react to witches the same way as Mildew did just now," Brenna replied. "Some of the places Starlight and I had gone to had laws in place that allowed witches like me to be killed on discovery, even though I never wanted any trouble. I wanted somewhere for me and Starlight to live and call home after leaving my birth village. This place had no problem with my prosthetic leg or my dragon, but I was terrified that Starlight and I would be kicked out of the perfect place for us . . . or worse."

"You can't be kicked out after saving someone's life! I'll talk to my dad about it!" Hiccup promised.

"No need, Hiccup," Stoick replied. "I saw everything. She's staying." People whooped, and Mildew had half a mind to storm out. "Far be it from me to exile someone for saving a life."

"She could get us hurt with magic like that!" Mildew yelled. "Didn't you see that, Stoick? Didn't you see what she did?"

"I saw a butterfly fly away from a piece of paper. And although I've never met a witch before now, I was told about a very important thing to never do with witches back when I was a boy," Stoick informed.

"And what would that be?" Mildew snapped.

"Don't make them angry," Stoick replied, smiling a mischievous smile that didn't seem to belong on his face. "Thor knows what would happen if she was." Leaving the hall full of laughing Vikings behind him, Stoick walked out. Then, and only then, did Mildew actually storm out in a huff. He planned to slam the door behind him, but Stoick had shut it, so he opened the door really far and shut it. Astrid saw this as a chance to get closer to Brenna.

"What else can your magic do?" Astrid asked.

"Well, there's a disappearing spell that I can use in case of an emergency," Brenna smiled. Astrid was intrigued.

"And what does this spell look like?" Astrid asked. "Could you show us?" Brenna nodded, snapped her fingers . . . and disappeared in a puff of smoke. People gasped, and people tried to look for the redheaded witch, but she was gone. Starlight had taken this time to sneak out, too, so the only one possibly able to tell anyone where Brenna was had also vanished.

"Oh, great. Now they're both gone. What do we do now?" Snotlout snapped.

"We'll have to wait until tomorrow for her to show us anything else," Hiccup consoled.

"You reckon Brenna's magic can be used for pranks?" Ruffnut asked.

"Don't start that around me," Astrid warned.

"You are no fun, my flaxen-haired friend," Tuffnut sighed.

Brenna and Starlight were at home, giggling about how they managed to get out of the Great Hall. "I can't believe that worked!" Starlight giggled. "I thought I'd be detected. I thought you'd be detected!"

"Don't be so pessimistic, my scaly companion. We have done this often enough to make us professionals in our own right," Brenna grinned. "Remember all the practice we put into escaping. First it was embarrassing family reunions, now an entire hall full of people saw us make our unstoppable exit."

"Yes, I suppose we are utter geniuses, masters of escape and trickery," Starlight boasted, and the two laughed.

"Except for possibly this morning."

"Not a word to anyone. Got it?"

"Absolutely."