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 a dragon and human say the same thing at the same time in the same language (e.g. Brenna and Starlight both speaking Norse/Dragonese), every other word is both bold and underlined. If it's only one word, then it is every other letter.
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.
Starlight and Brenna were woken up early by knocking on the door. Brenna just knew that Starlight wasn't gonna get it, so she dragged herself out of bed to see who was calling on her so early on in the day. "Who is it?" Brenna asked.
"It's Helga Odinson," a woman's voice replied. "I need a favour from you, witch. For my baby boy."
"My name is Brenna. It would do you well to remember it," Brenna muttered. "Now give me a chance to change into something more . . . presentable." She went into her room and got changed into a green dress with black trimming, long sleeves covering her arms. "Now what do you want so early in the morning?"
"My baby. He's sick and the gods have forsaken us," Helga replied, thrusting the sickly baby into Brenna's arms. She had a point. He was small, slightly green and threw up on her. Sighing, Brenna wiped the vomit away with a wave of her hands.
"I'll see what I can do," Brenna replied, handing the baby back and shutting the door, immediately going for her old books for help. Dusting off the covers, she turned to the healing spells. All were too strong, but she found one specifically for babies. She'd never done it before to an actual baby, so she was terrified when she opened the door. Her hands began to glow green instead of blue, and she placed them, gently, onto the baby's chest. The baby cried at first, but as the spell progressed, he quietened. The frail physique began to fatten, and soon he began to glow with health. His limbs now looked chubby with rolls of baby fat, and his skin was no longer tinged with green. He giggled and reached for a nearby lock of her hair.
"Thank you. Thank you. Here, as payment." The woman forced a bag of coins into her hands, but Brenna gave it back.
"I cannot in good conscience take something that you need," Brenna told her. "Good day." The door was shut in her face, and Helga was left on her doorstep with her now healthy baby, befuddled but grateful to the witch. Starlight looked at her sister, rider and friend with sleepy confusion.
"Who was that?" she asked.
"This woman wanted me to heal her baby," Brenna said, sipping on a mug of ale. (Watered down, of course. It wasn't even lunchtime yet.)
"I'm sorry, she WHAT?!" Starlight blurted out. "What did you do?"
"I healed her baby, duh." The redhead took a bite of an apple as the Night Fury lost her mind.
"WHAT?! Brenna, you are not a healer! You can't heal people!"
"Depends on the method. Healing someone using typical healer knowledge? No. Healing someone using magic? Yes. Besides, I don't have much of a choice. I only know how to do so with magic. Me pretending to be an actual healer could get someone killed."
"And that is why you should leave healing to the real healers," Starlight replied. "That woman and her baby should have gone to see Gothi for help, not you."
"Relax, Starlight; this is probably a one-off," Brenna dismissed.
"I hope it is."
It was not a one-off. And word spread fast. And the moment Mildew, of all people, found out, he rushed over to rant and rave exactly why she should be banished without delay.
"She's putting Gothi out of business with her magic healing . . . magic! All of us will be made sedentary because of her!" Mildew screamed.
"Wait a minute. Since when did you care about Gothi?" Brenna asked. "Also, who's Gothi?"
"Gothi's the healer of Berk. She lives alone on a hill and she's an old, vulnerable woman who is having her job threatened by you and your . . . your . . . magic wiles!" Mildew screamed.
"Wiles? That's a bit harsh, don't you think?" Brenna asked. Mildew growled and stormed off, Fungus trailing after him. Starlight saw him off, making him hobble away faster.
"Damned Night Fury," Mildew muttered, as Starlight scaled houses to follow him.
"Starlight, stop annoying Mildew," Brenna chided.
"You are no fun, Brenna, you hear me?" Starlight grumbled, flying back. "No. Fun!"
*Dragonese "Well, pardon me for trying to keep you out of trouble!" Brenna snapped.
"For your information, I preferred it when you and I got into trouble," Starlight told her. "Remember when I stayed in that cave and growled and everyone thought it was a demon because of how my eyes lit up? Everyone in town seemed to have some sort of protective amulet!"
*Dragonese "Yeah. And remember when I spiked my food with relaxants so those kids stealing from me rushed to the outhouse?" Brenna laughed.
"And those explosions?"
*Dragonese "And that paint slinger?"
"And that one boy with the mud and the schedule swap?"
The two friends laughed as they remembered old times. They weren't necessarily all good times (honestly, some were downright awful), but they were together throughout it all and that was what made it bearable.
"What are you two growling about?" Hiccup asked.
*Dragonese "Nothing!" they chorused, laughing with each other. He would never know. He wasn't there.
"Maybe I need to learn Dragonese so I can eavesdrop on your conversations," he teased.
"What for? Even if you did, you still wouldn't know what Starlight and I said," Brenna teased.
"Is this a talking dragon thing?"
"It's more of a sibling thing, you know?"
"No, I don't."
Brenna's jaw dropped. "You don't have siblings?"
"You do?"
"I think I mentioned having two brothers," Brenna replied. "Odin and Magni. Identical twins. Six years older than me."
"Do they have magic too?"
Brenna rolled her eyes. "Unfortunately."
"What do you mean unfortunately?"
"You try dealing with older brothers that are bigger, stronger and know magic." Brenna let out a huff.
*Norse "Not exactly a nice thing to deal with," Starlight sighed.
"What did they look like?" Hiccup asked. Brenna pulled out a scrap of paper and slid it across the table to Hiccup. There were two boys with brown hair and green eyes and jauntily moving feet . . . wait, WHAT?! "WHOA!" he yelped, falling off his chair and scrambling away.
"What did you see, Hiccup?" Brenna asked, smiling. She knew what Hiccup saw.
"It - it moved!" Hiccup yelped. "The picture moved!"
"Of course it moved; have you never seen a magic picture before?" Brenna teased.
"I didn't know magic existed before I met you!" Hiccup snapped. "How do you do that? What sort of enchantments do you do for that?"
"Just an animation spell, nothing really big," Brenna explained. "Once the drawing's finished, you enchant it so it moves. Only on finished drawings, mind you."
"Could it come out of the picture?" Ruffnut asked. She, Tuffnut, Astrid and Snotlout appeared to pop up out of nowhere.
"No, that's a reality-giving spell. Not the same thing," Brenna clarified. The picture continued to run around the piece of paper, appearing to giggle, yet no sound could be heard. It was amazing to watch.
"No wonder you thought of me like a brother; they look just like me," Hiccup mused.
"You look like them but act like me. I just think it's neat," Brenna replied.
*Norse "This is so cute! I remember this day! They'd just turned twenty-one and got so drunk on their first beers!" Starlight giggled.
"Yeah, so do I," Brenna sighed.
"First beers? You guys aren't allowed to drink until they're twenty-one?" Hiccup asked.
"Yes. There's an age limit in place by law in the village I grew up in," Brenna replied. "Does this place have one?"
"Yes, but ours is eighteen," Ruffnut replied.
"What's up with that twenty-one deal, anyway?" Tuffnut replied. "That's how old you have to be to have a good time? Hey, what other weird stuff happened over there?"
"It's more cruel than just weird. I wish it was just weird. You wouldn't like to hear it," Brenna replied.
"Are you saying we can't handle it?" Snotlout asked, leaning closer.
"I'm saying it gives people nightmares," she told him, frankly.
"We can handle it! Just tell us!" Snotlout replied. Brenna let out a sigh, telling them a truly awful story about where she grew up.
"Near my village, there is a island nearby that is an emergency port for ships and inhabited by wolves. Whenever a baby is born, they are taken to village elders to be checked for signs of sickliness. If they are healthy, they are taken home, to be raised by their parents as usual."
"And if they aren't?" Hiccup asked. Although he was the one to ask, he was still scared of the answer. Toothless was shocked that his girlfriend used to live in a barbaric place like that, but he didn't say that just yet.
"If they aren't, they are taken to the mountain and left there, to either be found and taken in by travellers to take the weak baby far away or be eaten by the wolves and the snakes. More likely the last one. Mothers and fathers use it to scare their children into obedience; if they aren't good, they'll be taken up the mountain. Sailors passing by swear on their lives that they heard infantile wailing coming from the island, but never once saw hide nor hair of a baby." The group was terrified. Snotlout tried to make light of it, with disastrous consequences.
"Hey, Hiccup, you would have ended up there if we had a place like that," Snotlout replied. He was inexplicably punched by everyone within reach of him.
"Your village kills babies?" Hiccup shrieked.
"They don't kill the baby. They abandon the baby, but that is actually not any better," Brenna replied.
"And that's why you left?" Hiccup asked.
"Partly, but there were other reasons," Brenna pointed out.
"They did worse stuff than that?" Astrid blurted out.
"First of all, my birthday. I was born on Loki Day. This was considered a stroke of bad luck, since Loki is the god of mischief and trickery, and to be born on the same birthday as him meant the child would be a trickster."
"Well, that's not your fault. Nobody controls their birthday. You come into this world and leave it when the gods decide it is a good idea," Astrid explained.
"You sound like my dad." The group giggled. "Then it was because I said Starlight was like a sister to me when we were younger. The villagers wouldn't allow that, because Starlight was classified as a pet. She was an animal, made for playing fetch."
"Uh, hello? Did they not notice that Starlight can TALK?!" Tuffnut replied.
"She, and dragons in general, are way too smart to just play fetch," Ruffnut bragged.
"Those are our humans there, being so smart," Barf gushed. Belch was content with just having a smug grin.
"This won't last too long," Stormfly muttered.
"We should train her to help with pranks, since she's that clever," Tuffnut suggested.
"Agreed," Ruffnut piped up.
"Forget what I said about them being clever," Barf muttered.
"Then it was for reading and playing with weapons. They didn't think it was a good idea for a girl to do such manly things."
"Manly? Trust me, Brenna, books aren't manly. Just look at Hiccup," Snotlout bragged.
"He has a girlfriend and you don't. Probably not a good comparison," Brenna pointed out. Astrid grinned and punched her in the shoulder.
"Thanks," the blonde muttered. Hiccup just smiled.
"Once it was realized that I was a witch, they feared me. And don't get me started on when I lost my leg."
"And that's why you left as soon as you could, right?" Snotlout asked. "How did you know that we would accept witches?"
"I didn't. That was why I hid it, and hid from you," Brenna explained. "I was literally living on an isolated island when you found me. My only company were wolves, wild boars, a talking dragon and a plant with carnivorous and/or homicidal tendencies."
"Homicidal?" Fishlegs squeaked.
*Norse "She has a bite mark on her arm from that plant," Starlight pointed out. *Norse "An attempt to eat her."
"EAT HER?" Fishlegs squeaked, even more high-pitched than before.
"Are you a walking echo that gets squeakier every time?" Brenna replied.
*Norse "And she wonders why her best friend for fifteen years was a dragon," Starlight muttered.
"Allow me to write that down as yet another reason why dragons should never be taught how to speak any human language," Brenna replied. "Especially Night Furies. Night Furies are born with an infuriating amount of sarcasm. I thought that Starlight had it as a learned behaviour, but Toothless has it too, so it's probably a Night Fury thing."
"Things that are learned behaviours, however: using prosthetic legs as toothpicks and stealing blankets," Hiccup replied.
"Along with playing keep-away with that prosthetic leg first thing in the morning," Brenna said, rolling her eyes.
"Just making sure you're wide awake in the morning," Starlight and Toothless chorused, grinning. Their grins turned into looks of shock when they realized that they had both said the same thing. Brenna and the other dragons giggled.
"What did they say?" Hiccup asked.
"The exact same thing. It's adorable! Look at them!" Brenna giggled. The two Night Furies were currently refusing to look at each other, which everyone able to see the situation thought was adorable.
Except for Hookfang. Hookfang thought it was hilarious.
"Look at the little lovers!" he taunted. "Barely looking at each other because they're in LO-OOOOOOVE!"
"Shut up, Hookfang!" Starlight and Toothless yelled, blushing underneath their obsidian black scales. Hookfang laughed at them even more for being so embarrassed about it.
"Aww, poor lovestruck babies," he cooed.
*Dragonese "Hookfang, stop picking on Starlight and Toothless," Brenna ordered. Hookfang straightened up with shock.
"Yes, Brenna," he said meekly. All of the dragons' jaws dropped, along with Snotlout's. Brenna was a little surprised, but continued with whatever she was doing.
"Is it just me, or did Hookfang . . . obey orders?" Toothless asked.
"I'm surprised too, you know," Starlight replied. "I didn't think Hookfang would be like that. Just what is it about my rider that makes his sit still and take notice?"
"She speaks the same language as him, Starlight, that's what it is," Toothless explained.
"We all do, what makes her so special?"
"Must be the first example of authority he's ever seen," Stormfly explained.
"What do you mean? He has Snotlout," Starlight replied. Stormfly gestured to where Snotlout was walking with a bucket stuck to his foot. "Fair point."
"Whatchu talkin' 'bout?" Barf and Belch asked.
"Hookfang actually listened to somebody. And that somebody was Brenna, Starlight's human," Toothless said.
Both heads gasped with the shock of it all. "No. Way!"
"Yes way!" Starlight replied. "Wait, how long has he not been listening to anybody?"
"Since forever," Toothless replied. "The only thing he was ever taught was how to set his rider on fire. Not like Snotlout didn't deserve it, but still. Doesn't look good."
"I CAN HEAR YOU, YOU KNOW!" Hookfang roared, livid. "DO YOU THINK I'M DEAF OR SOMETHING?"
"Thor dammit, he heard us," Toothless cursed.
"Of course I did," Hookfang scoffed. "Now, what were you saying about me just now?"
"You're acting funny," Toothless pointed out. "Listening to the humans isn't your style."
"And what exactly is . . . 'my style'?" Hookfang hissed.
"Uhh . . . setting things on fire?" Barf and Belch chorused, laughing. Hookfang's pupils became narrow slits.
"Oh, once I'm done, nobody will ever think I'm some obedient little pet ever again," he growled.
"Well, this certainly won't end well," Toothless muttered.
"OH, YOU THINK?" all the other dragons yelled.
"Hey, do you think you could get Hookfang to aim at things that aren't my butt?" Snotlout asked.
"I guess I can try. Hookfang, come here!" Brenna beckoned the Monstrous Nightmare over, who grumbled but complied.
"Annoying girl human," Hookfang muttered.
*Dragonese "Watch your tone, mister," Brenna replied. "I'm just trying to help you with your aim."
"Help me with my aim? I don't need any help with my aim! My aim is fine! Watch this!" Hookfang snapped. He aimed a fireball at the witch, expecting her to catch on fire or jump out of the way.
He wasn't expecting the fireball to just . . . stop. Right there in mid-air. The fire was surrounded by a blue sphere, controlled by Brenna.
"Now, Hookfang, this is not the right direction to aim at if you want to hit the target," Brenna chided. "What you want to do is this." She threw the fireball at the target and hit it perfectly. Hookfang was terrified and rushed away. He didn't have any particular place or even direction in mind; he just needed to get away from that.
From her.
"Hookfang, get back here!" Snotlout ordered. But it was no use. Snotlout could yell at Hookfang to come back for as long as he liked. He was not going anywhere near Brenna for the life of him.
"Starlight - your human - the fire - she moved the fire-" He babbled incoherently out of shock.
"What happened, buddy?" Toothless asked.
"Starlight's human made the fire move!" Hookfang yelled. "She took the fire that I aimed and . . . and just threw it at the target!"
"That's it? You're gonna have to get used to that; she does that all the time," Starlight replied. She said it with such a nonchalant manner that Hookfang just freaked out more.
"OK, that's it! I'm getting out of here before she can do that again!" Hookfang shrieked, taking off.
"I thought Hookfang knew she could do . . . stuff like that," Toothless said.
"Yeah, me too," Starlight replied. "I mean, I thought it was pretty obvious. Stopping an axe in mid-air, making herself disappear in a puff of smoke, that butterfly coming off the paper and becoming real and flying away."
"Well, when you put it like that, it's pretty obvious," Toothless replied.
"And also pretty cool," Stormfly acknowledged. "I liked that butterfly."
"I liked watching her toss around the fireball and hitting the target," Toothless admitted.
"Don't think Hookfang did, though," Stormfly said under her breath.
Hookfang was hiding out at home, shaking with terror. Keep very quiet and very still, Hookfang. If you don't, she'll find you, and you don't want her to find you, he thought. He heard footsteps getting close to him. He relaxed a little when he realized that it was only Snotlout.
"Hookfang, how dare you embarrass me like that in public!" he shouted. "And you just had to do it in front of Brenna! What's she going to think about you? About me?" Hookfang rolled his eyes.
"She probably already thinks you're an idiot, you idiot," Hookfang replied. Snoutlout had no idea his dragon said that, obviously.
"You are going back there and you will apologise to her!" Snotlout snapped.
Hookfang freaked out. Him, go back to Brenna? No way in Hel. "See, that's where I draw the line. I refuse to go back to someone THAT COULD EASILY KILL ME!" he screamed. But all Snotlout heard were angry roars from a dragon he suddenly really needed to train.
And maybe Brenna could help with that.
"This is just more proof that I need to train you. Is this really the hill you want to die on?" Snotlout growled.
"Yes!" Hookfang snapped. "You know what? I'm going to show you how dangerous she is!" He dragged Snotlout over to the arena, which was now empty. They'd missed the rest of the lesson.
"Dammit! She's gone!" Snotlout cursed. Hookfang wasn't nearly as disappointed as his rider was.
"Oh, no, how absolutely terrible," he sarcastically muttered, rolling his eyes.
"Great. Now we've gotta find her," Snotlout snapped. "And Brenna could be just about anywhere by now! Let's start at the Great Hall first and go round her house later." Rolling his eyes, Hookfang took his rider to the Great Hall in search of the island's only redheaded, one-legged witch. Hookfang was reluctant, but did it anyway. He'd probably be in more trouble if he didn't. Granted, going to seek her out is basically a death sentence, but if it shut Snotlout up, then he would quite happily die. Listening to Snotlout's complaining was a death sentence in and of itself. He waited outside while Snotlout went inside to look for Brenna. He found Hiccup and Toothless instead.
"Hey, dork, where's Brenna?" Snotlout asked. "I'm looking for her."
"Probably at her house. I saw Starlight on the roof, so she must be home," Hiccup replied.
"Thanks, twig," Snotlout snapped. He stormed over to Hookfang and climbed onto his back. "Come on, Hookfang. We've got to go."
"Ugh, not again," Hookfang muttered. The Monstrous Nightmare was forced into the air and directed to what was now (technically) the Bloodsword household. Starlight intercepted him before he went in.
*Norse "What are you doing here?" she asked, with one eye open. She'd been sleeping until Snotlout got there.
"We - I - need to talk to Brenna," Snotlout replied. "Is she in?"
*Norse "She's in the garden. Go straight through and watch your step," Starlight replied, closing her eye again and trying to go back to sleep. Snotlout took that advice. Opening the door, he walked through the house (that Brenna kept very clean) and went into the garden.
"Brenna?" Snotlout called. "Starlight said you were in here. I wanted to, um . . ." The word was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn't bring himself to say it. "Apologize. That's what I wanted to do."
"Apologize for what?" Brenna asked.
"My dragon aimed fire at you, which was deeply embarrassing," Snotlout said. "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"
"While you're here, you can help me with the garden," Brenna offered. It sounded like an odd thing for Brenna to ask for, but he nodded. "If you're up for it, you can feed some salmon to the plant with teeth."
*Norse "You are not feeding that homicidal abomination a single morsel of my salmon!" Starlight yelled.
*Dragonese "Relax, I was joking!" Brenna insisted. Starlight huffed and watched over them with a disapproving eye, making absolutely sure that none of her fish was sacrificed to a semi-sentient plant with teeth at any point during Snotlout's unscheduled house visit.
"What exactly do I need to do?" Snotlout asked.
"Just pull up a few weeds from the vegetable section. Nothing too difficult for you to do," Brenna replied.
"Which ones are the weeds?" Snotlout asked. "I can't tell the difference. I'm not a nerdy plant enthusiast like Fishlegs is."
"So you won't be any help?" Brenna asked.
"I will!" Snotlout hurriedly insisted. "Just . . . something that isn't weeding. Please."
"Fine. You can help me make the fire pit instead."
"That's more like it!" the brawny boy cheered. He stopped cheering when he was given a piece of chalk. "What's this for?"
"The outline," Brenna pointed out. "Do you honestly plan on doing this without an outline?"
"Oh, yeah, forgot about that part." He started looking around for something to use for the outline, but Brenna beat him to it. She brought a shield from her shed and placed it on the floor. Then she handed him a piece of chalk.
"You can draw around the shield with this."
"Thanks," he muttered, making a quick sketch as quickly as he could. Once the sketch was finished, he waited for the next step from Brenna. He'd never made a fire pit before and he didn't want to mess anything up, and he definitely didn't need or want to look stupid in front of her. He was a Jorgenson, after all, the strongest of the bunch. But that didn't stop him from feeling so very tired.
A nap sounded really nice right now.
Even if he took that nap on the floor.
It wasn't even an actual nap; he was just resting his eyes for a little while.
He'd only need a second to rest before being as strong as ever.
"Snotlout, are you OK?" Brenna asked.
Snotlout opened his eyes. "What?"
"I went inside to get us some water and you were on the floor. I thought you'd passed out." Brenna twirled her hair with worry.
"I was just resting my eyes, I swear," Snotlout insisted.
"I just hope I didn't work you too hard."
"I'm fine."
"And it's getting late. Hookfang hasn't eaten and is probably overtired." As if on cue, Hookfang growled from outside. Snotlout took that as his sign to leave.
"I guess it's time I left. Goodnight, Brenna." Brenna showed him to the door, where an impatient Hookfang was waiting.
"Finally, we're leaving!" he sighed. "I'm starving, so I'm going to slip out when you're asleep and steal something from the docks."
"Stop your grumbling!" Snotlout hissed, as they took off. Starlight slipped back into the house when they left.
*Norse "This guy likes you," the female Night Fury noted.
"Seriously? No, he doesn't," Brenna dismissed.
*Norse "Sure he does. Why do you think he stayed in a garden with the murderous plant for so long? He. Has. A. Crush. On. You. You. Idiot."
"He wanted to help out as an apology for how his dragon was acting earlier! You heard him too!"
"Gee, after all this time, I thought you'd be able to see the signs of a person being in love." Starlight rolled her eyes as she went to her room for the night. "Goodnight, you long-haired, magic-filled, one-legged nitwit."
"Goodnight, you overly annoying reptile."