HAPPY NEW YEAR! Now I know this isn't an HP cross, but I don't have anywhere else to put it until it's ready to become a full story. Enjoy!
In all honesty, she could be forgiven for thinking she was in a very weird and strangely realistic dream, considering the last thing she remembered was going to sleep in New Berk after helping to corral the last dragon into the Hidden World with Toothless before she had to say goodbye.
Waking up to the sound of her father shouting about a dragon attack and hearing the sounds of dragons stealing food for the Red Death was not what she expected.
For one thing, the vikings had made peace with the dragons over ten years ago. For another, Stoick was dead and from the sound of things she was in Berk again. She would remember the sound of crashing waves anywhere, along with the smell of the wood and fish.
Waking up and going outside was beyond surreal.
There were dragons everywhere, but that wasn't the strangest part. No, that came from seeing her father and well, ordering the vikings to attack the dragons and having everything seem like a weird replay of how things used to be.
The moment things came into clarity was when a flaming piece of wood crashed next to her. She could feel the roaring blaze of the fire.
What in the name of Thor was going on?!
"Hiccup! What is he doing out here?" demanded Stoick.
She felt incredibly hurt, hearing that name again. After she found her mother, she learned that her true name was Erika, not Hiccup. Apparently Stoick felt that having a daughter made him weaker as a chief, because he tried to hide her gender and her name from the rest of the village. If not for Vulka, she never would have known the truth.
(She still couldn't get over how close Snoutlout came to being chief.)
That alone cemented the truth. She had to be back in the past, though how or why she didn't know. Perhaps it was that last dragon? They never had a chance to find out what sort it was and only the gods truly knew all the abilities of the beasts.
Now the question was...what did she do about it? Her childhood was far from ideal, and her father only said he was proud of her and accepted her for who she was AFTER the mess with the Red Death and nearly DYING.
Seeing the dragons Erika, or rather "Hiccup", decided to see if the influx of strange memories were real.
To that end, she broke away from the bigger vikings who barely took notice of her presence since she wasn't trying to get in their way and went to find a Gronkle. Memories of Meatlug and how friendly Gronkles were in general were the guiding force behind her decision.
Nothing could have fully prepared her for the sight of the Gronkle nuzzling her hand before it flew off without trying to eat her.
Were the memories real? Did she really travel in time?
Erika had to spend a rather awkward week of trying to figure out what was going on while attempting to find out where she belonged in the village. She had almost forgotten how positively miserable she had been until Toothless had come into her life.
Being stuck in the forge didn't help either. She was the smallest child in the village, and for that reason alone the other kids picked on her whenever they got in the mood. Which was often, because there was very little to actually DO on Berk.
After yet another nasty beating from Snoutlout and the twins, Erika decided against 'toughing it out' like a proper viking and headed straight for Gothi when she could breathe again.
Gothi took one look at her and gave her a knowing expression. She was silent as she examined the injuries and started making the medicine needed to ease Hiccup's pain.
Erika realized she had a few options to her, now that she knew about the future. She could either suffer in silence like before, miserable because she didn't fit in with the vikings...or she could prepare for the possibility that she would be cast out permanently because she refused to give Toothless up. On the plus side, she at least had ONE parent that would be willing to talk to her and understood dragons the way she did.
Valka was certain to be shocked that her daughter tracked her down, but odds were she would understand completely why she left.
Besides she remembered all too well a few situations where having knowledge about healing would have come in handy.
Erika knew that learning how to heal others would only benefit her long term, but the problem was that Gothi was extraordinarily picky about who she would teach.
It was as she walked home, medicine in hand, that an idea occurred to her.
She remembered the ill-fated adventure to get glacier water that scared Gothi so badly. She also knew that the dragon guarding it only saw body heat.
Perhaps she could convince Gothi to hear her out if she brought a bribe the older woman would find impossible to dismiss out of hand?
Gothi stared at the bottle of glacier water, and then at the chief's daughter. It was a little known village secret that the chief had a daughter, and not the failure of a son that everyone was privately annoyed by.
She gives Hiccup a Look, silently demanding to know where the girl got the water.
"I want to learn about healing. I'm tired of Snoutlout and the twins beating me up and having to suffer for days because my father prefers to pretend I don't exist," said Erika flatly, not even trying to hide her annoyance about the matter.
Gothi scribbles something on the ground.
"Gobber is the only one who would notice I'm gone, and if I set aside a few days to run errands for you no one is going to notice I'm missing. Never mind the amount of free time I'll have whenever he's training the younger vikings in the arena."
Gothi gave Hiccup an odd look, but conceded her point. However there was one thing she did want to know before she agreed to any arrangement...if only for her own peace of mind.
Hiccup winced slightly when she read the question Gothi asked.
However Gothi was well known for her silence, so if she handled this the right way she might have herself an invaluable ally.
"I know how to get past the dragon guarding the glacier water. I also know a way off the island that doesn't require a boat and is faster than sea travel."
Seeing Gothi's expression, Erika made an odd call...and the older woman's eyes went wide seeing a Gronkle land calmly on her 'front porch' and not even attempting to set anything on fire or attack them. Instead it almost seemed to be leaning against the chief's daughter in a happy manner.
Gothi gave her a questioning look. She was willing to hear the girl out before she called Stoick or Gobber in to deal with her. After all, the dragon wasn't acting like any of it's kin and was behaving more like an odd pet.
"They aren't what we think they are. They can be trained to work with us, rather than be our enemies. But I know dad won't even consider it, or worse would use them against other tribes as weapons. I want to find a way for us to coexist without making things worse."
Gothi silently considered the girl before her. Hiccup was showing small signs of the same leadership ability that made Stoick such a good chief. It was just that she took more after her mother than her father. If Hiccup could prove she could train dragons, then perhaps it would be worth giving her methods a try. Gothi had lost count the number of vikings lost to this senseless war.
Besides...if Hiccup was telling the truth the getting rare ingredients had become a lot easier.
Erika could only feel relief that Gothi was willing to hear her out.
In the arena...
Gothi watched with her characteristic silence as Hiccup released the Deadly Nadder from the cage.
It took a great deal of patience to watch as Hiccup held out her hand and looked away...only for the Nadder to calmly bump it's nose against her hand and allow the girl child to climb on it's back without trying to throw her off.
However it did prove the child's claim that the dragons could be trained.
Hiccup reluctantly put the dragon back up, but not before giving the dragon some fish.
There was no disguising the relief on her face when Gothi agreed to teach her how to make medicine...in exchange for gathering rare ingredients.
The next time there was a raid, Erika had a plan. Much to her delight, she heard the distinct sounds of a certain Night Fury attacking.
She made her way up to one of the hills away from the main raid, where none of the vikings would see her...and then she did her Night Fury call.
Toothless had been alone for so long, that the second he heard it he veered off after his second attack and flew towards her.
The confusion on his face hurt a bit...but the feel of relief when she sensed the familiar bond between them click into place made up for it. The dragon's eyes widened in shock and recognition, before he started nuzzling her as the familiar scent reached his nostrils.
"I missed you too bud. Meet me at the cove later tomorrow okay? We'll work out a plan when dad inevitably tries and fails to find the nest again," said Erika.
Toothless made an agreeing noise and flew off before Erika went back to her home.
It hurt a little less going back, even as she happened to overhear Stoick's usual ploy to get the other vikings to make an attack on the nest they would never find without a dragon's help.
Erika felt like she should feel guilt about the pointless death that was about to happen, but to be honest she felt nothing. The vikings were more inclined to go on a pointless attempt to wipe out the dragon nest rather than look after her, a child many deemed a headache that they had to deal with because she was the chief's only heir.
Hearing that Gobber had to train some new recruits, Erika knew she had a few weeks to learn under Gothi on how to prepare medicine.
Odds were the woman wouldn't mind a chance to give Erika some real world experience picking medicines and stock up on what she would need to treat the inevitable influx of injuries when Stoick and the others returned in three weeks.
Toothless was not happy that Erika had to use a Deadly Nadder to get the ingredients, but even he could admit he was still too small to fly both of them around for any length of time. Much less at the distances they would need to travel for the medicine.
Erika knew a bit of healing plants, but Gothi introduced her to several more on the island. It was a good thing she knew how to translate Gothi's writing.
When they returned the next morning, Erika realized too late that she forgot to make the nails Gobber asked for.
To that end, she went straight to the forge and went to work, the ease of many years of practice allowing her to complete half the number of nails Gobber asked her to make before he bothered to come in and check on her.
Rather than chastise her as she feared, Gobber patted her on the head rather proudly. Thankfully not with his bad hand.
"Well done! We'll make a blacksmith out of you yet!" he said pleased.
Erika was highly confused, until she racked her memories and realized she had only been apprenticed to Gobber for the past year or so and had never actually been allowed to do more than nails until she was about eight or so. Last time she could barely make a third of the nails without Gobber's help, since he didn't trust her with any real forge work on her own until she was at least ten. Before then she had such trouble figuring out how to use the tools and having to remember that she needed to keep the fire hot.
Seeing how tired she was, Gobber sent her straight to Gothi for some medicine and told her to take the day off.
Gothi looked more amused than anything, but as always kept her silence. Fortunately Stoick was already gone on the ship, so Toothless was able to sneak into the cabin and cuddle with her for a few hours.
The schedule for the next couple of weeks was pretty straight forward. She earned her way into Gobber's better graces by showing actual skill in the forge, thus earning her a few hours of peace and quiet since he was slowly starting to actually TRUST her alone in the shop while he trained the new recruits with the dragons.
During the days Gobber was busy training the other vikings in how to kill the dragons, Erika spent most of her day apprenticing under Gothi in how to properly identify medicinal plants.
Then it happened. Gobber happened to come back a little early and went searching for Hiccup. You could imagine his surprise finding out where she had disappeared to.
(Much to her relief, Toothless had gone out hunting, which meant Gobber never found out that she had a pet dragon...much less a Night Fury that acted like an odd cat who happened to breathe fire.)
Gobber looked at Hiccup, who was trying to find the medicinal plants Gothi 'asked' for and then at Gothi.
Erika suddenly realized Gobber was there and flinched.
"Don't tell dad."
"Why not? I think Stoick would be happy you're not off trying to find trolls on your own again."
"He barely tolerates me as it is. I think the only reason he had me apprenticed to you was to get me out of the way and out of sight of the village. At least Gothi is nice to me, even if she takes far too much amusement in hitting me in the head with that staff of hers when I mess things up," said Erika miserably.
"Come on, you know he doesn't feel that way."
"Oh really? Then why does he act like he wishes I was the one carried off by dragons and not mom? Why does he never defend me against what the other villagers say? Why does he use me as an excuse to attack the nest?!" said Erika irate.
Gobber winced at that. To be fair, that one was on Stoick. How were they to know Hiccup had been listening to that particular ploy to get the other vikings to join in on a counter-raid against the dragons?
"I'm sick and tired of being considered the mistake of the village. At least here I can learn something useful that will make me more than welcome practically anywhere," said Erika bitterly.
Gobber looked at how miserable Hiccup was, and how much happier she was around Gothi.
"If you would rather be apprenticed to Gothi, I'm sure I could convince Stoick."
"No! I don't actually mind forge work... I just wanted to learn how to heal myself after Snoutlout and the twins beat me up for no other reason than they're bored again," Erika blurted out.
Gobber blinked.
"What do you mean again?" he said angrily.
"Snoutlout and the twins think it's funny to beat me up until I can't really breathe because no one in the village outside of you and Gothi actually care about me. Everyone on Berk treats me like the embarrassment of the village, not matter what I try," said Erika absolutely miserable. "And knowing dad, his big plan to 'deal' with me would likely to be marrying me off to another tribe and making Snoutlout chief since he doesn't think I could handle it."
She would never forget the nightmare of almost being married to Dagur the Deranged for a peace treaty that never would have worked out anyway.
Gobber looked at Gothi, who had kept her 'silence'...not that she ever really talked anyway.
"How about this...you work in the forge from morning to noon, and the rest of the time you work with Gothi. I won't tell Stoick about this arrangement until he notices something and asks," said Gobber.
The sheer relief on Hiccup's face was almost painful to look at.
An idea occurred to Erika.
"Do you think you could help me build a better boat? Some of the ingredients Gothi needs are a bit harder to get because they aren't on the island and it would give me a better chance to find them even if it takes me away from the village for a few days at a time."
"One thing at a time. If you can handle being apprenticed to two people, then I'll see about helping you to learn how to sail a small vessel by yourself and how to handle the sea," said Gobber.
If he was surprised by the hug Hiccup gave him, he said nothing. Even if he felt Stoick was giving his daughter less credit than she deserved.
Not many could stomach learning how to make medicine.