THE TRANSLATOR, httyd.

the translator, four.

"where did astrid go wrong in the ring today?"

"i mistimed my somersault dive. it was sloppy. it threw off my reverse tumble." hiccup looked as astrid with heart eyes, while astrid barely gave him a single look. ruffnut rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"yeah, yeah, we noticed."

snotlout immediately defended astrid. "no, no, you were great. that was so... astrid."

"she's right, you have to be tough on yourselves. where did hiccup go wrong?" 

hiccup wanted to dive into the ocean and drown.

"uh, he showed up?"

"he didn't get eaten?"

"he's never where he should be." hiccup hated the way astrid was glaring at him. devastated, he put his head on his hand, staring at the flickering flames with a sigh. 

that night, his thoughts consisted of the sassy and mysterious ginger-haired girl than the blond-haired girl who never seemed to spare him a single glance.

maybe he should go visit her.

hiccup wondered if she was still there.

after one horrible (as usual) training with a deadly nadder, hiccup headed back towards the clearing. he carefully carried a few pieces of fish to the last place he'd seen the night fury, wrinkling his nose as the smell of raw fish.

"back so soon?" hiccup jumped as he stared at the girl (he still didn't know her name. he should probably ask again or give her a nickname). her cheeks were flushed from the cold and she was able to stand, which made hiccup breathe a sigh of reassurance. ginger hair blowed in the wind as a small smirk was placed on her face.

"haha. yep. i wanted to bring the night fury some fish. and, uh... what's your name?" at elina's look, hiccup rushed to explain. "because i've been referring you as 'the girl' in my head and it's really confusing and it's kind of impolite. and not saying that you're just 'the girl', you're a lot more than that, but... hum... yeah?" hiccup stammered.

he watched as elina's smirk formed into a tiny, real smile (he felt a weird feeling in his gut, like it's filled with butterflies) and it was at him. him! no one's ever given him a real smile before!

"it's fine. don't ramble off the edge of the earth." elina answered. "my name is... it's elina. elina gertrude." hiccup felt elina staring at him, and when he didn't reply, she walked towards the night fury, although hiccup still noticed a limp in her right leg as she walked.

hiccup found himself trying to recall any memory of her name, and all of a sudden, he remembered his father saying the name 'elina gertrude' before. his eyes widened. was... was she a viking? 

but as he saw the night fury nuzzle up to elina, and the changewing sit protectively behind her, he thought, but then why would she be so nice to dragons? vikings' entire philosophy was to kill dragons, so if elina was a viking, then why would she take care of them?

"i'd... rather not talk about it." elina's cold voice broke his train of thoughts, making hiccup realize that he'd been saying it out loud. 

"sorry," hiccup rubbed the back of his head with his hand. "you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. i was just... curious."

elina gave him a small smile that disappeared as quickly as it had come. "it's okay. do you mind if i take some of your fish to give to chameleon?" she gestured towards the changewing, and hiccup immediately shook his head.

"sure. feel free. can i interact with the night fury for a bit? uh, since i kind of want to apologize for —"

"shooting half his tail down?" elina chuckled bitterly. "yep. you go do that. he can't fly anymore, though, so we're still trying to figure out a way to bring him away from here."

"bring him to... where?" hiccup said, a tinge of concern lacing his tone. "he'll be safe, right?" 

hiccup watched as elina's eyes softened. "yeah, he will be. just... i dunno... scream if he tries to turn you into viking barbeque."

"vi — viking barbeque? what?" hiccup said, his voice wobbly. elina burst into laughter that sounded like music to his ears. hiccup wished she could laugh more. chameleon, elina's dragon (hiccup believed) turned towards elina in concern when the dragon heard her chuckles, but the dragon turned her head away when she realized elina was just laughing.

hiccup was confused.

"no, it's a joke. toothless doesn't really burn anyone; the most he'll do is blast your limbs off or something. as long as you don't threaten him, he's pretty cool."

"toothless?"

"oh, that's what we call him. he likes the name, and it stuck."

hiccup nodded nervously as elina wasn't making him feel better. hiccup was weighing his options: getting burnt or getting blasted.

as elina took some salmon for chameleon, hiccup cautiously neared toothless. toothless's eyes narrowed as he snarled, and hiccup realized he was staring at his knife. awkwardly, he took the knife out, and watched as toothless flinched.

hiccup threw it in the river, making elina turn to look at him. he could feel her gaze burning into his back as toothless's eyes turned wide. how could i have shot down such an adorable dragon? he's just trying to defend himself, that's all.

with that as his comfort, hiccup held the cod from his hand, still trying to distance himself as far away from the dragon as possible, in case he ate his hand as well. toothless opened his mouth, showing his toothless gums, and hiccup then realized why his name was toothless. 

"huh. i could've sworn you had..."

toothless's teeth appeared immediately as he bit the fish out of hiccup's hands. hiccup immediately snatched his hand back to his chest, breathing heavily.

"teeth. yep. there it is."

elina chuckled. hiccup turned his head to look at the ginger-haired girl, a smile on his face as he looked at the redhead, and all he could think is, astrid hofferson who?