Hofferson Sisters

Where's Daystrid?

We dove down towards the village, curious as to what the dragon was digging for. Gobber saw us coming and hobbled over to us as we were getting off of our dragons. It didn't take me long to realize that the dragon was Firewing.

"What's the matter, lass?" he asked, when he saw me there. "I din't expect to see ye back here jus' yet." He obviously hadn't seen Firewing.

I ignored Gobber's comment and ran towards the house. Stormfly followed me, starting to move the embers around where Firewing was digging. Hiccup didn't waste any time coming to help, the two of us working together to move the burned logs. Before long, a small crowd had gathered around us; although neither of us paid the people any attention.

Hiccup and I were moving the last of the smaller logs, when he just dropped it. Knowing that he was paying a little more attention to what we might have been digging up, I turned and gasped.

"Days..." Laying in the ashes was my little sister, covered head to toe in soot and ashes from the fire. She looked almost peaceful, which I didn't take as a good sign, because it also meant that she didn't look alive either. I made to pull her out of the pile of embers, with some difficulty as she was almost as big as I was. Hiccup grabbed her feet and moved to help pull her out of the ashes.

I pressed my ear to her chest, looking for a heartbeat, her breath, anything that could give me any indication that she was alive. It took me a couple minutes, but sure enough, there was a heartbeat. My sister was alive. I almost laughed, I was so happy.

Firewing came over and nudged her shoulder with his nose. When she didn't wake, he tried again. Hiccup, realizing that Firewing likely wouldn't stop trying to get Daystrid to wake up, moved around me to try and pull the dragon's attention from his rider.

With some difficulty, I stood with my sister, pulled her onto Stormfly, and took her up to Gothi's hut, paying no attention to my parents standing as part of the crowd that had gathered. It wasn't like they cared about her anyway.

Hiccup

As Astrid checked to see if her sister was alive, I kept an eye on Firewing. After we'd found Daystrid, he'd gone and sat near Stormfly and Toothless, watching us intently. As soon as he saw Astrid sit back, relief obvious on her face, he'd come over nudging his rider. I could hear him saying her name; he was trying to get her to wake up.

I stood up and walked over to him, putting my hand on his neck, just behind his horns. This took his attention off of Daystrid for the time being, so Astrid was able to take her sister up to Gothi.

"I'll take care of Firewing," I told Astrid as she pulled her sister onto Stormfly. I wasn't sure she heard me, however, as she didn't acknowledge that I'd said anything.

Firewing made a move to go after Astrid, so I stepped in front of him, trying to get a message across without having to say anything. If there was anything I'd learned in the past few years when dealing with the dragons: when they're worried about someone or startled, they respond better to someone speaking dragonese than someone speaking english.

He stopped in front of me, letting me touch his nose, understanding that he needed to let Astrid take Daystrid away so she could get help.

Behind me, I heard Dad telling the people to get back to what they were doing, there was nothing to see. After the crowd dissipated, Dad came up to me. I didn't break eye contact with Firewing, knowing it was likely the only reason he was staying where I was.

"How did you two know she was there?" Dad asked.

"What?" I turned and looked at him, not taking my hand off of the dragon in front of me.