Hofferson Sisters

The Story of a Halfling

Daystrid

I got to Astrid's hut and half expected her to question me the minute I walked in, but she didn't. That was unlike her, very much unlike her. She actually seemed to be avoiding me. Why is she avoiding me? I wondered as I walked over to her.

"Uh, hey Ast." I was nervous, thinking she'd expect me to give her an explanation.

"Hey, sis." She turned around, stood up from where she had been sitting by Stormfly, and came over to me. Then she did something no one would have been expecting; she gave me a hug. I wanted to return it, but could only stand there stunned by the fact that she had done it.

She let go and then punched me in the arm. Not hard, but I was expecting that when she came over, not the hug. "That was for scaring me... and for confusing me."

"Confusing you?" I asked.

"Your dragon side. I've been thinking about how you could've gotten it, but I've come up with nothing." She started walking away, thinking.

"Oh."

"Hiccup told me that he got his from his mother, so..." she said, turning back towards me.

"There's got to be something Mom and Dad aren't telling us, that's what you're thinking, isn't it?"

"Exactly. There's no other reasonable explanation for it. When did you find out about this?"

"Yesterday. Well, I've been able to understand Firewing for a while, but the rest of it showed up yesterday."

"Okay..." she paused, caught in her thoughts. "Is that why you ran off yesterday when you..."

"Spoke dragonese? Yeah." I had more of a reason for doing it, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to share it with her. Lass, you share everything with your sister, why not just tell her? that little voice in my head told me. "I actually wasn't sure how you'd react, so I ran off before you could."

"Oh. Uh, Hiccup told me what you said."

"He did?"

"Yeah, I, uh, asked him to. He said that you were going to tell me something. What...?"

"Oh! Uh..." I chuckled nervously before continuing. "I was going to tell you that I was part dragon."

"You were?"

"Yeah. I was going to, and then I spoke dragonese on accident, panicked, and ran off."

"You know, I've got pretty much one question for you. What can you all do with your dragon side?"

"Uh... pretty much the same as Hiccup."

"Oh, okay."

I was expecting her to say more, but she didn't, so I didn't push it.

Next Day

I woke up and looked over at Astrid from my spot on the floor. She was still sleeping, and, knowing that she slept with knives under her pillow, I got up and went for a walk.

The sun was just rising over the island, coloring the sky in beautiful purples and pinks. It cast a beautiful light over the painted rooftops of the Riders' huts. As I wandered the bridges and gangplanks connecting the buildings, I just let my fear of my dragon side slip away. I had been a little afraid of it, being completely unsure of how to use any of it. Hiccup, however, had seemed more than willing to teach me a few things, even though his knowledge on it was probably limited to his own abilities.

I ended up at the clubhouse, where I sat down on the edge of one of the platforms. Firewing was in his tattoo, and was being unusually quiet. He might have still been sleeping, the sun was just starting to rise.

I started playing with my fire, and let my mind wander.

Hiccup

I woke up and checked on Toothless' wing. It was pretty much fully healed, he hadn't done too much to it. Dad was still sleeping, so I left the hut. The sun was still starting to rise and I could see a brown-haired someone sitting on the platform outside the clubhouse. Knowing who it probably was, I walked over there.

As I got closer, even though I had lost sight of the girl, I could see that she was playing with fire. That's Daystrid, like I figured. Probably still shouldn't sneak up on her...especially since she's armed with fire. I thought, letting myself be heard a little bit more.

She turned around, saw me, then looked out towards the sea again. It seemed like she was lost in thought, or she would have said something. Astrid had told me that she started looking up to me after the Red Death because I had lived most of my life cast aside by everybody, just like she was. Now she had even more reason to look up to me. And she always said something when she saw me.

"Hey." I said, sitting down next to her.

"Hey. Did you, uh, want something?" she asked, without turning.

"Uh... no. I just woke up early and needed to get away from my dad's extremely loud snoring."

"Your dad's snoring?" she chuckled. "Didn't you grow up listening to that?"

"Well you know, haven't had to listen to it in a month. I guess I got used to the quietness of having my own hut."

"Really?"

"Yeah." I paused, not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable, but my curiosity was starting to get the best of me. "How-how did you find out about your dragon side? You said yesterday that you only found out about it a couple days ago. It's okay if you don't want to tell me."

"Oh, uh, yeah..." She looked a little nervous. "Well honestly, I woke up from the fire and went to find Firewing. I'd been running through the forest, cause that's where he was most likely to be and looked down at my hands, and well..." She lit her hands on fire, causing me to jump. She noticed and looked at me. "You okay?"

"Uh, yeah. Just-just wasn't expecting that."

"Oh, yeah... I forgot that you can't do that, can you?" she said, making the fire disappear.

"No, I can't. You most likely can because your part Monstrous Nightmare. I'm Night Fury."

"Yeah..."

"Do you wanna know how I found out about mine?"

"Sure."

"Well, you see, your story is actually pretty boring compared to mine."

"What do you mean?"

"I, uh, I nearly killed my dad."