The Sister I Never Knew

Chapter 3

The girl in front of her hunched slightly and her eyes were hiding behind that mess of hair she had.

She wore an old worn out viking outfit with hints of dirty yellow and brown. The colors were faded and filthy. The girl must've never worn anything beside that.

Sylvi looked just like Hiccup. She was about Astrid's own height and she had faded freckles and her hair was sloppily braided behind her back with strands coming into her smudged face.

Astrid let her guard down just a bit and tried to walk over to the girl. Her axe trailed behind her.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Sylvi.", she brought her hand up, going toward the girl.

Before Astrid even got near her, Sylvi's eyes scanned her and she quickly jumped on her feet and ran through the trees.

"Wait!", yelled Astrid.

She quickly grabbed her axe and went after the other girl. Jumping over fallen tree trunks and letting her boots crunch on top of the dry leaves and twigs.

Astrid searched for a few more minutes before she stopped and took a break beside a stream of water. The young woman set her axe down beside a boulder and cleaned her face with the fresh water.

She sat on the grass below and leaned her head back, popping her tense muscles.

"Why is your family so crazy, Hiccup.", Astrid spoke to herself mostly.

The young viking heard twigs snap behind her and automatically knew someone was there. "Don't try hiding, it's pointless.", the blonde said out loud.

"I'm not hiding. If I wanted to hide I would have.", she heard a voice behind her and Astrid turned around to find the girl.

She seemed unsure of herself but presented confidence in her actions. She didn't falter and let Astrid know that she was strong. Or at least tried to show.

"You wanted to talk? Let's talk.", she said finally.

And so they did.

They sat beside the stream and Astrid couldn't contain all the questions she had for this girl.

Sylvi had been taken as a child from Berk. When she was at least five or six years old, Cloudjumper took her to her mother as he saw that Valka seemed sad and missed her family.

The girl lived with her mother throughout all her life. She forgot about the village because after a year with her mother, the young girl accidentally fell and almost drowned. For some reason, Sylvi forgot about almost everything that had to do with Berk.

"I was about seventeen when I made up my mind. I wanted to see Berk, to see my brother and my father. Mom would tell me about them, we never kept secrets from each other.", Sylvi told the blonde as she played with the grass under her finger tips.

Valka didn't want her daughter to go, she thought it was too dangerous and wouldn't let Sylvi leave.

One night Sylvi snuck out. She planned it well and waited for her mother to be asleep before leaving. Valka was woken up that night by Cloudjumper and the last thing she saw was Sylvi leaving on her own dragon, heading east.

"What happened to your dragon?", Astrid asked her.

The cold night air pushed their hair away from their face and Astrid played with her fingers.

"I lost her about a year ago. A Nadder, she got sick and I couldn't help her. I messed up, I shouldn't have left in the first place.", Sylvi said sadly. "Mom never kept anything from me, she told me about my brother and father. What do I do in return? I leave her."