Tyra
The next week was a blur of excitement.
Training went as expected, and Hiccup was excelling. His time spent with Toothless educated him on specific dragon behaviors. I could say the same about my time with Bubbles.
First, dragons hated eel. Toothless despised it, and Bubbles nearly jumped ten feet high when she saw it in my hand.
Dragons also loved being scratched around their ears and neck. The sweet spot under their chin put them to sleep. Dragon Nip, a green plant that grew densely in the forest, relaxed the creatures too. Bubbles would frequently roll around in a field of it as a nightly routine before going to sleep.
They also loved to play. Using the sun and the metal part of my shield, both Toothless and Bubbles loved to chase around the spot of light that shone off the reflection of metal.
Hiccup applied what we learned to dragon training, and he quickly became the best in the class. I sat back and let him do the work because everyone else started to respect him. I didn't want to take the spotlight away.
Clearly, Hiccup isn't fond of fame because he continued to venture off into the forest with me so that we could spend more time with our new friends. He spent a lot of his remaining time working on Toothless's tail fin, constantly improving it. While he was busy playing doctor, I was in the clouds with Bubbles.
I'm not sure why Bubbles was so quick to trust me, but flights quickly became routine for us. I would meet her in the forest, and she allowed me onto her back before she took off into the air.
Hiccup offered to make me a saddle, but Bubbles ran away screaming when she saw it in my hands. I didn't mind though. It was more natural to ride without a saddle. I just had to hold on.
I fell off too many times because I couldn't keep up with her sharp turns and dives. It was terrifying, free falling through the air at a million miles an hour.
But Bubbles caught me every time.
I eventually got used to her movements and I was no longer falling. At that point, I had gotten used to going airborne, though, so we developed a game called "Dive and Catch." It's pretty self-explanatory: I fall off randomly, and she has to catch me before I hit the ground.
When we weren't playing our game and Bubbles wasn't feeling particularly jacked up on adrenaline, we would take a peaceful soar above the clouds at dusk, admiring the streaks of pink and yellow that painted the sky as the sun settled down to rest for the night. It was beautiful. And it gave me time to think.
The worry of killing a dragon in the ring for the pleasure of the village was no longer a concern. I didn't foresee myself being chosen by the village Elder. I didn't have to defend Hiccup anymore, as he was growing extremely popular (and in a good way this time). No one was giving me any grief about my lacking performance at training either, because everyone was focused on him. Even Finh had stopped bothering me.
If anything, Finh was being nicer. When he stitched me up in the healer's hut, something had changed. He reflected a more encouraging attitude towards me. Sure, there were a few jabs or sarcastic comments, but he wasn't trying to get on my nerves for once.
It was weird. And I didn't know how to react.
I guess that I started being a little nicer too, because Bjorn noticed the shift in both my and his best friend's attitudes towards each other. He cornered me one day and asked about it, seeming to allude to the fact that the two of us might like each other.
I laughed in his face that day. But I was internally asking myself the same question.
Even when we were younger, I allowed myself to acknowledge the fact that Finh was hot. He got even more attractive as we grew older, but my hatred towards him was able to keep me from fawning over him, setting me apart from the other girls who unashamedly professed their attraction to him.
His uncharacteristic kindness to me recently only made him more attractive. And I didn't know what to do with myself. I found myself trying to catch his eye the past few days. I actually laughed at some of the things he said. I might have even smiled at him.
I wanted to kick myself. Even though he's hot and funny and suddenly nice, he's still Bjorn's best friend. And I still hated him for a long time. But I'm struggling to hate him right now.
In training today, he actually complimented me.
"Quit staring," I had said. "You're stressing me out."
"Did you do something different with your hair today?" he asked, cocking his head to the side, continuing to stare.
"Not drastically, why? Is it on fire?"
"No!" He laughs shaking his head. "No. It just looks... nice."
"TYRA STOP TALKING AND GET IN THERE!" Gobber shouted from across the arena.
"See, you got me in trouble," I roll my eyes. "All because my hair looks nice today."
As I was leaving his side, I swore that I heard him mumble, "It always looks nice."
SEE?! That's very conflicting.
"What am I supposed to do with that?" I ask Bubbles, who practically scoffs at me. She settles down into a spot of grass and lets me hop off. "What do I do if my sworn enemy is actually kind of appealing? Should we just kill him?"
She hums happily to me like that's the perfect solution.
"I was kidding," I roll my eyes, patting her head. "We're not gonna kill him. Alright, you sleep well tonight. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
Bubbles nuzzles my hand before taking off into the night sky.
***
A/N: this is literally a terrible chapter im so sorry
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DREKI ~ HTTYD
Hayran Kurgu"I hear my father yelling as a bolt of burnt orange barrels into view, screaming with the voice of a thousand Valkyries." Tyra Lothbrok has always had a fascination with dragons while her village has always regarded the creatures with a deep hatred...
