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To Belong

She was the weird foreign girl, he was the most useless Viking in the history of Berk. Together they were just Leandra and Hiccup. Two best friends who searched for their place in the world. Would their search for it unite or separate them?

Chapter 1

Transfixed a young maiden with long wavy black hair stared out the window. She was in her room and could hear with clarity the battle cries of her neighbors and the screams of the dragons.

Just a normal night on Berk.

Was it absurd that she envies the dragons? Most people saw them as nuisances, but she wanted to fly like them.

Just away from Berk.

Away from a life she didn’t choose but had to live it. She sighed and put a bit of hair behind her ear.

Wallow in her misery wouldn’t help anyone, she needed to get out and do her job.

Gothi was counting on her.

It just was one of these nights where anything seemed too much.

She wonders sometimes if her best friend felt this hole in his chest too. He may be a born Viking, yet it was clear that in the eyes of the people of Berk and his own father, he was no Viking material.

They put him in the same spot as her the “weird foreign girl”.

A knock is heard on her room door and her stepmother, Sigrùn Jonnson, enters her sanctuary from the world.

Under her big belly with her future half-sibling in it, even the proud Viking woman has to gasp for air.

“You should rest.”, she says to her stepmother, before she can talk.

“And you should be out helping Gothi with the wounded, Leandra.”, reminds her Sigrùn.

“I was on my way.”

Not believing it the red-haired woman raises one eyebrow.

“Really? It looks more like you are daydreaming. I swerve to Odin Stoick’s boy has you infected with it.”

Angry Leandra stands up from her windowsill and grips her pouch, with her ointments and healing herbs in it, slinging it over her shoulder.

“We don’t talk about Hiccup! We only seem always to fight when he comes up and frankly it’s my free right to be friends with whom I want to be, comprender.”, she hisses.

Sigrùr raises her hands in a way to pacify her stepdaughter.

“All right, all right. I won’t say a thing. I will go back to bed, your brother is confusing my stomach for a ball. Don’t forget to greet your father.”

With that Sigrùr waddles away.

“It could be a girl.”, Leandra grumbles after her.

She doesn’t know if she was heard, but it was important to her to say this. Leandra knows how much her parents want a perfect Viking boy and not another little Spanish senorita like her from her father’s first marriage.

It all just sucks.

The black-haired girl goes down the stairs and sees her father stirring the fire in their fireplace.

“Papi.”, she calls over to him, already reaching for the door. “I’m off to help Gothi.”

“Hasta luego mi amor! And be careful out there.”

“Si!”

With that, she steps out and has to dodge already a Gronkel.

Ah yes, nothing better to start her work day!

“I’m sorry, really!”, Leandra whines at the old Viking woman and can barely dodge her walking stick.

Gothi shakes her head, scribbling down on the ground.

“That’s a bit mean, I know I should be here earlier, I was just distracted.”

More scribbles.

“No, Hiccup, hasn’t anything to do with it. It’s just one of these days.”

The old woman gives her a pitiful look and writes down.

“Yeah, you are right. It’s tough for me to find my place here.”, the black-haired girl signs. “But I like helping you, Gothi.”

She gets just a nod as answers and Gothi points out at the fighting Vikings.

“Yes, I will see if someone needs healing.”

With that Leandra runs into the fry, careful not to crash into a dragon, looking for Vikings who need healing and ones she needs to send to Gothi.

She may be "the weird foreigner", but her dear neighbors respect and trust in the healing wisdom she learned from Gothi.

The black-haired girl is handing out burn ointment to a few of the men when she sees Mister Svenson holding his right arm tight to his chest.

A quick check on it’s clear that it is broken.

“Mister Svenson, please wait here for me. I will stabilize the arm before you can go to Gothi.”, she asks him.

“All right, lass.”

With that, she runs to the blacksmith stall and calls out: “Gobber, Hiccup, I need some iron poles!”

It’s Gobber who greets her, hammering away on an anvil.

“Evening lass, full out on helping the men I see.”

She grins and waves at him. Leandra always liked Gobber. Since she can remember he had treated her just like a normal child, never making her feel like an outcast on Berk.

Speaking of outcasted, there was the second one of Berk and her dearest and best friend.

Hiccup has the poles she asked for in his hands, handing them to her.

“Here you are, Lee.”

“Thanks, Hic!”

The girl with black wavy hair and tan is my only and best friend Leandra. She is a year older than me and comes originally from a place called Spain. But since her father and she stranded on Berk 10 years ago and her dad fell in love with one of the village women they live here. She is like me on outcast since she isn’t a Viking, but she manages to become our village elder apprentice. Once I asked her if she wanted to be a healer in the future and she just told me she is doing this job so she doesn’t die of boredom. Yeah, Lee, isn’t the biggest fan of Berk. I hear her often mumbling about how she wants to go back to Spain to her grandmother.  

“All good with you?”, Leandra asks her best friend.

She knows how much he wants to be out there like the other teenagers and help out the grown-ups, but since he is so accident-prone he was basically banished into the blacksmith stall.

“Yeah, all good.”, he answers her.

“And about your little, you know.”, she pointedly looks in the direction of his new invention.

He gives her a small grin.

“Seems to be ready.”

Leandra nods.

“All right, if I get the chance I will join you in your plan, but to be on the save side, good luck, Hic.”

“Thanks, Lee!”

With a last wave, Leandra makes her way to Mister Svenson.

It’s really dumb luck that Leandra is near the blacksmith stall when she sees Hiccup racing out of it with his invention.

She was currently handing out again burnt ointment and nearly throws it in the face of Mrs. Ingerson.

“Here you go. Gotta go to Gothi, I’m all out!”, she lies and ignores the calls for her.

Her best friend needs her moral support!

She finds him on a cliff overlooking the smoking catapult, thanks to the dragon Hiccup so much wants to kill.

“Hiccup, I’m here!”

He turns happily smiling at her.

“Perfect, timing, Lee. Help me set it up?”

“You need to ask?”

Together the two teenagers crank several levers, unfolding and then cocking the bowed arms of his contraption. He drops a bola onto a chamber and then pivots the weapon on a gimbal head toward the dark sky.

Leandra steps back and listens, just like Hiccup for the familiar screech of the Night Furry, while she has her hands in a prayer position.

She hopes the Lord has mercy on Hiccp and gives him this change.         

Hiccup’s eye is pressed to the scope, hand poised on the trigger.

They hear the Night Fury approaching and Hiccup turns his aim to the defense tower.

It closes in for the final strike, completely camouflaged in the night.

“Come on. Give me something to shoot at, give me something to shoot at.”, mutters Hiccup to himself.

Leandra, still praying, mutters too: “Please my Lord, he needs it, please let him shoot it down!”

Boom! The tower topples. The blast of fire illuminates the dragon for a split second.

Hiccup pulls the trigger.

The flexed arms snap forward, springing the weapon off the ground. The bola disappears into the sky, followed by a whack and a screech.

Even if she prayed for it, Leandra can’t help it and her chin meets the floor.

Hiccup did it!

“Hic! You did it!”, she yells happily and hugs him from behind.

He is like a statue, till he realizes what he did.

“Oh I hit it! Yes, I hit it!”, he celebrates.

The boy turns around to hug his best friend better and the two jump around like two crazy kangaroos.

“Wuhu!”, shouts Leandra, so happy for Hiccup.

At least one of them would finally fit in!

“Did anybody see that?”, ask Hiccup exited.

It’s short-lived since when they turn around again the teenagers see a huge Monstrous Nightmare slithering up over the lip of the cliff.

“Except for you.”, Hiccup can’t help himself and deadpans at the dragon.

The black-haired girl grips his hands and drags him with her.

“Less talking, more running!”

“I know, I was just-“

“Hic, shut it and move these legs of yours!”

Both teens scream like children running through the Plaza, with the Nightmare fast on their heels.

Vikings scatter as Hiccup and Leandra dodge a near-fatal blast. The Nightmare's sticky, Napalm-like fire splashes up onto buildings, setting them alight.

“I swerve to Holy Mary, Hiccup, if we survive this, I’m going to kick your ass!”, shrieks Leandra.

“What did I do?! I didn’t tell the dragon to follow us!”

The boy makes them duck behind the last standing brazier, the only shelter available.

The Nightmare blasts it, spraying fire all around him.

The two best friends hug each other tight and Hiccup can hear how Leandra is praying to her god, eyes closed and shaking. He never wanted to risk his best friend’s life only to get the respect of his father and clan.

This so was not the plan!

But now it seemed that they both are toast.

With a gulp, Hiccup peers around the smoldering post. No sign of the Nightmare.

He turns back to find it leering at him, blocking their escape.

It takes a deep breath.

The boy turns himself and Leandra so around that his back is to the Nightmare and her to the brazier.

It was highly unlikely that they would survive the blast of the dragon, but if his maneuver could protect Lee even just a little bit, he would die happier.

Suddenly, Stoick leaps between them, tackling the Nightmare to the ground. They tumble and wrestle, resuming their earlier fight. The Nightmare tries to toast him, but only coughs up smoke.

“You're all out.”, informs Stoick the dragon.

He smashes the Nightmare repeatedly in the face, driving it away. It takes to the air and disappears.

Winded, Stoick turns to Hiccup and Leandra.

The girl has tear streaks going down her tan face, gripping the tunic of his son tight, while Hiccup hugs her too and pets her head to calm her down.

“Gracias a Dios!”, mumbles the girl relieved.

Stoick saved them from an early death!

That’s when the burnt brazier pole collapses, sending the massive iron basket crashing. It bounces down the hill, destroying as it goes and scattering the Vikings who were holding down the netted Nadders. The freed dragons escape with several sheep in tow.

Both Leandra and Hiccup made faces during the whole scene. It was kind of their fault.

“Sorry, dad.”

“I’m sorry, Mister Stoick.”

The escaped Nadders fly past with sheep in their clutches.

The raid is over.

The dragons have clearly won.

The murmuring crowd eyes Stoick, awaiting his response.

“Okay, but I hit a Night Fury.”, says Hiccup sheepish.

For a moment Stoick ignores his son to look at the young maiden beside him. The girl is still shaking and didn’t stop crying.

He gives her a little head pat and calls out to her father: “Gustavo, get your daughter.”

Leandra can’t even look that fast, as her papi takes her in his arms and Stoick grips Hiccup by the back scruff of his collar and hauls him away, fuming with embarrassment.

The girl knows what is going to happen and wants to step out of the embrace of her father, but he hugs her tighter.

“No mi amor you stay put, I nearly lost you, let your papi hold you.”

“B-But-“

“No, but!”

Meanwhile, Hiccup tries to talk to his father: “It's not like the last few times, Dad. I mean I really actually hit it. You guys were busy and I had a very clear shot. It went down, just off Raven Point. Let's get a search party out there, before it—“

“STOP! Just....stop.”, say’s Stoick.

He releases Hiccup. Everyone goes silent, staring expectantly. Leandra bites her lips. This will not end well for her best friend.

“Every time you step outside, disaster follows.”, Stoick nearly growls to his son. “Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter's almost here and I have an entire village to feed!”

Hiccup looks around. All eyes are upon him. Only Leandra’s eyes are friendly and worried for him. She is still crying.

Damn, he hates to make her cry.

Maybe that’s why he jokingly says: “Between you and me, the village could do with a little less feeding, don't ya think?”

A few rotund Vikings stir self-consciously. The black-haired girl can’t help to crack a smile.

“This isn't a joke, Hiccup! Why can't you follow the simplest orders?”

“Mister Stoick.”, calls Leandra out and sniffs her last tears away. “Please, Hiccup didn’t lie. I was with him when he shout down the Night Furry.”

“You are a good lass, Leandra, but this is between me and my son.”, reprimand her the chief.

Before she can say more her father commands practically: “Suficiente Leandra!”

So she shuts up and looks at the ground frowning.

“I can't stop myself.”, speaks Hiccup up and hopes so to get the nasty looks away from Leandra. She didn’t deserve them. She just helped him and was now probably scarred for life. “I see a dragon and I have to just... kill it, you know? It's who I am, Dad.”

“You are many things, Hiccup. But a dragon killer is not one of them.”

Autsch, this hurts!

Leandra looks at her best friend sad, while the other Vikings agree with Stoick.

“Get back to the house.”, wants Stoick from his son.

Gobber comes up and gives Hiccup a little slap on the back of his head.

“Make sure he gets there.”, Stoick tells Gobber. “I have his mess to clean up.”

Leandra wants to follow them, but her papi takes hold of her hand and leads them to their house.

“That was enough excitement for a night, young lady. We are going home!”

The black-haired maiden signs.

Oh, she will hear on earful when Sigrùr hears about all this.

Yeah!

Dictionary:

Comprender…. Understand

Papi….Dad

Hasta luego mi amor…. See you later my love

Gracias a Dios….Thank god

Suficiente Leandra….Enough Leandra

I don’t speak Spanish, so I used old google translator for it I hope it’s right!

Next

To Belong

She was the weird foreign girl, he was the most useless Viking in the history of Berk. Together they were just Leandra and Hiccup. Two best friends who searched for their place in the world. Would their search for it unite or separate them?

Chapter 2

The good thing about having a pregnant stepmother?

The baby makes her tired, so she doesn’t yell at you that much because you nearly lost your life.

The bad thing is that she still wants to forbid you to see your best friend.

Thank the Lord, that her papi understands how important her bond with Hiccup is.

Without him, she would be all alone on the island. The other Viking teens, even if they are a year younger than her, don’t associate with her either.

Oh, they let her heal them, but like with the adults, she was the weird foreigner.

Nothing more.

It had hurt, but one day Leandra decide that if people didn’t like her for her then they weren’t worth her time.

It was wasted energy and with it, she could do more.

Like spending her time with Hiccup who always has liked her.

Anyways, she could still be friends with Hiccup but her parents grounded her. She should stay for the next few days in her room, only getting out for food and when she needed to do her healer job with Gothi.

Nonetheless, to say the second her room door was closed, Leandra strapped her dagger, last year’s Snoggletog/Christmas gift from Hiccup, on her brown belt and made her way over to her window.

With years of practice breaking out, she opened it without a sound and reached for the tree that grow beside it. She gripped the tree branch and hosted herself up to it. Then she put a piece of wood on the window frame so it was closed and wouldn’t make sounds, but she could open it without a problem getting back to her room.

Mindful of her blue dress with her black kirtle she climbed down the tree.

When she was on the ground she made haste to Raven Point.

Knowing Hiccup so good as she did, he was surely already out there searching for the fallen Night Fury.

She wouldn’t leave him alone on his quest. That’s why she took her dagger with her.

If…If they needed to end things.

Leandra hoped not, she didn’t think she had the stomach for it to actually kill something, but if it was Hiccup and her life against the dragon…then she would choose them.

Still, it didn’t make her feel good about herself. Probably because she wasn’t a Viking and doesn’t have killing dragons in her blood.

Her father was actually a merchant before they landed themselves on Berk.

Leandra hears his nasal voice before she sees him: “Ugh, the gods hate me. Some people lose their knife or their mug. No, not me. I manage to lose an entire dragon.”

“Then maybe you could try my god?”, she calls for him.

He turns around and blinks surprised at her.

“Lee, they let you out? No wait for a second, you broke out, right.”, he corrects himself.

“Of course.”, she replies nodding. “I wouldn’t leave you alone with the dragon. Brought my dagger with me too.”

She points at it, while Hiccup grins.

“You are the best friend someone can ask for.”

“Aww shush, best friend till our death even beyond, right partner?”

A crooked smile forms on his lips. “Could be difficult since we have two very different versions of the afterlife.”

“We will find a way, we always do!”

“Yeah if we only could find this dragon.”

Frustrated Hiccup whacks a low-hanging branch. It snaps back at him, hitting him in the face.

“Damn Hic!”, shouts Leandra worried, and checks his eye. “All good?”

“I can still see if you were worried about that.”, he answers her drily.

“Well, you didn’t poke your eye out so I count this as a win.”

That’s when both teenagers see a snapped tree trunk. Their eyes, one pair green, one brown, follow it to a long trench of upturned earth.

“Do you think…”

“…That the Night Fury is this way, yes I do, Lee.”

Together the two teenagers follow it. Hiccup has to help Leandra since in her dress it is difficult to walk on the upturnend earth. This are the moments in life where the young girl thinks it must be nice to be a Viking girl and be allowed to wear Tunics with pants under it or skirts with pants.

She and Hiccup nearly faceplanted a few times.

They see at the same time the downed dragon and formally fall down on the forest ground to hide from it.

“Do you think it is death?”, Leandra whispers to Hiccup.

This would make things easier for them.

The brunette boy checks at the dragon again.

“Lee, I will go near it, you stay here.”, he suggests to her.

“The moment something is happening, I’m coming.”

“Thanks for always having my back.”

The black-haired girl nods and pats his back.

“I got you, bro!”

Careful Hiccup walks over the downed, black dragon, its body and tail tangled in a bola. It really appears dead.

Hiccup approaches, beaming.

“Oh wow. I did it. I did it. This fixes everything. Yes!”, he celebrates. He strikes a victory pose, planting his foot on the fallen Night Fury. “I have brought down this mighty beast!”

Suddenly it shifts!

The boy springs back, terrified.

“Hic!”, hisses Leandra from her hiding place, ready to jump out.

“I-It’s o-okay! Stay!”, he stutters taking out a tiny dagger. The girl deadpans at the thing, the one he made for her is bigger than this little something. “Stay where you are.”

“I hope you know what you do!”

Yeah, Hiccup hopes it too.

He creeps along the length of the weak, wounded dragon, dagger poised to strike. As he reaches the head, Hiccup finds the Night Fury staring coldly at him. He tries to look away, but he's drawn back to its unnerving, unflinching stare.

With the dragon safety tangled in the ropes, Hiccup jabs with his dagger, puffing himself up with false bravado.

“I'm going to kill you, Dragon. I'm gonna cut out your heart and take it to my father. I'm a Viking. I am a VIKING!”, he yells the last part.

Meanwhile, Leandra got her own dagger out and is ready to jump on Hiccup’s side any moment.

This is so nerve-wracking!

The brunette raises the dagger, determined to prove his Viking-ness.

The dragon's labored breathing breaks Hiccup's clenched concentration.

He opens an eye, uncertainty leaking through.

The dragon holds the stare.

Something profound is exchanged.

Finally, the Night Fury closes its eye and lowers its head resigned to its fate.

Leandra swerves she is going to have a heart attack. What is going on? Why won’t Hiccup finish the dragon off?

She answers her own question, at the same time Hiccup lowers the dagger.

Her best friend is a lot of things.

Loyal.

Kind.

Brilliant.

Sarcastic.

But he is not a killer.

Even if it’s a dragon…in the end it’s a living creature and Hiccup hates to hurt other beings.

“Hiccup…”, she whispers quietly.

He stands up, ashamed of himself, and turns away from the dragon.

“I did this…”

His eyes find the eyes of his best friend. He only sees understanding in the warm brown orbs. Leandra will not think less of him, because he couldn’t do it.

Actually, she seems relieved that he didn’t do it. At least he will always have her on his side.

He turns to leave.

Pauses.

And glances back at the dragon, chest heaving.

“Lee.”, he calls out to her. “I’m about to do to something crazy, stay where you are, okay? I don’t want that you get hurt.”

“What are you about to do-HICCUP?!”, the last part she shrieks as she sees how Hiccup starts to cut the robes that hold the dragon.

Oh no, she will not leave him alone.

She leaves her hidey spot and joins him in cutting the robes with her own dagger.

“I told you to stay out of this!”, Hiccup reprimands her.

“Yeah, and I can’t let you do it alone. We both kinda did this to the dragon!”

As the last rope falls free, the Night Fury suddenly pounces!

In a blur, the dragon is upon them, pinning Hiccup and Leandra down, and grazing their necks.

It’s looking like it's about to kill them.

Hiccup is paralyzed. Leandra can’t even think.

The dragon's breath ruffles their hair.

The boy opens his eyes to find the Night Fury's wolf-like stare boring into him.

The exchange is intense and profound.

The dragon draws a deep breath, as though it's about to torch the two teenagers, then lets out an ear-piercing scream instead.

It turns and takes flight, flapping violently through the canopy of trees. It bashes against a nearby mountainside, recovers, and drops out of view some distance away.

“Dios mio!”, huffs Leandra shocked.

They are alive!

Both carefully stand-up and help each other. Holding each other hands tight the two teenagers want to leave, and that’s when Hiccup faints and nearly drags Leandra with him to the ground.

It is also when Leandra can’t hold her tears anymore and she cries beside her fainted friend.

“It’s loco….LOCO!”, the girl cries, still holding the hand of her best friend.

They should be dead, they aren’t dead.

What.

What.

WHAT?!

Leandra doesn’t know for sure how long Hiccup was out, but she checked him carefully after he finally woke up.

Not that he hit his head.

In silence, the two best friends return to their homes.

About what could they talk? How they freed a dragon and it showed mercy on them?

It was unheard of.

It was mindblowing!

Anybody for themselves needed time to work through it.

So they said goodbye to each other with a wave and enter their respective homes.

As she lies in her bed, her parents non then wiser about her little breakout, she can’t help herself putting her hand on her still beating heart.

It is the only proof that she really is alive.

She falls asleep, the green eyes of the Night Furry haunting her.

The next day Leandra is collecting herbs for Gothi, when she sees her best friend with an axe on his way to the Kill Ring.

That…is strange.

“Hiccup!”, she calls out to him. “Yo, Hic, you got a minute?”

He looks relieved to see her and stops by her side.

“Hey, Lee, getting herbs for Gothi like every morning.”

“Yeah, that’s normal for me. What isn’t normal on this morning is you with this axe.”, she remarks drily. “And on his way to the Kill Ring.”

Hiccup makes a face, while she crosses her arms.

“My dad put me into Dragon Training.”, he answers her.

Leandra’s chin meets the floor.

“He finally let you in? Didn’t you always say he was against it?”

“Change his mind, only the gods know why.”

Warily she looks around. None of their neighbors seem to give them any attention.

“Hic, you aren’t a dragon killer.”, she whispers to him. “We both actually prove this yesterday, how the heck do you want to survive Dragon Trainer?!”

The poor boy signs loudly.

“I tried to tell my dad that I didn’t want to join, but you know him. He never listens to me-“

“-And when he does, it's always with this disappointed scowl. Like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich.”, adds Leandra, having heard this often enough from him. She gives him a sympathetic look. “I know better than to ask, sorry. Just…yesterday was crazy.”

“Who are you telling this.”

Both best friends smile wobbly at each other.

“I better go.”

“I better get these herbs to Gothi.”

“See you, Lee, probably.”

“Till later, Hic, surely.”

The rest of the morning is normal for Leandra. She gets these herbs to Gothi and both make ointments. Then the old wise Viking woman teaches her some new healing techniques, till it’s time for the ointment deliveries.

Practically Leandra wastes her time till lunch by running around the village to go from door to door to give her neighbors some new ointment or even tea which are good for the health.

She is like Berk’s own Red Redding Hood, just without the hood, the wolf, and the grandma.

When it’s finally time can go to the Great Hall for lunch, she sees how Hiccup sneaks into the forest.

For a second she really had to battle with herself since food made her happy and she was hungry like a wolf, but she couldn’t leave Hiccup alone.

Only god knows what crazy thing he is doing again, so she better follow him.

Leandra reaches him as he studies the remnants of the discarded bola. You know the one who hold the Night Furry the other day and they both cut through.

“So...why didn't you?”, mutters her best friend to himself.

“Who, so why didn’t you?”, she repeats.

Not expecting another person Hiccup shrieks like a little girl and turns to her.

“Lee! You scared me!”

“I can see that. So what has your pantys all in a twist?”

He motions for her to follow him. They take the path the Night Furry took when it flew off.

While walking he tells her about what happened at Dragon Training and Gobber’s words who didn’t leave him alone.

A dragon always goes for the kill.

But the Night Furry didn’t kill either of them.

So what was up with that?

That’s why Hiccup is searching for it. Maybe if he sees it again, he can understand it.

“That’s crazy.”, deadpans Leandra. “And I’m also crazy because I actually agree with you and follow you.”

“Maybe it’s an outcast thing.”, Hiccup tries to joke.

“That we lost our marbles, sure, Hic, why not?”

They drop into a rocky crevice and follow it to a cove complete with a pristine spring pool. Both scan the high stone walls then Hiccup notices a single black scale on the ground. He crouches and picks it up, studying it.

“Lee, look.”

The girl puts her hands on her knees and leans forward to look at the scale.

“Well, it was definitely here.”

“I don’t see it.”, responds Hiccup shaking his head. “Well, this was stupid.”

They can’t even look that fast as suddenly, the Night Fury blasts past them. Both teenager recoil and grip the arms of the other.

“Woah!”, can’t Leandra helps it to shout.

The Night Furry struggles to climb the walls. It flaps violently, then peels away to a rough landing. The dragon is clearly trapped.

Leandra and Hiccup let go of each other and watch fascinated by how the dragon tries to leave the cove.

It fails miserably each time.

That’s when Hiccup pulls a leather-bound book from his fur vest and flips past drawings of weapons to a blank page. He sketches the dragon quickly, desperate to record the image.

“Why don't you just...fly away?”, wonders Hiccup.

Leandra pinches her eyes. She asks herself the same. It is then that she notes the problem.

“His tailfin, Hiccup.”, she reveals to her best friend, gripping his shoulder and shaking him a bit. “He misses a part of it!”

Hiccup corrects fast his drawing.

“Is…is this our fault?”, the girl asks feeling bad.

Not only feeling bad, she feels guilty. She has seen how much the dragon is struggling and can’t even catch himself some fish to eat.

They freed it, but it seems doomed anyway.

Before Hiccup can answer her he accidentally drops the charcoal stick. It rolls off of the rock outcropping that hides him from view and bounces into the cove.

The Night Fury raises his head, spotting Hiccup and Leandra.

The dragon and the boy such exchange a profound, unflinching stare that Leandra feels like intruder.

Like she wasn’t meant to be part of this.

It a strange feeling.

Leandra sits at her windowsill looking out the storm which is brewing on Berk.

Rather would she be in the Great Hall with Hiccup eating, but this goes against her grounding. She is only allowed to lunch there since after it she still helps Gothi out.

Oh yeah, Gothi.

Whining she rubs the bump on the back of her head courtesy of Gothi’s Stick. She earned this because she came back to the old Viking woman way past lunchtime.

Finding and watching the Night Furry and getting back to the village had taken some time.

The black-haired girl is just glad that Gothi scolded her for being late, gave her the bump, and wouldn’t say anything to her parents.

The village elder wasn’t someone who snitched. She rather resolved problems alone.

Whatever, she was back home and wished rather be on the side of her best friend.

They had talked a bit before they left to do their daily chores.

Sadly it was nothing really enlightenment.

They knew nothing about Night Furries.

So there was not much to discuss.

Only Hiccup promised he would find a way to search for some more information.

What they would do with it?

No idea…maybe just understand the dragon better?

Leandra signed and stand up.

Nervous she walked around her room.

It didn’t leave her mind that the dragon was hurt because of them.

She may only have become a healer to not die of boredom on Berk, but after a good four years with Gothi she had healer instincts.

And that instincts told her to help to heal the clear wound the dragon had on his missing tailfin.

“I hope I won’t regret it.”. she mumbles to herself.

The girl sits down on her desk and grips her first book with healing plants in it.

If she wanted to heal the dragon, then she needed the right ointment, so better check all her healing books to find the right plants.

It was going to be a long night.

Hello to all my readers. ^^

I hope you are enjoying till now Leandra’s story.

Now I have a question for you since I need your help.

I can’t decide what dragon Leandra should get.

I narrowed it down to two awesome ones, but I can’t decide.

So you guys are going to vote.

I’m putting on fanfiction net and Quotev a voting poll with options.

So please go to one of the sites and vote.

I will give you a week.

Also 11.02.2023 is the last day you can vote, alright?

Thanks already for your help!

Have a nice day/night!

Next

To Belong

She was the weird foreign girl, he was the most useless Viking in the history of Berk. Together they were just Leandra and Hiccup. Two best friends who searched for their place in the world. Would their search for it unite or separate them?

I counted the votes on fanfiction.net and Quotev and we have a clear winner. Sides that allow pictures can already see Leandra’s dragon beside Toothless, the other one, well read the story. :D

Chapter 3

Leandra was glad that Gothi stepped out to watch the progress of the Dragon Training. She had stayed up late to make various ointments for the Night Furry and got so little sleep.

The black-haired girl was taking a cat nap on the mat where normal Gothi’s patients lay.

Was it wise?

Absolute not.

But the Spanish girl swore she would die if she didn’t catch some snooze. The whole morning had been hard on her and Gothi even more.

It was like the old Viking woman knew she hadn’t slept much and was making her work and learn more.

Her brain was not there today.

She really, really hoped that one of the ointments for the Night Furry would help him.

A sign left her mouth and she rolled herself to the side.

Leandra was asking herself how Hiccup was doing in Dragon Training. Being together with teens who didn’t like him and with his weird crush, was hard, she imagined. Well, besides the murders dragons who wanted to kill you.

Yeah, Leandra found Hiccup’s crush on Astrid freacking weird. The girl didn’t give him the time of day, never talked or interacted with him, and yet Hiccup crushed on her hard.

Just because she was the perfect Viking girl?

It was a weak reason.

On the other hand, the only other girl was Ruffnut and she was crazy.

No wonder Hiccup liked Astrid.

It’s not like he had many choices.

What about you?, whisper a voice in her head, that Leandra always ignored.

No, she wouldn’t think about this possibility.

She and Hiccup were fine the way they were.

Best friends forerver.

However, it still stung a bit that Hiccup didn’t seem to see her like a girl.

No one of their age rages did.

Not that Leandra wanted any of the Viking boys.

It just…would be nice to feel wanted sometime. Astrid didn’t need to do anything and anybody was armored with her.

Leandra was not vain, but she knew she was a pretty girl.

Her hair was strong, wavy, and black like the night, and she had big, pretty brown eyes and a healthy tan. She had a curvy body and probably the biggest breast size, for her age.

Her papi always told her she comes after her late mother, who had been the village beauty, with suitors left and right.

On the other hand here in Berk, they were other beauty standards.

And Astrid was all of them and she was the exact opposite of it.

Maybe that’s why no one found her attractive.

Again, not that she wanted any of the Viking boys, it just got on her nerves that even Hiccup, who know her like the back of his hand, never seemed to see her as a girl.

And no, that didn’t mean she wanted something from him.

No, no, no!

She didn’t want to lose his friendship, just for the tiny possibility of being more.

Friendship was more important than love.

Besides if she ever got the chance Leandra would return to Spain to her Abuela. Her dad could stay here on this miserable rock with his new Viking family, and she would get back home, where it was warm, colorful, and full of life.

She only would miss Hiccup and be in a relationship with him would be even worse if she would go back to Spain.

He could come with us, it’s not like he would be missed here, again this voice in her head whispered.

Angry she opened her eyes and sat up.

Leandra could never take a nap like this.

What was wrong with her brain today?

That’s what she gets if she doesn’t sleep her eight hours. This should be a lesson for her.

Grumbling she decides to make some more ointments.

This would keep her thoughts in check.

Today Gothi let her go home earlier.

This was good.

So she could join Hiccup and the Night Furry in the cove and her parents would think she was still with Gothi.

As she enters the cove, Leandra has to put a hand on her mouth to not let out the gasp she was about to make.

The scene before her.

She feels she can’t interrupt it.

It’s between Hiccup and the Night Furry.

They're face to face and Hiccup slowly extends his hand. The dragon growls at the hand, he isn’t ready to let Hiccup touch him.

That’s when her best friend turns his head away with closed eyes and again holds out his hand to the Night Furry.

Leandra’s heart beat fast in her chest.

Hiccup is showing the Night Furry a lot of trust. What had happened between the two that he risk getting his hand eaten by the dragon?

Yet, nothing like this happens.

The dragon bridges the gap and presses his muzzle against Hiccup's hand.

They stay for two heartbeats like this.

The black-haired girl has the feeling that the whole world turned upside down.

A dragon and a Human….touching each other in a nonviolent way.

Showing each other trust and understanding.

Leandra feels tears in her eyes.

It touches her heart in a yearning way. She wishes she would find a connection like this.

Then the Night Furry stops gives a little snort and flies to the other side of the cove, leaving an amazed Hiccup behind.

“Hiccup.”, she calls out softly to him. The moment is over, but she would feel bad talking louder. It wouldn’t fit now.

Thank god, Hiccup hears her.

“Leandra.”

“So you made friends with the Night Furry?”

Hiccup turns a moment in the direction of the dragon.

“Yeah, I made friends with Toothless.”

Toothless why Toothless?

She asks him this and he waves her over to him. Hiccup tells her what he experienced today with Toothless and wow, Leandra is just speechless.

Who would have thought that a dragon could be this sensitive and intelligent?

How she wished she could have seen it, but something in her tells her that it was good that it was only between Hiccup and Toothless.

They seem to share a connection with each other.

The two best friends sit on a log together and watch how the sun slowly goes down.

“I need to be home.”, signs Leandra sad.

“I need to meet up with the Gobber and the other recruits. We are eating together.”, he signs too.

The girl opens her pouch and shows Hiccup the ointments she made.

“Do you think you could get to Toothless and we can try out one of these for his wound?”, she wonders.

“We could try but I don’t know-“

The boy gets interrupted by a familiar screech.

But it can be!

The only Night Furry here is Toothless!

Who is suddenly staring at the sky and jumping up and down happily.

Hiccup and Leandra look in the direction where Toothless looks. Both want to pinch themselves when they see what got the dragon so excited.

It’s another Night Furry!

A Night Furry, who is fast closing in on the cove and lands gracefully before Toothless.

Both dragons cooed, snuggled their muzzles together, and lick each other.

Leandra and Hiccup’s chins meet the floor.

The Spanish girl grips Hiccup’s shoulder and shakes him.

“Hiccup! Hiccup! There is another Night Fury! Oh my lord, what?!”

“That Night Furry is a bit smaller than Toothless.”, analyzes the boy fascinated. “But the wings and the tailfin are bigger. I think it has brownish-golden eyes. It’s also a lot darker than Toothless, wow.”

Seeing how the two dragons do practically the equivalent of kisses for humans Leandra adds: “I think, that’s Toothless mate. He or she must have been worried sick for him. I’m glad they found each other.”

“He or she?”

“We don’t judge, Hiccup. Love is Love. End of story.”

It’s then that the other Night Furry sees the two human teenagers and stands protectively before Toothless. It growls at them threatening, but before anything happens Toothless purrs at his mate and it seems to calm it down.

Now it looks with big brownish-golden eyes curious at Leandra and Hiccup.

“Okay, I totally believe that these two are mates.”, agrees Hiccup.

They do act like a couple. That’s something new to learn about Night Furries too.

Meanwhile, Leandra’s eyes are transfixed, at the beautiful eyes of Toothless mate. They are like molted gold.

She never saw eyes like this.

The Night Furry stares at her in the same intense way.

Something deep and profound is exchanged.

Leandra can’t explain it.

It’s like she found a missing part of her soul.

A soul who reflects her own.

Like bewitched she walks closer to the Night Furries.

“Lee?”, calls Hiccup confused to her, but is ignored.

Toothless also grumbles questions to his mate, who is walking up to the human female and gets ignored too.

The girl and the dragon stop a meter from each other. Still looking into the other eyes. Leandra titles her head and the Night Furry copies her. Then she smiles and the dragon tries to mimic her.

“Hello.”, Leandra whispers to the dragon. “You are the most beautiful dragon I ever saw.”

It’s like the dragon understood her because it lets out a pleased purr.

For a moment Leandra checks the gender of the dragon.

Ah, it’s a she.

Of course, only a girl could be so beautiful!

Like Hiccup had done with Toothless, Leandra turns away and holds her hand out.

She waits for three heartbeats when she feels something scaly and warm touch her palm. Leandra opens an eye and sees that the female Night Furry closed the gap between them.

They stay like this for another two heartbeats before the girl Night Furry gives her hand a lick and returns to Toothless’s side.

Her hand is wet with dragon saliva, yet Leandra couldn’t care less, this was the most amazing thing she ever experienced.

“Lee?”

“Starchaser.”, she just says to her best friend. “I will call her Starchaser because her eyes are bright as stars.”

It’s night and Leandra can’t sleep.

In the end, they couldn’t try the ointments on Toothless since the sun was nearly down and she needed to be home, and Hiccup needed to meet Gobber and the others.

She stares in the darkness at the hand that Starchaser had licked. Somehow she manages to bond with the most beautiful creature on earth and for the first time in her life Leandra feels the hole in her heart dimmer.

The girl feels like she meet her soulmate. Who would have thought that it would be a dragon?

How she wishes to be in the cove and learn more about Starchaser.

They only had one big important moment together, but she knows nothing about her.

Leandra wants to know anything about her Night Furry friend.

Well, it’s not like she is alone.

Determined she stands up from her bed. Sleep is for the weak. In the darkness, she dresses in her dress and kirtle and, like always, uses her window to escape from home.

First, she checked if Hiccup was in his house, but not finding him there, she goes to the blacksmith stall.

Her best friend is really there and seems to work on something.

She makes the special knock they both agreed on she uses when he works so Hiccup knows it’s Leandra.

You don’t want to spook a blacksmith while working.

Could end in a bad accident.

“Come in.”, tells her Hiccup.

Couriers she watches him working on…something.

“What’s that going to be?”, she wants to know.

“Gobber told us a dragon who loses his wings and tail is a downed dragon. A death one.”, explain Hiccup. “So I’m making a tailfin for Toothless so he can fly again.”

“That’s awesome, Hiccup. I’m sure it will make him happy and Starchaser too.”

“Do you want to help me?”

“Just tell me what do to, partner.”

And so the best friends work together on the tailfin for Toothless. They get done with it before the sun rises. Both agree to meet up before Dragon Training and when Leandra needs to go to Gothi to visit the two Night Furries.

After they slept a bit, it was time again to wake up, but Leandra feels this time different. She is more excited than tired, even if she probably only slept two hours tops.

Hiccup and her meet up and take a chest full of fish for each Night Furry with them. Of course, he also has the tailfin for Toothless and Leandra her ointments.

They arrive at the cove where Toothless and Starchaser seem already to be waiting for them.

“Hello, Toothless.”

“Hi, Starchaser.”

“We brought breakfast for your guys.”, explains Hiccup to the two curious Night Furries.

The teenagers kick open their chests so that the fish spills out of the ground.

“Okay, that's disgusting.”, says Hiccup matter of fact.

“Yuck!”, adds Leandra with a wrinkled nose.

Toothless and Starchaser approach, settling in to devour the feast.

“Uh..we've got some salmon, some nice Icelandic cod, and a whole smoked eel.”

Hiccup could say he wanted to poison them since both Night Furries reacted with horrific screeches as they see the smoked eel.

“Throw it away, throw it away!”, yells Leandra to her best friend.

“No, no, no! It's okay. Yeah, I don't like eel much either.”, reassures Hiccup the dragons, and the eel gets thrown in a random direction away from them.

Satisfied the two dragons begin again to eat.

Both best friends nod at each other.

They planned that Leandra should have the attention of the dragons on herself, while Hiccup tries to put the tailfin on Toothless.

“Eat up, you big cuties. Yes, that’s good. We only want the good stuff, right, right?”, Leandra cooes at them. “Yummy, yummy, fish for the two most beautiful dragons in the world. Yes, who is the best girl and best boy? It’s you two!”

Hiccup straps the prosthetic fin in place. The dragon tenses, slowly spreading his wings. The boy cinches the straps.

“There. Not too bad. It works.”, mumbles Hiccup pleased.

That’s when Toothless bolts!

Not only Hiccup is surprised and scarred a second later since he hangs for dear life on Toothless’s tail, but also Starchaser and Leandra watch the boys flying around the cave with big eyes.

“What the heck?”, shrieks Leandra.

This was so not the plan.

Starchaser grumbles, she seems to agree with her.

The little fly of the due stops as fast as it started and they land in the water.

While the females winces, Hiccup celebrates happily. Toothless shakes himself dry and wonders what had happen.

“Okay how about this one?”, asks Leandra and holding another ointment under Toothless and Starchaser’s nose.

It is a while later, still too earlier for Dragon Training and Leandra’s job. Hiccup is trying to dry himself in the morning sun, in the meantime, Leandra is trying with the Night Furries’ help to see which ointment could work for Toothless.

Till now, they reacted with disgust, growls, and hiccups at her ointments.

She hoped this one is a winner.

It isn’t since both let out big dragon sneezes.

Leandra signs sadly.

Only one ointment is left.

Starchaser sensing the distress from the girl she took a liking purrs at her and nuzzles her cheek. Even Toothless joins in.

“Aww, thank you two. You both are precious, you know that?”

Both Night Furries purr happily.

Hiccup can’t help but smile softly at the scene. It’s really adorable seeing Leandra interact with their dragon friends.

Also, her tanned skin and black hair seem to formally glow in the morning sun.

The boy frowns at his thoughts and shakes his head.

Why is he thinking about such things? That’s his best friend, it’s weird.

Besides, he likes Astrid. He always had.

“All right, last one.”, say’s Leandra and holds it out. “How about this?”

Again the dragons sniff at the ointment and this time…they only purr. They like the smell. It is really comforting and clean.

Leandra smiles.

“Then we have a winner! Okay, Toothless let’s try this out.”

And so Leandra smears the ointment on Toothless missing tail.

After waiting for a bit it seems to have no negativ effects on him.

Grinning Leandra turns to Hiccup and he gives her a thump up.

Together they are a step closer in helping Toothless to fly again.

The Night Furry won!

Give a warm welcome to our golden-eyed girl Starchaser, Toothless mate!

You know what that means ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Can you guess it? :D

Next

To Belong

She was the weird foreign girl, he was the most useless Viking in the history of Berk. Together they were just Leandra and Hiccup. Two best friends who searched for their place in the world. Would their search for it unite or separate them?

Chapter 4

After the first artificial tailfin Hiccup and Leandra start a daily routine with their dragon friends.

In the night they work together to make a better tailfin for Toothless, early mornings they go to the Night Furries, and spend time with them, trying to get Toothless to fly again, then Hiccup goes to dragon training and Leandra to Gothi.

When Hiccup presents Toothless for the first time with a saddle and harness, so he could help Toothless fly, the dragon was not impressed and run away from him.

The boys chased each other through the cove.

Leandra, who leans on Starchaser, snorts, and the female dragon joins her.

Then Starchaser nudges Leandra, looking at her with big puppy eyes, then pointing at the still-running boys.

“You wanna play, catch?”, coos Leandra at her dragon, giving her a head pat.

Excited Starchaser wiggles her tail.

So the two girls play catch with each other, laughing and smiling happily.

Hiccup who finally managed to catch Toothless and put on the saddle on him, can’t help but smile softly at the scene before him.

His best friends seem so carefree chasing and getting chased by Starchaser around. It reminds him of the little girl he meet ten years ago, who became his dearest friend.

Toothless is just happy that his mate has another playmate. He likes the black-haired girl, she gives good pets.

“This is AMAZING!”, shouts Leandra into the heavens.

She is flying for the first time on Starchaser back over the cove.

This feeling of freedom!

It’s unexplainable. You need to experience it yourself.

Starchaser cooes at her.

The dragon is happy that her human girl is so excited.

Toothless and Hiccup are also trying out to fly together. But the tail breaks free sending Hiccup flying.

“Hiccup, Toothless!”, shouts Leandra worried.

Starchaser whines, thankful both boys landed in the pool of the cove.

The girls are flying over to them, stationary in the air.

Toothless seems to let out a sign, while Hiccup decides he needs to build something which doesn’t make him fly off the saddle.

Leandra is sitting with Starchaser beside her in the cove. Tufts of different healing herbs before them.

“Okay, what do you think about this?”, she holds a tuft of Chamomile under Starchaser’s nose.

Her dragon friends sniff it, making a pleased sound.

The black-haired girl nods and writes it down in her journal. She is determined to make her own healing herbs book for dragons with receipts for ointments and salves for them.

Starchaser is a big help.

She gives the Night Furry a kiss on the snout, which Starchaser recuperates with a lick on her cheek.

“Aww, Starchaser, you know this takes awhile to wash away!”, whines the Spanish girl.

The female Night Furry just laughs.

That’s when Toothless and Hiccup come back from their test flight and Toothless…seems high?

Leandra really doesn’t have a better word for it, how Toothless is all wobbly on his legs, tongue lolling out and peaceful expression on his face.

Worried Starchaser walks over to her mate, but he just falls down before her, showing her his belly. The female Night Furries doesn’t seem to know how to handle this situation either.

“Hic, what’s wrong with Toothless?”, ask Leandra standing up. She worries too.

Her best friend just grins and hands her some green grass.

“Toothless landed in dragon nip, you know, just like cat nip.”

Oh, this explains it!

She gets her journal down and writes this down too.

Could be useful in the future too.

Leandra and Hiccup give their respective dragon a good cuddle and scratch session.

Both Toothless and Starchaser are enjoying it greatly.

That’s when both teenagers rub behind their ear plates, causing the dragons to relax and fall over.

The best friends stare at each other and then at the purring dragons on the ground.

They can’t help but laugh.

Finally, Leandra’s grounding is over and she can eat again in the Great Hall with Hiccup.

Like they are used, they take a table for themselves when suddenly they are swarmed by the teens minus Astrid and some adult Vikings.

“Hey Hiccup.”, greets him Fishlegs.

“What was that?”, ask Snotloud excited. “Some kind of trick? What did you do?”

“Hiccup, you're totally going to come in first, there's no question.”, tells him Tuffnut.

Even more, questions get fired in Hiccup’s direction.

Of course, no one takes note of Leandra, she is just like an appendage on Hiccup, even if she sits beside him.

She rolls her brown eyes and catches how angry Astird smashes her cup against her now vacant table.

Well, at least someone else feels worse than her.

Maybe that will take down the Hofferson from her high horse and make her humble.

That’s when she feels how a hand takes hers.

She looks down and sees how Hiccup gives her hand a squeeze.

This makes Leandra smile a bit.

Even if Hiccup is now famous, thanks to the things he learned from Toothless and Starchaser about dragons, he will never forget her.

So Astrid is in a worse situation than her.

Hah!

Leandra can’t help but feel satisfaction in it.

With his hammer, Hiccup has created a little light spot, which Toothless and Starchaser chase around the coven like big kitty cats.

“Dragon nip and now this.”, can’t help Leandra but laugh. “Are we sure our Night Furries aren’t actually big cats?”

“Well, they DO love their fish.”

“Oh my lord you are right!”

Both best friends laugh heartfully.

Leandra spreads her arms to feel the wind around her. She and Starchaser are taking a flight around Berk.

The Spanish girl will never get enough of this feeling of liberation.

Up there, close to the clouds, she feels like she can be her true self.

No parents who want a Viking girl, no Gothi who wants a perfect apprentice, no villagers who see her only as the foreigner.

Here with Starchaser, she can be…just Leandra.

Thankful she pets her dragon.

“I love you.”, she tells her. “Without you, I would never feel this.”

Starchaser purr at her. She loves her little human too.

They return to the cove and see how desperate Hiccup tries to get off Toothless.

“What’s wrong?”, asks Leandra.

“The harness is jacked. I can’t break it off.”

That’s how Leandra finds herself sneaking into the village at night. She told Hiccup to stay put with their Night Furries since it was better she got the thing from the blacksmith stall he needs to free himself from Toothless.

She sneaks up to shadow to shadow. Careful that no one sees her.

Finally, she is at the blacksmith stall and gets the thing Hiccup needs.

Like she is a shadow herself, she makes haste back to the cove.

No one in the village is non the wiser.

“Are you both ready?”, calls Leandra on the back of Starchaser to the boys.

Both Night Furries are flying for the first time in a long while side by side.

Today is the final test.

Today it will show if Hiccup succeeded in making a tailfin for Toothless and if they can fly together.

Billowing clouds rise like mountains. The ground seems miles below them.

“Ready as we will ever be!”, calls back Hiccup to her.

“Okay, me and Star, will stay close if something happens, but the stage is your Hiccup and Toothless.”, tells them Leandra and makes Starchaser fly now behind Toothless.

“Okay there bud, we're gonna take this nice and slow.”, reassure Hiccup Toothless with a side pat. “Here we go. Here we go...position three, no four.”

He presses the pedal, causing the tail to flare. They roll off into an arcing bank, gloriously lit by the late afternoon sun.

Hiccup tucks tight against his neck, thrilled that his new harness and vest are holding. The foot controls make the tail appendage quick and responsive. He watches Toothless' every fluctuation, trying to match it with the prosthetic.

He sizes up a target a towering arch of stone, rising from the sea.

“Get ready for anything, Star.”, whispers Leandra to her dragon. “We are going in and the boys could need our help.”

Starchaser grumbles in agreement.

“All right, it's go time. It's go time.”, calls Hiccup.

They dive toward it, lining up to pass through the arch.

“Come on. Come on buddy. Come on buddy!”, Hiccup encourages Toothless

They zip through the arch. A perfect maneuver.

“Yeah! Yes, it worked!”, he yells happily.

Leandra and Starchaser sign together. Seems all to be okay. The triumph is short-lived. They smack into one of several sea stacks as Hiccup tries to keep up with the turns.

“Sorry.”

They hurtle into another rock pillar. Toothless grumbles. Leandra facepalms and Starchaser deadpans.

“My fault.”

Toothless swats him with his 'ear' plate.

“Yeah, yeah, I'm on it.”, Hiccup promises and checks again his cheat sheet. “Position four, no three.”

They pierce the clouds. For the first time, Hiccup can see the whole of the island below them. Leandra all ready seen it on her flies with Starchaser, but she is still charmed by the view.  

It shrinks with every passing second. He swallows hard and tightens his grip on the handles.

“Yeah! Go, baby! Yes! Oh, this is amazing! The wind in my...CHEAT SHEET! STOP!”

However, Toothless obeys the command and suddenly stops beating his wings. As they slow to a stop, Hiccup goes weightless. The rings of his vest float off of the harness hooks. Hiccup suddenly finds himself detached, free-falling!

“STARCHASER, GO GIRL!”, commands Leandra scarred for the life of her best friend and his dragon.

Like she is a rocket Starchaser dives after Hiccup and Leandra can pull him behind her. He hugs her so tight, that she can’t breathe, but she lets him.

“Toothless!”

“I know, Hic!”

Starchaser dives after her mate, helping him to roll back into the flying position. 

The girls can’t even look that fast as Hiccup bravely jumps from Starchaser back to Toothless.

“DIOS MIO, HIC!”

Hiccup finally grabs hold of the harness and manages to lock in just in time to pull Toothless out of his dive barely shy of the tree tops. Leandra and Starchaser are again behind the boys.

They careen past the wooded cliff and directly into a treacherous slalom course of jutting sea stacks. Hiccup pulls the cheat sheet from his teeth and attempts to check positions. It flaps violently in the turbulence, making it impossible.

With no time to think, Hiccup throws it away and steers Toothless' tail on instinct with perfect intuition. Together, they manage a tight, hair-raising series of split-second turns, making it to the open water, unscathed.

The girls are behind them and let out a relieved sound.         

Hiccup takes a breath and glances back at the death-defying obstacle course, now safely behind them. He beams, relieved.

He sits back and throws his arms up in victory.

“YEEAHHH!”

“WUHU!”, can’t help Leandra joining Hiccup in his celebration.

Toothless and Starchaser concur with happy squeals and a fireball each. Hiccup's and Leandra’s glee turns to dread as they fly directly into it.

“Ah, come on.”, he groans.

Leandra just puts her arms over her face.

Better than nothing.

Later our quartet is on a deserted little island on its beach. With Toothless’s help, Hiccup made a fire and Leandra with Starchaser caught for them enough fish to eat.

Leandra and Hiccup are cooking their fish over the fire while leaning comfortably on their respective dragon, who gleefully enjoy their share.

Suddenly Toothless regurgitates a fish head. Hiccup smirks with forced politeness.

“Uh..no thanks. I'm good.”

Starchaser does the same thing and looks with big eyes at the black-haired girl.

“I’m good, Star, don’t worry.”, she tells her Night Furry and waves around her stick with her cooked fish.

Several Terrible Terrors land like seagulls, hissing and nipping at each other as they approach Toothless' pile of fish. One grabs the regurgitated fish head and drags it away. Another attempt to steal it from him. They face off and last fire balls at each other to settle the fight.

The four watch, amused.

That is until Toothless spots one of his fish leaving the pile. A stealthy Terrible Terror is exposed as the thief. They tug on the fish, and it snaps back into Toothless' mouth.

He swallows it back tauntingly.

Irate, the little dragon paws at the ground and blast Toothless. He opens his mouth, the gas hiss comes, and Toothless fires a tiny flame straight into its mouth, causing the gas to backfire into the little dragon. It coughs up smoke and staggers away, looking ill.

Hiccup, Leandra, and Starchaser laugh.

“Not so fireproof on the inside, are you?”, the brunette says to the little dragon. He throws the helpless Terror his freshly cooked fish. “Here you go.”

The appreciative little dragon gulps down the meal and approaches Hiccup cautiously. He curls up next to him.

Both humans are amazed.

“Everything we know about you guys is wrong.”, Hiccup carefully pets him sending the Terror into an immediate, blissful sleep.

Leandra joins in and signs: “The world is such a cruel place. We judge before we understand something. Look at us being friends with dragons. I wonder if others can do it too.”

“I don’t know Lee, for 300 years my people fought and killed dragons…why did no one take the time to understand them, as we did?”

“I don’t have an answer either.”

Now both teenagers sign loudly.

Their dragons don’t like the mood swing of their riders and they nuzzle their cheeks.

This makes Hiccup smile a bit and Leandra hugs Starchaser.

How the world changed for them.

What should they do now?

Next

To Belong

She was the weird foreign girl, he was the most useless Viking in the history of Berk. Together they were just Leandra and Hiccup. Two best friends who searched for their place in the world. Would their search for it unite or separate them?

Chapter 5

“Well, we would have thought that the final test to decide who gets to kill the Monstrous Nightmare is between the Hofferson lass and Stoick’s boy.”, musses Sigrùn. “Aren’t you proud of your best friend, Leandra?”

The black-haired girl is with her thoughts else were. She is thinking about Starchaser, Toothless, and worrying about Hiccup.

Like her stepmother said today would decide who would kill the Monstrous Nightmare and since Hiccup and Astrid have been the best recruits it would be decided between them. Since this was Gothi duty, to choose the winner, she gave Leandra today free so she could watch with her parents the final test.

She did so not have a good feeling about this.

She hopes with all her heart that Astrid wins so Hiccup doesn’t have to find a way to not kill the Nightmare and at the same time, she doesn’t want that Astrid wins, because she would kill the Nightmare without hesitation.

Hiccup and her learnend what wonderful creatures the dragons actually were and non of them deserved to be killed just for sports.

What should they do?

What could they do?

After her father calls her name for the fifth time, she hears him.

The black-haired girl turns blinking to her parents.

Sigrùn holds with a hand her father’s arm, while Leandra walks beside them to the Kill Ring.

“What papi?”

“Sigrùn asked you if you are proud of Hiccup.”

The familiar anger comes up.

“I was always proud of him.”, she nearly growls. “Even before he became a prodigy in Dragon Training. Not my fault no one of you could see or wanted to see it.”

Sigrùn gasps and her father says her name in warning.

“Don’t make a scene young lady! You know how things are on Berk, accept it.”

“I really thought being Gothi’s apprentice would help her.”, mumbles Sigrùn to her father. “But she still seems to think in your old Spanish way.”

“She is a teenager, dear, she just wants to rebel.”

Leandra bits her tongue and can taste the cobber of the blood flowing in her mouth.

Oh she wishes she could make a scene, her father and stepmother deserve some cold hard facts, but they are now on the Kill Ring and she also doesn’t want to stress out Sigrùn, she is still pregnant.

You don’t mess with a pregnant lady.

The little family of three finds a good spot to watch the final test, while Leandra prays under her breath.

She still doesn’t know for what exactly, just the best way that no one, human or dragon gets hurt.

Her prayers kinda get answers.

Astrid was ready to kill the Gronkel to prove that she can kill the Nightmare, but Hiccup used before her his scratching technique to calm down the Gronkel.

That Astrid is not amused is an understatement.

Leandra wrinkles her nose at the insults Astrid screams at Hiccup. How can he crush on someone who clearly doesn’t think positively in any way of him?

Is he a masochist or what?

But this all gets forgotten when Gothi decides that Hiccup gets to kill the Monstrous Nightmare.

The Spanish girl feels like she is underwater.

She hears the cheers of the crowd muffled.

She sees how Hiccup gets hoisted up in the air misty.

Oh no…

Oh no…

Oh no, no, no, no!

This bad, this is so bad!

Without a word, she runs to Hiccup and embraces him tight before the whole village.

Should they think whatever they wanted, they needed to find a solution and fast.

“Hic.”, she hisses in his ear. “What are we going do to? What about Starchaser and Toothless?”

He hugs her back and whispers: “I’m…I’m leaving, that’s the only way! I can’t kill the dragon.”

“I will come with you.”, she doesn’t hesitate, if he is gone nothing holds her more on Berk. “We can go to my Abuela, she will give us shelter.”

She doesn’t wait for his response and runs to her home with all her might.

She needs to pack fast.

Leandra enters the secret cove with her fully packed basket. She got in and out of the house without her parents seeing her.

This was good.

“Hic, you here?”, she calls out.

She sees a hand behind a rock waving her over.

“I’m here, Lee.”

When she reaches him, she sees the annoying look on his face. He also has a fully packed basket and his harness on.

“You don’t have to come with me.”, he tells her. “I’m the one who has to leave. You should stay here with your family. You are going to be a big sister in a few weeks.”

She snorts.

“Hiccup, I don’t know if you noted it, but no one cares for me on this miserable rock. Father and Sigrùn are going to have their perfect little Viking family and the village doesn’t take note of me. You are the only one who cares for me. Without you here…I will die inside, I swear.”

His eyes are wide, with disbelief, like he can’t comprehend that he is so important to her.

That’s why she hugs him tight and tries to pour any once of love she has for this boy into it.

“Hic, you are my best and dearest friend, without you on my side, I would feel I lost an arm or a leg.”, she whispers to him. “Also I don’t think Starchaser would like to be separated from Toothless and Toothless neither from her.”

Here she feels how he lets out a little laugh. She can feel how he wants to hug her back, but a voice stops them both in their tracks: “Aren’t you two just cute?”

They spring apart and see…

“Astrid?!”

The girl in question is sitting on the rock right in front of them, sharpening her axe.

“Aggh! What the—“

“What are you doing here, Hofferson?!”, growls Leandra angrily.

Miss perfect Viking girl doesn’t belong in their cove!

...

Where there Night Furries are!

Oh no!

She needs to leave before she sees them!

Astrid hops off the rock and backs them down, spinning her axe threateningly.

“I’m just here to ask your boyfriend some questions, Alvarez.”

“I’m not her boyfriend/He is not my boyfriend.”

“Whatever.”, the blond rolls her eyes. “I want to know what's going on. No one just gets as good as you do. Especially you. Start talking! Are you training with someone? With Alvarez?”

“Hofferson, why don’t you just accept that someone is better than you? Or do you think you are some kind of Valkyrie who can’t be bested? Grow up!”, shoots Leandra back.

“Lee!”

“Don’t Lee-me, Hic!”

“Your lover quarrel is getting annoying.”, tells them Astrid and grabs Hiccup by his odd-looking harness. “And what the heck is this?”

“I know this looks really bad, but you see...this is, uh...”, tries Hiccup to find the words.

They hear a rustle coming from the other side of the cove. Astrid drops Hiccup to the ground and sets off to investigate.

Leandra steps before Astrid to stop her in her tracks.

“What’s wrong Hofferson, can’t accept the truth?”

Astrid just pushes her to the ground like she weighs nothing. Leandra hisses at the stones that trill itself in her back.

“Out of my way, Alvarez.”

“You're right! You're right.”, now Hiccup tries his luck to stop the blond Viking girl. “I'm through with the lies. I've been making... outfits. So you got me. It's time everyone knew. Drag me back. Go ahead. Here we go.”

He puts her hand back on his harness, getting her to 'drag him back.' Astrid bends Hiccup’s hand backward, driving him down, beside Leandra.

“AAAAUUGGGHHH! Why would you do that?!”

“That's for the lies.”

Astrid pounces the hilt of her axe off of Hiccup's and Leandra’s laid-out bodies.

“And THAT'S for everything else.”

Hiccup's yelp and Leandra’s cry are answered with two growls, coming from the other side of the cove. Astrid looks up to see two Night Furries!

Toothless and Starchaser pounces toward them, snarling.

Hiccup and Leandra can stand up, only to get tackled back into the ground by Astrid.

“Get down! Run! Run!”, she commands them.

The Viking girl pulls her axe, ready to take on Toothless and Starchaser.

“NO!”, scream Hiccup and Leandra together.

While Leandra runs up to the Night Furries, to calm them down, Hiccup knocks Astrid's cocked axe to the ground, out of reach, then he helps Leandra to stop Toothless and Starchaser short of crushing Astrid.

“No. It's okay! It's okay...”, reassure Hiccup Toothless.

“Anything is all right. See I don’t have a scratch.”, tells Leandra Starchaser.

“She's a friend.”, say’s Hiccup to both Night Furries.

Leandra can’t help herself and snorts with the dragons.

“Yeah, right..”

“Lee…”

The boy turns to Astrid and explains: “You scared them.”

“I scared them!?”

Hiccup makes a “be quiet” motion.

“Who are they?”

“Astrid, Toothless, and Starchaser. Toothless and Starchaser, Astrid.”

“They are so not charmed to meet you!”, adds Leandra dry and pets her growling dragon.

Astrid backs away, eyeing Hiccup, Leandra, Toothless, and Starchaser together with pure disgust. She turns and runs for the village.

“We're dead.”, deadpans Hiccup.

Satisfied with Astrid's departure, Toothless and Starchaser turn away. Leandra flicks her long black hair and turns to their baskets.

“Where do you think you're going?”, asked Hiccup the Night Furries and then turns to Leandra who picked up her basket. “And what are you doing?”

“If I remember right, we wanted to leave stupid Berk. Just getting my stuff.”

“Lee, you can’t be serious. Astrid is going to tell everybody about Toothless and Starchaser!”

“And? It’s not like we stay here. Let her blab about it all she wants. No one is seeing us again.”

From Hiccup comes only silence.

Frowning Leandra turns to her best friend and sees the fight in him.

“Hic, Hiccup, please no! Let us just go! What has Berk ever done to us besides making us feel miserable? We will be much happier in Spain with my Abuela or we can even see the whole world! Think about it, we will be free finally!”

The boy looks at the ground and makes a fist. He needs to make a decision now.

“I can’t believe he wants to change Astrid mind!”, shouts Leandra to Starchaser.

Both females stayed behind, while Hiccup would try his crazy plan.

Leandra doesn’t get it.

They were so close to true freedom.

To find a place where they both and their dragons could be accepted.

But no, Hiccup’s stupid crush got in the way and makes him actually think he can change the mind of Miss perfect Viking-Girl!

Frustrated Leandra kicks a stone into the pool and then cuddles up to Starchaser.

Her dragon coos and nuzzles her softly, trying to ease the pain in her heart.

The black-haired girl sniffles, tears streaming down her face.

How could she ever think that Hiccup would choose her over Astrid?

No one would choose her over Astrid.

Not here on Berk.

But…but she had hoped her best friend would be different. That if it really would be one day her or Astrid, he would choose their bond.

Their bond of outcastes, of people who understood each other, who shared anything with each other, who accepted the other with all their being.

Hah, figures, he wouldn’t think with his heart but with something else.

“Stupid Astrid, stupid Berk, stupid Hiccup!”, she cries into Starchaser’s shoulder.

Her Night Furry crooned at her, hugging her with one of her wings. How the dragon wished she could take the pain away from her human heart. Sadly she couldn’t, she could only hold her, and be there for her.

The sun had already sunk, when Toothless and Hiccup with Astrid returned to the cove.

Leandra feels kind of void after she cried so much. All seems so senseless, yet she registers that Hiccup did somehow convince Astrid not to blab about Starchaser and Toothless if she rides with him Toothless.

Seeing them so close together makes the black-haired girl feel so sick. She never experienced this before. What’s up with that?

It’s like they talked about it, Leandra and Starchaser stay cuddled up and watch what is going to happen before them.

Toothless lands in the cove and they can finally hear what Astrid is talking about: “No, no, it totally makes sense. It's like a giant beehive. They're the workers... and that's their queen. It controls them.”

She leaps off of Toothless and runs toward the village.

The Viking girl wants to go straight to Stoick, but Hiccup halts her. Saying they have to think this through because Toothless and Starchaser could get killed. Astrid is just shocked telling him they found the Nest, the Dragon Nest, what the Viking searched for since for sailed there and he wants to be still about it because of his pet dragon.

Hiccup’s firm yes amazes Astrid.

She gives in and asks him what they should do, Hiccup wants time till tomorrow.

Then Astrid punches Hiccup in the arm.

“That's for kidnapping me.”

Hiccup looks to Toothless for support. Toothless, who is drinking some water from the pool, snorts, dismissive.

Astrid grabs him. He braces for another hit.

She kisses Hiccup on the cheek.

It likes in slow motion for Leandra. She sits up from her cuddle position with Starchaser. A lonely tear falls down her cheek, her heart feels like someone pierced it with a rusty iron pole.

Why is she feeling like this?

“That's for, everything else.”

In the awkward wake of the moment, Astrid hurries off leaving Hiccup rubbing his cheek, stunned. Toothless hobbles up, eyeing him.

“What are you looking at?”, Hiccup grumbles to his dragon and turns away.

That’s when he sees Starchaser and Leandra.

Starchaser…she is actually looking at him like she wants to bite his head off. Her eyes are slits and she is showing him his teeth.

Leandra…are eyes are red and puffy. Tear streaks are clearly on her cheeks. His best friend seems defeated.

A bad feeling creeps up on the Viking boy. What happened to make his friend and her dragon look like this?

He wants to ask, yet Leandra is faster.

She walks over to him, now her red teary eyes are full of anger, her trusted Night Furry behind her, giving her silhouette wings like she is some kind of avenging angel.

Beautiful and deathly.

Toothless croons confused at his mate and Starchaser barks at him! Hiccup is shocked, normal the two Night Furries are a heart and a soul, they never seemed to fight, yet Starchaser barked at Toothless.

The male dragon croons confused back and looks between the two humans. Starchaser nods and then growls at Hiccup.

The boy is reminded of the day he and Leandra set Toothless free, only Starchaser looks like she is ready to plasma blast him.

But why?

He can’t think more, since Leandra stands now before him: “Well, well, look who is back? Romeo here seemed to have changed the mind of Viking-Juliette and even got a kiss. You must feel so great right now!”

“Lee what-“

“I wonder what you did.”, musses Leandra crossing her arms and cocking a hip out. “One magical dragon ride and suddenly she likes you! Wow, Hiccup, how great! And here I thought she thought you were a cheater, for taking her glory in dragon training and a Son of Halftroll rat eating something and other things the likes she yelled at you at the Kill Ring today. But I guess she must have liked you always because no one changes their mind that fast just because you flew with them on a dragon!”

“Lee why are you saying these things?!”, wonders Hiccup.

Leandra never was like this to him!

He sees how new tears spring in her eyes and the urge to hug her and to ask her what is really wrong is so strong.

“Oh just thinking at loud Hiccup. I’m so happy for you! You will have your perfect Viking bride and have with her two wonderful children, a girl, and a boy.”, she snaps her fingers. “I think Zephyr and Nuffink have a nice ring!”

“Leandra, stop!”, he shouts at her and grips her by her arms. “What’s up with you? This isn’t you! Why do you care so much that Astrid k-kissed me? You know I like her. You should be happy for me!”

“You choose HER over ME!”, she screams loud, no she wails it with tears that flow down her cheeks.

Hiccup is speechless and the grip on Leandra’s arms lose. She steps back from him to Starchaser, who is purring in comfort.

She hugs the neck of her dragon and repeats it: “You choose Astrid over me. Me, your best friend in the world. Me, who was always by your side. Me, who always liked you the way you were. Me, who didn’t need to change her mind about you, because there is nothing about you that’s wrong.”

The brunette stares at his best friend with wide eyes. Is he hearing right?

“I thought you were different from them.”, she hisses. “That you would choose me over them as I would, but you didn’t. You ARE a Viking. I always saw you, but you didn’t see me.”

For a moment it was completely still between them. In Hiccup brain and heart is chaos, and he doesn’t know how to handle the situation.

“Lee I-“

“Save your words, they mean nothing anymore. You took your choice, I will take me.”

With that, she swings herself on Starchaser’s back. The dragon seems to coo apologetically to her mate, who coos back at her.

Then the girls are off into the sky, flying towards the full moon.

Hiccup and Toothless just look helpless as they fly away.

Well, Toothless nudges Hiccup in a way that says let’s go get them, yet Hiccup can’t move.

His hands turn into fists.

A single tear falls down his cheek.

Did…did he make the wrong choice?

No…no Astrid saw reason, he doesn’t get where this hatred for his crush comes from Leandra, she never had liked her, yes, but this was new.

“They will be back Toothless.”, he says to his dragon friend, petting his snout. “Let’s give them time to cool down.”

With a last pat, Hiccup makes his way home.

Never seeing how Toothless looks in the direction of the two baskets.

One is missing.

The dragon looks sad up into the sky, but he can’t blame his mate.

Leandra was like her hatchling.

They had tried having babies, but it just never worked out.

So no wonder Starchaser was so affectionate with Leandra.

And would follow her where ever she would go.

Toothless croons sad and defeated.

He wonders if he will see Starchaser and Leandra ever again.

I’m not crying you are crying T.T

This hurt to write, but it needed to be written.

For all of you, who like me, always thought Hiccup should just leave Berk with Toothless, I made a brand new fanfiction with it.

Of course, Leandra and Starchaser are with them.

It’s called: Together, we map the world.

Our quartet will journey the world, meet new people, see new places, find new dragons and fight against new bad guys.

It will also crossover with different franchisees, so be prepared.

It’s going to be a wild ride. :D

Next

To Belong

She was the weird foreign girl, he was the most useless Viking in the history of Berk. Together they were just Leandra and Hiccup. Two best friends who searched for their place in the world. Would their search for it unite or separate them?

Chapter 6

It was early morning.

Leandra was sitting on a cliffside. Her legs dangling from it, under her the ocean. She swung her legs, watching the ocean under her.

She really should eat something. She would need the energy for the hours-long flight she would take with Starchaser.

If they were lucky, they would only need one to two weeks before they reached the village in Spain where Leandra’s Abuela lived.

So why did she just stare at the ocean and didn’t do anything?

The black-haired girl closed her eyes, tears flowing down her cheeks.

And she thought she had already cried enough.

Leandra just didn’t get how Hiccup could betray their friendship like this! All just for stupid Astrid, who suddenly liked him?

That was fishy.

Either Astrid always liked Hiccup and hide it because it was more important to her to be the perfect Viking girl or she wanted something from him.

Like becoming chieftess.

Else couldn’t Leandra explain Astrid’s change of mind. You don’t go from hating someone else guts to liking them just because they took you on a magical dragon ride.

Anyway, both reasons were so…wrong.

She never cared what others thought of her friendship with Hiccup, he was the only one who was friendly and wanted to get to know her when she and her father were stranded on Berk. Of course, she started to like him too and accept him with her whole heart.

Hiccup was a good person.

She didn’t stay friends with Hiccup because she wanted to become chieftess one day, she stayed his friend because she just liked him.

It was simpel like that.

A loud sign leaves her mouth and she wipes her tears away.

God, it sounds like she is in love with Hiccup…but she isn’t!

She…she just wanted to stay by his side!

Nothing more.

Yet, he preferred Astrid over herself.

Maybe Leandra put always more into the friendship than Hiccup? He choose Astrid and Berk over her and a life they could live in peace with their dragons.

So deep down he really was a Viking, like he always wished.

Dear lord, she really sounds like a heartbroken lover.

New tears sprung from her eyes. Her head and heart hurt.

Was she maybe a bit too strict with this?

With him?

As a best friend, she should be happy that his crush showed interest in him.

And yet, it didn’t sit right with her.

It was all wrong.

But was it wrong because of the reason she thought or because…it was not her on Hiccup’s side?

The black-haired girl opens her eyes and stands carefully up.

The wind whips around her, making her long black hair fly and the skirt of her dress ballow.

Under her crash waves against the cliff.

Her sight is directed where Berk is.

“I’m really…a fool.”, she mumbles to herself. “Starchaser, girl, let’s go!”

She turns and runs to the little forest where her dragon is taking a break.

Hiccup day was just crazy.

He couldn’t convince his father that dragons were good beings, no, he gave him with Toothless a way to find the Dragon Nest.

And with it the giant of an evil dragon who waited for her next meal.

Then when he lost hope, Astrid motivated him again and he teached the other teens to ride the dragons from the Kill Ring.

He already had wondered where Leandra and Starchase were. Was she so angry that she didn’t show up at all?

As they flew to the Dragon Nest and still no Leandra in sight, he got worried.

His best friend wouldn’t just leave without a word?

She wouldn’t separate Toothless and Starchaser like this?

She wouldn’t…leave him?

But as he was facing now the dubbed Red Death dragon he had to admit to himself…maybe Leandra really left last night.

And he just let her.

Damn, he couldn’t think about this now, he had to take down the Red Death.

As Toothless got ready to Plasma Blast again the giant dragon the familiar sound of a Night Furry approached reached their ears.

“Night Furry, get down!”, yelled Gobber.

Hiccup’s heart nearly leaped out of his chest from relief as he saw who came riding on a Night Furry to help him.

It was Leandra with Starchaser!

He could hear the amazed voices from the other Vikings on the ground, but he just had eyes for his best friend who made her dragon attack the Red Death.

“Lee!”, he yelled and felt a happy tear fall down his cheek.

She came back!

“Hic, I’m sorry!”, she yelled to him. “I was stupid.”

“No, I was stupid, I should have talked with you and not just let it go, believe you just needed to calm down.”, he yelled back.

“Let’s agree that we both were idiots.”, she called grinning and he nodded.

For now, this would be enough.

They had to take care of a giant dragon.

Toothless and Starchaser fly now side by side and you could hear how they cooed happily at each other.

“That thing has wings!”, tells Hiccup them. “Okay, let's see if it can use them!”

“On it, Hic!”

Hiccup and Leandra pull their dragons into a turn.

They plummet, gaining tremendous speed. The wind buffets them as they target the Red Death at supersonic speed.

Together Toothless and Starchaser unload plasma blasts against the Red Death's head.

It goes down with a rumble as they climb anew.

The Vikings shield themselves from the dust of the fallen monster as its wings unfold and extend.

The Night Furry riders look back as they put distance between them.

“Do you think that did it?”, wonders Hiccup.

Suddenly, the enraged behemoth rises into the frame flapping its wings furiously. A daunting sight.

“Dios mio! It can really fly!”, say’s Leandra astonished.

Our quartet dives into the tangled sea stacks, they weave through the rock like rabbits through a briar.

The Red Death snaps at them, but cannot reach them. The dragon riders pull ahead, while Red Death smashes through the canopy of rock and pull in behind Toothless and Starchaser.

It burst through fifty-foot formations like they were saplings.

Stoick, Gobber, and the Teens watch as Hiccup, Toothless, Leandra, and Starchaser streak past, weaving through sea stacks. A moment later the Red Death smashes the sea stacks to dust in hot pursuit. The Vikings’ mood is quenched.

The best friends and their dragons can't slow the monster down. Hiccup eyes the clouds above. An idea hits him.

“Lee, do as I do, all right!”

“Okay, I trust you have a plan!”

“Don’t I always…don’t answer that! Okay Toothless, Starchaser time to disappear.”

Toothless and Starchaser pull into a steep climb, heading toward the clouds.

“Come on bud!”

“Go, girl, go!”

The Red Death follows, closing in fast.

“Here it comes!”, warns Hiccup, hearing the gas. Leandra just nods, she is ready.

They narrowly dodge a column of flame and smoke. They reach the low-hanging clouds and pierce them.

The monster follows, immediately losing them in the hampered visibility.

It roars irritably.

From out of nowhere, Toothless dives from the right side, and Starchaser from the left at the huge dragon, blasting and puncturing a hole in each wing.

They are gone again before the dragon can get a shot at them.

Again and again, they dive in, using the clouds to hide and surprise as they puncture the monster's wings.

It bellows in frustration and whirls around, unleashing fire blindly, in all directions.

Hiccup sees the glow of fire cutting toward them.

“Watch out!”, screams Hiccup.

Leandra and Starchaser can dodge it, but the random blast clips Toothless' tail.

It's heavily damaged.

“Oh no!”, shouts Leandra.

“Okay, time's up.”, declares Hiccup. “Let's see if this works.”

He pulls Toothless into a turn. Leandra and Starchaser follow. They fly directly into the Red Death's face, taunting it.

“Come on! Is that the best you can do!?”, calls Hiccup.

“My Abuelo is way fitter than you and he is dead since 10 years!”, joins Leandra.

Toothless and Starchaser utter insults too, and they jackknife into a steep dive. The Red Death pursues.

The Night Furries beat their wings, racing faster than they have ever gone before. Our quartet stays just ahead of the Red Death no longer trying to evade it.

Hiccup glances back to check the tail, it's disintegrating.

“Stay with me, buddy. We're good. Just a little bit longer.”, he whispers to Toothless, so he doesn’t alarm the girls.

The Red Death closes the gap. Hiccup tucks in and hold Toothless steady, Leandra following his example, allowing the monster to set its sights on them.

It narrows its eyes.

“Hold, Toothless.”

“Starchaser, get ready.”

The Red Death opens his mouth. The familiar gas hiss emanates from his throat ignition is coming.

“NOW!”, yells Hiccup and Leandra together.

Hiccup hits the pedals hard as Toothless extends one wing. Starchaser mimics her mate.

They pivot in place, hurtling directly into the Red Death's mouth.

Toothless and Starchaser fire point blank down the monster's throat. Its amassing gas is ignited, backfiring into the monster, erupting in a chain of blasts throughout its body.

Our four burst from the clouds, the Red Death hot on their tail, exploding from within. It glances forward and sees the ground rushing up. It throws open its wings attempting to put on the brakes, but the punctured, damaged wings can't stop its momentum.

As the Red Death chokes on the expanding fireball, he sees Toothless and Starchaser suddenly pull out of the dive, streaking up, past its head.

The Red Death hits the ground, head-first. In the biggest explosion, Leandra ever saw.

Leandra and Starchaser weave through the monster's massive backplates, wings, and flailing legs, the boys behind them. The expanding fireball races toward them, about to swallow them. They manage to clear the obstacles. Leandra sees the monster's massive club tail careening toward them.

Starchaser dodges it with elegance, they are safe!

That’s when Leandra looks behind her for Hiccup and Toothless.

The giant club tail clips Toothless, tearing Hiccup from the harness and sending him tumbling against the backdrop of the fast-approaching fireball. Toothless struggles with all his might to reach the unconscious Hiccup.

But the fireball swallows them both!

“HICCUP!”, scream Leandra with all her might and tries to get Starchaser to fly after the boys. “Star, Star! What’s wrong?! We need to help him!”

But her Night Furry stays stationary in the air, closing her eyes and cooing apologetically to her girl. She won’t risk her life.

“STAR COME ON!”

The dragon just turns her head away. She knows her mate can survive the blast, she just hopes he got Hiccup in time.

Leandra can’t help but cry.

She didn’t makeup with Hiccup and now…now…

Ashes rain down on them. Leandra is flying Starchaser over the island in search of Hiccup and Toothless.

She finds Toothless on the ground his saddle vacant of Hiccup!

“No!”, she shouts and makes Starchaser land.

She runs up to Toothless, looking for Hiccup, while Starchaser nuzzles her knocked-out mate.

“Hiccup!”

“Mister Stoick!”, calls Leandra for Hiccup’s father.

The chief reaches them and puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Lass, are you all right? Where is Hiccup?”

Tears fall down her cheeks.

“I’m fine, but Hiccup…”

Leandra can’t speak anymore. She buries her head in her hands and wails in earnest for her best friend.

Stoick own heart hurts, but he embraced the girl, who had been for years the best friend Hiccup could ask for, and looks defeated at the two Night Furries. Leandra hugs him back with all her might, crying into his shoulder.

The chief might be not her father, but both feel the same pain right now.

“Oh, son...I did this...”, signs Stoick sorrowfully, his own tears falling down his cheeks.

Astrid pushes through the crowd, her eyes welling up. Followed by Gobber. They flank Stoick as he holds the crying Leandra in his arm.

Behind them, a ring of Vikings forms, keeping a respectful distance. As the dust and smoke clear, a ring of wild dragons can also be seen, gathering just behind and between the Vikings.

Toothless stirs and groggily rolls his head toward Stoick. Starchaser lieks her mate’s head, cooing at him.

Their eyes meet.

“I'm so sorry...”, apologizes Stoick to the dragon.

The dragon seems to understand him and unfolds his wings, revealing Hiccup, unconscious, clutched safely against his chest. Stoick's eyes widen.

“Hiccup.”

Stoick lets go of Leandra, who is looking hopeful at his son.

He scoops Hiccup into his arms. Listens to his heart and bursts into relieved laughter.

“He's alive!”, he cries happily. “You brought him back alive!”

The crowd roars. Followed by the dragons. The Vikings look around to find themselves surrounded. Leandra throws her arms around Starchaser who is giving her a big dragon smooch.

Stoick leans close to Toothless, meeting him eye to eye.

“Thank you... for saving my son.”

Gobber looks Hiccup up and down: “Well, you know... most of him.”

Stoick glances back at him. Gobber shrugs, redirecting his eyes toward...

“Dios mio!”, shouts Leandra as she sees it too. She gets her pouch from Starchaser saddle and kneels down beside Hiccup. “I will see what I can do, Mister Stoick!”

Two weeks later Leandra opens the door to her house, her back to the village, and letting Starchaser out.

“Be mindful of his head!”, calls Sigrùn from inside the house.

“I will!”

Leandra turns around. She is wearing a cloth criss-crossed on her body with a tiny bundle on her chest. Softly Starchaser nuzzles the bundle and a tiny tanned hand grabs after her.

“Ah, ah, ah, Ulf. You are way too tiny for a dragon.”, she cooed at the little baby.

Her newborn brother looks at her with big blue eyes, from Sigrùn, and his little tuft of black her, like her papi and her, sways in the calm breeze.

After the battle of the Red Death, a lot happened.

As Leandra with Ulf and Starchaser make their way toward Hiccup’s house, like any day these past weeks to see if he is alright and ready to wake up, she can’t help feeling happy to see the transformed Berk.

Dragons and Vikings get along and live in harmony.

It was crazy.

Even crazier that her neighbors now wanted to hear her opinion on things, mostly dragon related since she is the second first dragon rider in the history of Berk.

And also helping to defeat the Red Death made her now an honorary Viking.

Not that she cared that much about it. Still, it was nice to not be anymore the weird foreigner but the dragon rider Leandra.

But the best thing at the moment was her little brother. Leandra never thought she could have loved her sibling as she did now, but after Sigrùn gave birth to him a week ago, she was armored with Ulf.

Maybe because she helped Gothi bring him to this world and was the one to hold him first, it didn’t matter in the end.

She felt a bit better about her decision to return to Berk.

Oh, she wouldn’t give up on her dream to return one day back to her Abuela, but for now, Berk was okay.

Maybe after Ulf was older, like five, she would go and see the world.

Leandra would make things evolve naturally.

She would know when it was time to go, for real this time.

Hiccup still couldn’t believe what a new world he woke up to as Astrid came up to him to jab him in the arm. He recoils with a grumble.

“That's for scaring me.”, the girl says matter of fact.

“What, is it always going to be this way?”, he grumbles. “Cause I...”

She grabs him aggressively and then kisses him. Hoots and hollers follow.

“... could get used to it.”, he says dreamily with a beating heart.

His dream girl kissed him, wow!

Maybe he was indeed dead.

That’s when a familiar voice calls up: “Hey, get a room you two!”

The other Vikings laugh at this.

Frantically Hiccup searches the crowd for…

“Lee!”, he yells happy, seeing his best friend all right with Starchaser on her side…and a baby strapped on her chest….

Erm, what?

His best friend gives him a soft smile.

It is bittersweet and tears seem to twinkle in her eyes, but as fast it was there, it is like Leandra switched gears and has a teasing smirk on her lips.

“Next time you two should kiss in private, my little brother is too young to see such things.”

“Little brother.”, say Hiccup excitedly and walks over to her. A little tanned baby with blue eyes and a tuft a black hair looks at him. “Aww, he is so cute, Lee.”

“His name is Ulf. Say Hi to your uncle Hiccup.”

She makes the baby wave at him, which makes the whole crowd coo at them.

Hiccup laughs and carefully embraces Leandra, mindful of the baby between them.

“I’m so glad you came back.”, he whispers to her.

He doesn’t see how Leandra fights with her emotions, closing her eyes, a single tear, escaping.

This was the way it was supposed to be. They are best friends and he is with Astrid more.

She could handle her feelings. They would go away one day. Leandra was sure.

“And I’m happy for you, sorry that I was so angry for nothing.”

They let go of each other and Ulf babbles cutely.

That’s when Gobber presents Hiccup with a rebuilt saddle, rigging, and tail.

“Welcome home.”, he simply says to him.

Suddenly, Toothless pounces on the crowd, crushing several unsuspecting Vikings under his weight. Starchaser seems to laugh.

“Night Fury, get down!”

Toothless eyes the new tail excitedly, tongue wagging. Amidst the groans and grumbles, Hiccup, Leandra, and Astrid exchange sheepish grins, while little Ulf waves his tiny hand around.

Leandra sits on Starchaser’s back, Ulf secure on her chest, and looks at Hiccup as he tries out the new tailfin and paddle. Astrid is with her dragon Stormfly between them.

This…is Berk.

Leandra watches how Hiccup and Toothless fly up into the sky, Astrid giving chase after them.

She looks with a resigned smile after them. Starchaser cooes at her in understanding and Leandra wipes a tear away.

With one arm she holds Ulf close to her chest and pets Starchaser’s side to give her the signal to fly.

Vikings and dragons who fought against each other made this little rock now their home. It doesn’t look like much, but I have a feeling it will become something spectacular.

Hiccup and Astrid race their dragons through the village under eaves, over rooftops, down cliff-sides, and between ship masts. It's a high-energy, romantic dance of sorts. Leandra follows them, still looking defeated at them, hugging her baby brother closer to her.

I don’t know how long or how much I’m going to see of this. I know my place is elsewhere. Up here in the sky, I’m truly happy and my unwelcome emotions for my best friend don’t get in anybody’s way.

Hiccup and Astrid’s fellow recruits join them as they take to the open sky, rocketing far above the village. The Northern sky swirls with blazing, multicolored dragons.

Hiccup and Toothless break from the pack, spinning into the blinding sun.

Leandra, Ulf, and Starchaser also break from the pack, but don’t follow Hiccup and Toothless.

They go in the opposite direction, away from them, away from Berk.

Just flying over the ocean.

The black-haired girl cuddles her brother closer and looks determined before her.

At the endless ocean and where it would lead her.

One day, I will leave. I will spread my wings and fly. I will return to my grandma and then…see the whole world. Then the world just got bigger when you ride on a dragon’s back! Endless possibility, endless decision. Only one thing is clear, I can never act on my feelings for Hiccup. Not only would it destroy our friendship, but I can’t be chained even more to Berk. It will be already hard to leave my little brother behind and keep Starchaser from Toothless, I don’t need a partner. I want to be free. More than anything.

With a sign Leandra turns Starchaser back to Berk. Ulf babbles at her and she kisses his tiny forehead.

For now, my place is here…but I will truly find where I belong.

Where Starchaser and I belong.

One day, in the future.

And the first movie is done :D

How much do you hate me right now?

It broke my heart to not make Hiccup and Leandra canon, but I can assure you.

I don’t read HiccupXOC stories for nothing, I was never a fan of Hiccstrid, so that ship will sink.

Just Leandra and Hiccup aren’t ready for each other.

For a lot of reasons, mostly because Leandra doesn’t want to be chainend to somebody she wants to explore and meet new people and not settle down with the first person she loves.

She thinks it is not healthy, since she doesn’t have many choices in Berk for a partner.

She thinks she likes only Hiccup because he is the only one who is her friend.

The same you can say for Hiccup in canon I totally believe that Hiccstrid only works cause both don’t have better choices in a partner. That’s why I stay away from FFs where Hiccup runs away and still gets with Astrid.

Erm no sir, ma’am, person, Hiccup totally would fall in love with someone else cause he would meet people who actually like him for him and don’t need a magical dragon ride to change her mind.

Also, can we talk about how Astrid is clearly a trophy wife for Hiccup? The boy gets at the end of the movie all he wants, the village loves him, his dad too, the girl he likes shows interest and he has friends.

All he ever wanted.

Just like that, cause he showed them dragons were awesome.

Yeah!

Astrid needed even less to suddenly like him.

I hate the Trophy Wife trope with all my being and Astrid who was the whole movie this proud Viking warrior girl deserves better.

So Hiccstrid will sink in the next book and Leandra and Hiccup after they both did a lot of growing and changing will get together.

I want also to add that Hiccup was also a way to forgiven to anybody, the teens bullied him and then they are in the end the best of friends.

Village treated him like shit, it's okay now, they like me.

Hiccup has to work through all of this before he is ready for Leandra.

He needs to understand that this all isn’t actually healthy to forgive and forget like that and only like someone because she is the only VIKING choice the others would accept and you can stomach.

I hope I could explain myself.

We will have Gift of the Night Furries, see what I did there, and then maybe one or two original chapters to touch these points.

To set for the next book which will take in Race to Edge, since Leandra and Starchaser will leave at the end of this book and travel the world and do the growing they need.

Also, 3 years in the future when they are all 18.

Now that I wrote my first smuts I will probably write for Hiccup and Leandra too. .//////.

For everybody who wants to know Hiccandra is their shipname :D

So see you next chapter and I hope I could explain myself and my decisions.

Have a nice day/night, my loves

Next

To Belong

She was the weird foreign girl, he was the most useless Viking in the history of Berk. Together they were just Leandra and Hiccup. Two best friends who searched for their place in the world. Would their search for it unite or separate them?

I know I said I would write Gift of the Night Furries first but while I was writing I noted that it would be better to not include it. So this will be the last chapter of the FanFic.

I hope you can respect my decision.

Please enjoy the last chapter and read the author’s note at the end.

Chapter 7

Leandra wakes up from the now familiar wails of her little brother. Starchaser, who sleeps beside her bed, whines and holds her ear plates down to block the sound.

With a yawn and a pat to her dragon, Leandra walks to Ulf’s room. The little baby is crying in his crib, waving his little fists around, and being generally unhappy.

“Morning Ulfi.”, coo Leandra at him, carefully picking him up. “Someone woke up with the wrong feet, eh?”

That’s when she smells it.

Wrinkling her nose, she holds him away.

“Or should I say, you woke up because you have gone number two.”

As an answer, Ulf just wails more.

Well, time to change his diaper.

The black-haired girl is nearly done when Sigrùn comes into the room. Her red hair is a chaotic mess and she has black rings under her eyes.

“Leandra, you don’t have to do this every day.”, yawns her stepmother.

“I like to help.”, she replies simply and rocks the now happy Ulf in her arms.

“Still, I thought you would prefer to go flying with Starchaser or spend your time with Hiccup since he woke up a few days ago.”, wonders Sigrùn, scratching her head.

Hearing the name of her best friend aka. impossible love Leandra makes a face hands the babbling Ulf to Sigrùn and walks past them into her room.

“He is perfectly fine on his own. He doesn’t need me.”, she mumbles. “Besides it better to go distant already before I leave this miserable rock.”

“What was that?”

“I said, I can’t wait for breakfast, I will fly a short round with Starchaser.”

“Oh, all right, sweetheart.”

Leandra rolls her eyes.

So now she is sweetheart. Since she came back from the Battle of the Red Death Sigrùn toned up being a mom to her.

It was pathetic.

Now, after she killed a giant dragon and became an honorary Viking, she gets called pet names.

Stupid bitch.

In the end, she did take Starchaser to an early morning flight and came back for breakfast.

Leandra eats her oatmeal with zero joy, watching how her parents flatter around Ulf, her, and even Starchaser.

God, she wants to barf.

It’s like they are a little perfect family.

Starchaser gets pats and extra treats, Ulf gets babied and she gets praised for being such a good dragon rider and being Gothi’s apprentice.

Before they made peace with the dragons and Ulf was born, she had to endure how her parents encourage her to be more Viking-like to fit in.

Now she could be herself.

Again, she wants to barf.

 A bunch of hypocrites they are.

She eats her last bite of oatmeal and stands up.

“I need to get to Gothi.”, she informs them.

Her papi waves her over and gives her a kiss on the forehead.

“Good work day, mi amor.”

“Gracias papi.”

Sigrùn with Ulf in her arms joins them and gives her actually a kiss on the head.

What the heck?!

“Have fun, pumpkin.”

Oh, now she is also pumpkin?

The black-haired girl feels formally how she is getting angry.

What is this we-are-a-happy-family-play her parents have going on?!

To distract herself she kisses Ulf’s tiny forehead and calls for Starchaser.

She needs to get out of this house before she loses her nerves.

Harvesting the healing herbs for Gothi helps her a lot to not think about what dumb sheep her parents actually are.

She can’t comprehend how they have gone from you-need-to-be-a-Viking to supportive be-who-you-are-you-are-perfect.

It’s just like Hiccup with his dad and the whole village.

Not that she talked much to him this past day, but she has eyes.

And she sees how everybody treats him like a hero and how proud his dad is now, when not even a month ago he was shunned and his dad was ashamed of him.

But other than her, Hiccup seems to enjoy the transformation and not question it.

Leandra signs and looks at Starchaser. Her dragon is playing with the butterflies in the field they are.

Absolutely adorable.

“You cutie.”, she cooed at her.

“Hey Lee!”, calls then Hiccup for her and Leandra has to force herself not to twitch at this.

With the fakest smile, she turns to him and yep Astrid and the whole gang and their dragons are with him.

Starchaser is the only one happy to see them since Toothless is there too. The two Night Furries purr and lick each other.

Must be nice to love and to be loved in return.

Is she jealous of her dragon?

Yes, she is.

“Hello Hiccup.”, she greets him and waves with fake friendliness at the other Viking teens. “Hello, guys. What brings you here?”

“We are doing a trick competition with our dragons. We wanted to see if you want to join.”, it’s actually Astrid who tells her this.

And she even smiles at her friendly.

Astrid was never friendly with her or even smiled at her.

It is creepy!

Even more, as the other teens join in to make her come with them.

They never cared for her and now they are best friends?

Maybe Hiccup can do it, but she still remembers how it had hurt to be outcasted and mocked by them.

“Sorry can’t. I still have to work with Gothi. Take Starchaser with you, she can show you alone some tricks.”

All look with disappointment at her.

Yep, so creepy.

“Ah, then maybe next time, I can show you my super cool trick 'Andra.”, say’s Snotloud with a wink.

Leandra gets goosebumps all over her body and feels the vomit coming up. Did Snotloud Jorgenson actually flirt with her and gave her a nickname?

She wants to die!

And take a long shower!

Not necessarily in that order, but still!

None of the boys ever flirt with her since she didn’t look like a Viking girl, yet being a dragon rider makes her suddenly pretty in their eyes?!

“Yeah, maybe, but I need to help Gothi more these days. Winter is coming soon and most of the healing herbs will not grow in this time.”, she explains and hopes this is the end of it.

Thankful it is and Hiccup and his Something-Girlfriend and his new best friends leave her alone.

Starchaser looks at her in a way that says are you sure I can go.

She nods at her dragon and gives her a tiny pet.

How long they are going to stay on Berk is still a mystery, Starchaser should enjoy the time she still has with Toothless.

And that’s how practically the next few weeks in her life are.

Leandra feels like she is in a bad play.

It is all so fake, wrong and anormal for her.

Not that she wants that Vikings and dragons are enemies again, but that world had made more sense to her.

Suddenly being loved and cherished by everyone makes her freak out internally.

Hiccup is the only one that enjoys it from what she sees.

She doesn’t get how he didn’t feel the same way she does.

Berk and his inhabitants have treated them like trash for years, but now after killing a giant dragon, making peace with the dragons, and being the first riders they are in the eyes of the population like the second coming of Christ.

She hopes god forgives her for this example, she couldn’t find a better one.

Currently, Leandra is leaning on Starchaser on the floor of the main room in their house, playing with Ulf in her arms, while her parents sit beside each other on the couch. Her father reads a book and Sigrùn is knitting a new blanket for the winter.

It is all so…domestic and peaceful.

So, so, weird.

The black-haired girl was starting to ask herself if somehow she died in the Battle of the Red Death and is now in this weird version of heaven where all was okey-dokey, without talking about the problems they had.

They just…moved on with their life.

Maybe she had finally reached her breaking point because she hears herself say: “So we don’t talk about that you guys practically wanted a Viking girl for years and after I helped to kill the Red Death I’m fine the way I am?”

Her parents stop what they are doing and look at her surprised. Even Starchaser gets tense.

She feels how her Night Furry practically wants to tell her that this isn’t a good idea, but Leandra can’t take it anymore.

“What do you mean by that sweetheart?”, ask Sigrùn blinking.

“This right there!”, Leandra gestures with Ulf’s rattle at her stepmother, while her brother tries to grip his toy. “You never used pet names for me, I was always Leandra and now I killed a giant-ass dragon and suddenly I’m sweetheart, pumpkin, and sweetie pie.”

That had been a shock when sweetie pie was used for the first time. Leandra had screamed a whole hour into her pillow.

“Leandra, langue!”

“My langue is the last problem this family has father. What’s up with you guys suddenly? I was never your perfect Viking child and now you are happy that I’m a Spanish dragon rider. You wanted for years that I forget my heritage!”, she accused them, waving the rattle wildly around.

Ulf frowns and tries to grab it.

Starchaser grumbles.

And her parents look with big eyes at her.

“We never wanted you to forget who you are, mi amor.”, says her father. “We just wanted you to fit in with the kids in your age group.”

Sigrùn nods.

“You know how Hiccup was shunned for being himself, we didn’t want that for you. We know now that we needed your and Hiccup’s way to change things for the better.”

“That’s it, that’s your excuse?”, scoffs Leandra. “How you guys any idea what this did to me? I felt I was not good enough for you, that I was wrong!”

“Mi amor!”

“Sweetheart!”

“Don’t call me by pet names, you don’t deserve that!”, Leandra screams and stands up.

Ulf looks at his big sister confused, while Starchaser croons at her human.

Her father stands up also and makes with his hand a calm down moment.

“Leandra, we never wanted to make you feel this way. We just thought we should help you to fit in on Berk.”

“We are sorry.”, adds Sigrùn. “It was the wrong way, we should have been more open-minded.”

“Indeed, you should have.”, agrees Leandra. “But why didn’t you talk with me after all that happened? I deserved an apology way earlier.”

There her parents twitch together.

“…You didn’t speak of it, so we thought it was all right?”

“REALLY, FATHER, REALLY!”, she shouts so loud and in turn, Ulf wails. “Oh, Ulfi sorry!”

Leandra tries to calm her brother down.

“Maybe we should talk about this when Ulf isn’t here. We will make him just upset.”, declares Sigrùn.

“Oh no, we talk about this now!”

“Leandra, your brother is crying and isn’t stopping, we need all to calm down.”

“So that you two don’t have to confront me, father?! I think not!”

“Listen, young lady-“

“Oh shut up Sigrùn, now you want to be a real mom! You are ten years too late.”

“Leandra Mirabel Alvarez, watch you tone!”

“Or what? I know what, I shit on this family, I shit on you two, I only care for Ulf and I will go back to Spain!”

After that declaration, only Ulf’s cries were heard.

Leandra tried to calm her brother down, rocking him back and forth, while Starchaser nosed and purred at the baby.

Gustavo and Sigrùn have turnend into stone. Did they hear right?

“You want to-“

“I’m going back to Spain, I have decided.”, says Leandra calmly to them. “I never was happy on this miserable rock, I want to live with Abuela.”

“Mi amor, we sure can find a better solution.”

“No, I’m done. I’m done with you guys, I’m done with Berk, I’m done with this whole situation. Starchaser and I will go to Spain and stay there. And you better don’t stop me or I will just run away. So accept my discussion or choke on a dick.”

Leandra ignores the offended sounds of her parents and turns to go to her room, Starchaser following after her.

She closes her door and puts her chair on the doorknob, so no one can come in.

Starchaser croons at her and Ulf looks at her, catching with one of his hands a bit of her hair.

“It’s the best.”, she says to her dragon. Then kisses Ulf’s tiny forehead. “You sleep in my bed with me today Ulfi. We will not have a lot of time anymore together.”

And so the three make themselves ready for bed.

Ignoring the pleads from behind the door, till they stop.

Maybe Gustavo and Sigrùn have finally given up since Leandra won’t.

“After Christmas.”, she mumbles to Starchaser to not wake up Ulf. “Or Snoggletog how they call it here. That’s the best time to fly to Spain. The winter storms calm down.”

Starchaser just croons at her girl.

Oh, how she would miss her mate…but Leandra was the next closest thing to a hatchling she has.

She would follow her to the ends of the world.

Still a tiny tear leaves the golden eyes of Starchaser.

Leandra closes her own eyes and tries to ignore what she saw.

This will be the best for everyone.

She is sure.

Leandra should have known that her parents wouldn’t simply accept her decision.

In the next days in the Alvarez-Jonnson household, you could hear often screaming matches between them.

Gustavo and Sigrùn tried to explain and excuse themselves, but Leandra was having non of it.

She brought up a lot of things that always rubbed her wrong.

She brought up how she nearly left Berk and they didn’t even notice.

They tried to tell her, that they thought she just couldn’t watch how Hiccup should slay the Monstrous Nightmare, and that’s why they didn’t search for her.

The black-haired girl had a tendency to disappear if she needed time to cool down from something.

What a weak excuse!

Today during their screaming match with her parents, Leandra had enough, she took Ulf and Starchaser and took a long flight with them.

Her only free day in the week and her parents had to get on her nerves with still trying to change her mind!

Angry she signs and cuddles Ulf, who is enjoying the flight. Her brother will be one day a great dragon rider, Leandra just feels it.

Starchaser grumbles at her in question.

“No Star, I’m done with all of this, father and Sigrùn can talk all they want till Christmas! We will leave after that and basta!”

“You will what?!”, shouts suddenly a voice in disbelief.

Leandra groans and turns her head.

Yup, it’s Hiccup and Toothless flying beside them.

Great, just great.

“Long time no see.”, she greets him drily. “You taking a flight alone? Where are your girlfriend and fan club?”

Hiccup splutters at her.

“A-Astrid isn’t my girlfriend and the gang isn’t my fan club!”

“Really? Could have fooled me.”

Leandra pets Starchaser’s side to make her fly faster so she doesn’t need to talk anymore with Hiccup, but her stubborn dragon stays on the side of her mate.

Again, great!

She doesn’t want to talk with Hiccup.

“Lee what’s wrong?”, asks her Hiccup desperate. “Since I woke up you are different and now you talk about how you want to leave why?”

“So you did notice.”, she scoffed and caresses Ulf’s chubby cheek. “And why are you shocked I always told you that I want to go back to my Abuela.”

“But-But why still? Now all is good on Berk and-“

She interrupts him and stares with fire in her brown eyes into his confused green eyes: “For this reason. Everybody treats us now like we are some kind of legendary heroes and like they always liked us when not even two months ago they couldn’t care less about us. This is so fake and wrong! You may be okay with that, but I won’t forget how they made me feel. They made me feel so bad about myself.”

Tears spring in her eyes and she turns away from Hiccup.

Ulf babbles at her, while Starchaser croons and finally flaps her wings faster.

They are gone from Hiccup and Toothless sight in mere seconds.

“Lee…!”, calls Hiccup for his best friend and has to fight his own tears.

He knows her, he knows she spoke the truth…that mean Leandra will leave Berk forever?

Toothless crooks at him sadly.

“Buddy we can’t let them.”, he tells his dragon, yet Toothless shakes his head. “What? You will let Starchaser go? But you are mates!”

The dragon nods and wishes he could tell his human that while he loves Starchaser, he knows that she can’t be separated from Leandra. It’s like with him and Hiccup. They are bonded in such a special way that being away from each other would hurt them.

Also, Leandra is the hatchling Starchaser always wished for and he couldn’t give her.

He won’t force his mate to decide between himself and being the mother she always wanted to be.

The brunette boy, of course, can’t hear what his dragon thoughts, but he has a feeling this runs deeper than he thinks.

Sadly he steers Toothless back to Berk.

Could he do something to change Leandra’s mind?

Or was all hope lost?

Deep down he knows the answer.

Leandra never wanted to stay on Berk. She missed Spain, the way of life there, and mostly her grandmother.

Now she had the possibility to go back home…who was he to chain her to Berk, making her more miserable?

Hiccup closes his eyes and silently cries.

He would miss her more than she would know, but he wouldn’t stand between her and her wishes.

Toothless also joins in and whines defeated.

If you truly love someone you let them go…if they are meant for you they would return…

He can only hope that this saying was true.

When Leandra, Ulf, and Starchaser return back home, no one is in the house.

Maybe her father and Sigrùn took a walk to clear their heads?

Well, better for them.

Leandra falls with Ulf in her arms in her bed tired.

What a shit day.

That’s when she sees how Starchaser is pawing at her closet and making frustrating noises.

“Star, what is it?”, she asks and puts Ulf on the bed.

Starchaser just whines and paws more at the closet.

“Okay, okay, you want me to open it or what?”

For that, she gets a nod from her dragon. Leandra raises her eyebrows and does it. Starchaser picks up her packed basket.

The one she prepared when it was time to leave Berk.

“Starchaser?”

Her dragon puts the basket on the ground, points at it with her snout, then at her saddle, and then at the window.

Is she understanding right?

“You want to leave now, Star?”, wants Leandra to know for sure.

Starchaser nods. She feels in her heart that her human hatchling has enough. Why should they wait any longer?

After a long time, a real smile forms on Leandra’s lips. She gives Starchaser a kiss on the head.

“Thank you.”

Faster than lighting Leandra undresses and dresses in the travel clothes she made in secret. A simple black tunic, with black pants, her fur boots, and a grey fur coat made out of a wolf’s pelt, which had cost her a lot when she had traded for it.

She clicks the basket on Starchaser’s saddle and they are ready.

Well almost.

Leandra kneels down beside her little brother on her bed. She caresses his little face and he grabs her fingers.

“Oh Ulfi, I don’t want to leave you.”, she signs sad, tears prickling her eyes. “I don’t want to leave you with father and Sigrùn, but you are too tiny for the voyage we are about to make.”

Softly she kisses his tiny forehead.

“I love you, Ulfi, never forget that.”

With that she takes him to his crib, he would be safer there till her parents returned, and then mounts Starchaser.

Her window is open before them and the first stars are appearing in the sky.

The black-haired girl pets the side of her trusted and beloved Night Furry.

“Let’s hit the road, Starchaser!”

Starchaser lets out an agreeing growl.

Not a second later they are out of the window, flying up into the sky.

Leandra looks for the last time back to Berk before she gives her personal hell the middle finger and turns Starchaser in the direction which will bring them to Spain.

“Go, girl, go!”, she shouts happily.

And with that Leandra Alvarez and her Night Furry Starchaser embark on their journey.

The only things that are left behind are three letters.

One for Leandra’s father and Sigrùn.

One for Ulf when he is older and can read.

And one for Hiccup and Toothless.

But these letters will be found late into the night after the whole village searched for the Spanish girl and her dragon.

What is written in the letters you ask?

Well, no Gustavo, no Sigrùn, and no Hiccup would ever tell you.

Yet you could see one emotion clearly in their eyes.

Regret.

The End!

And this FF is my second to be finished!

I’m so happy. :D

I hope you liked the chapter.

I will take now a three weeks break from this series before we start with the second book named UNITY!

Also the 19.03.2023 the new book should be online.

Always check my profile to be sure to not miss it!

Thanks for all your comments and support, without you readers a writer is nothing!

Have a nice day/night my loves!

15/10/23 Update I made an Epilogue

Next

To Belong : The End

She was the weird foreign girl, he was the most useless Viking in the history of Berk. Together they were just Leandra and Hiccup. Two best friends who searched for their place in the world. Would their search for it unite or separate them?

After thinking long and hard I decided to finish Leandra and Starchaser's story.

Leandra in particular became a character I just can’t see that she ever would get back to Berk to be with Hiccup after he choose Astrid and Berk over her.

For her, it’s clear that she will always be second best to him and she deserves better.

So this is the final chapter of Leandra and Starchaser's story, I will delete My War and Together, we map the world.

I hope you enjoy the Epilogue ^^

Epilogue: The Last Rider and her dragon

30 years later……

In a little village in China near the Silk Road…

Careful to not wake up her beloved wife Xia, Leandra stood up from their shared bedroll.

Xia just mumbled something, rolling over where Leandra had lied a few seconds ago, enjoying the warmth.

The Spanish woman couldn’t help but smile. Xia was still so cute like when they had met as twenty-somethings.

In the corner of the bedroom, her darling Night Fury Starchaser slowly woke up and greeted her with a smile.

Starchser wasn’t as young as she was once, her black scales, looked more smoky-black and her golden eyes had darkened with age.

Leandra gently stroked Starchaser's head, feeling grateful for the dragon's companionship all these years. She knew that Xia loved the Night Fury just as much as she did, and it was one of the things that brought them together in the first place.

The black-haired woman tiptoed out of their small bedroom, making her way to the kitchen to start breakfast. She couldn't wait to surprise Xia with her favourite dish, huevos rancheros, her version.

As she cooked, she thought back on all the memories they had made together - travelling the world, adopting children, and building a life filled with love and adventure.

Despite the challenges they had faced as a same-sex couple in some places they had visited, Leandra knew that Xia was worth fighting for. She was her soulmate and best friend, and nothing could ever change that.

As she placed the hot plate of food on their small table, Xia appeared in the doorway with a sleepy smile on her face. "Good morning," she yawned.

"Good morning my love," Leandra replied with a grin. "I made your favourite."

Xia's eyes lit up at the sight of huevos rancheros. "You're amazing," she said before planting a soft kiss on Leandra's lips.

They sat down to eat breakfast together, enjoying each other's company. Starchaser soon joined them and ate her basket full of fish.

After that Leandra and Xia took their morning flight with Starchaser to enjoy the thrill.

Neither of the women would get ever tired of this feeling.

Sadly they couldn’t just keep flying like once they were young, they had responsibility.

Today was market day in their little village and Xia turned to buy the groceries they needed.

With both a kiss for the Spanish woman and dragon, she made her way there, while Leandra and Starchaser worked on their rice field.

When the black-haired woman was once a young girl she never thought that one day she would love such a simple life and yet here she was.

Humming a small melody she worked on the rice field when suddenly she heard Starchaser growling.

Confused Leandra looked up.

Starchaser was growling at a young man. He was clothed like a traveller and had the same tan skin as herself, black short hair and blue eyes.

Something about them was familiar...

“Leandra Alvarez?”, he asked her in perfect norse. Leandra felt how her heart began to race...no could it be possible? “And that dragon must be Starchaser...I’m Ulf Alvarez.”

The basket where she had put the rice fell from her hands as tears shot into her eyes.

“Ulfi, my little brother!”, she chocked out. “You are all grown up!”

Without a word, the siblings hugged each other tight. Leandra noted how tall Ulf was. Taller than their father.

“I wished so long to meet you big sister!”, cried Ulf. “The letter you left behind wasn’t much and by Odin, you were hard to track down.”

“I travelled the world. Seems like you did the same.”, she cried, kissing his cheeks.

They weren’t the squishy baby cheeks but had stubble.

God, her Ulf really was here and all grown up!

Even Starchaser seemed to recognize him and licked his cheeks, which made Ulf laugh happily.

It was now early evening and the Alvarez siblings were seated at the little veranda of Xia and Leandra's home.

Xia was so nice to cook dinner, while they cached up, Starchaser was flying alone a big round over the property.

“I still can’t believe that there is one dragon left.”, mussed Ulf and took a sip from the rice win Xia and Leandra made. “We all thought...well that any dragon in the world heard Toothless command.”

Leandra snorted.

“Starchaser was once his mate, in the relationship she was the Alpha, she would have never listened to him...also I think she loved me more and rather stay here with me than go...what did you call it? The Hidden World?”

Ulf nodded.

Both siblings took each a sip of their rice wine, gathering their thoughts.

“So Hiccup married Astrid?”, couldn’t help Leandra but ask.

Xia may be her soulmate, her one true love, yet Hiccup had been her first love.

You never quite forgot your first love. Especially if it had hurt you so bad.

Nervously Ulf rubbed his neck.

“Yeah...they have two kids, Zephyr, their oldest girl, and Nuffink, a boy.”, told her Ulf.

The black-haired woman pursed her lips and then nodded slowly.

Well, it didn’t surprise her, even if one part of her, the one who still was 16 and in love with Hiccup cried out.

Hiccup had made long ago his decision. When he had the chance to run away with her and chose to follow after Astrid to make her see reason.

Tzz.

“Are they happy?”

“I think so...but Dad told me, that Hiccup had said to him on his wedding day if you would appear suddenly he would cancel the wedding.”

“Really?”

“Whatever you wrote in the letter for Hiccup made him hope till last that you would come back to Berk...but I think he made finally his peace now.”

“It’s better so, I have a wife that I love very much and a bunch of little brats I love.”

This made Ulf laugh and squeezed her free hand.

“Again, tell me where all my nieces and nephews are?”

After dinner, Leandra and Ulf talked late into the night, catching up on all the years they had missed.

Xia listened to their stories, occasionally interjecting with a question or comment.

Starchaser eventually returned from her flight, settling herself next to Leandra as they chatted.

As the night grew darker, Leandra realized that she was grateful for this unexpected reunion with her brother. She had missed him more than she had realized and was glad that he had found his way back to her.

The next morning, Ulf said his goodbyes and promised to keep in touch. Leandra watched as he disappeared down the road, feeling a sense of loss mixed with happiness at having seen him again.

As she turned back towards their home, Xia wrapped her arms around Leandra's waist and rested her head on her shoulder. "I'm so happy you got to see your brother," she whispered.

Leandra smiled, feeling content and loved.

She knew that life would continue to bring surprises and challenges, but as long as she had Xia by her side and Starchaser in their lives, she could face anything.

To Belong Index

She was the weird foreign girl, he was the most useless Viking in the history of Berk. Together they were just Leandra and Hiccup. Two best friends who searched for their place in the world. Would their search for it unite or separate them?

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

We all did

anyone else remember being like 13 years old and watching that scene in how to train your dragon (2010) where hiccup carefully navigates the maze of lines toothless has drawn between them without breaking or stepping on any of them and with his back to toothless and eyes shut to demonstrate how he’s willing to put total faith in him not to harm him or run away and to show humility and a desire to establish a natural bond of mutual trust instead of the arrogance to try to force toothless to submit to his will and hearing the music crescendo and fade into silence as he finally crosses the last obstacle so that they’re standing mere inches from one another, tension built on years of bad blood between their two races, so immense it’s almost like a physical barrier, separating them, and after what feels like forever toothless presses his nose gently into hiccup’s outstretched palm and it fits perfectly like it was made solely for that specific purpose, and feeling all the hairs on your neck stand up and a stifling sensation that brought actual tears to your eyes rise in your throat as it touched something profound and full of unspeakable yearning inside you

The one ship that I will never get tired of shipping.<333

They all look so devious in httyd1

Long time art admirer here, ADORE YOUR WORK!!! As a request can we get some good ol’ fashioned HTTYD1 era Hiccup whump in here 🥺👉🏻👈🏻 perhaps with some protective Toothless or Buffstrid? 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

Absolutely yes. Httyd1 era Hiccup whump goes so hard. That leg is not giving him a good time.

Bet Hiccup learned to run before he knew how to walk

Containing Hiccup is like trying to cage a tornado in a cat crate

It ain't happening

Menace since day one

Big boi Stoick, pls

“Hiccup would you stop trying to kill yourself for TWO seconds I cannot handle the fucking heart palpitations I’m going to tie your hands together and take away your leg yes I’m going to take your leg and no you can’t go to Gobber and ask him for another one you are quite literally grounded STAY ON THE GROUND PLEASE,”

Nobody:

Literally nobody:

Me, every ten minutes whenever I watch How to Train Your Dragon: *ugly sobbing* I love this movie, look at the pure essence, the DETAILS

Why I love how the first movie dealt with Hiccstrid

Early on in the first movie, it becomes clear that Hiccup has feelings for Astrid, although he never directly says so. His actions and the way he looks at her speaks for itself.

Hiccup also says that he hopes that by hunting dragons, he might find himself a girlfriend, but he never specifies that it is Astrid he’s interested in.

Still, Hiccup's crush on Astrid is not the main focus of the story, in fact, romance is brought up very little. While he attempts to impress her and the others during training and flirts with her once, he never becomes blinded by his feelings for her, not even after their romantic flight which leads to his feelings for her being requited.

He doesn’t do this

This

Or even this

To impress her.

Even though Hiccup initially had a crush on Astrid and later developed deep feelings for her, his motivation to become a hero was never driven by his feelings for her, and that’s not something you can say about all protagonist in movies.

I have seen so much stuff lately and in the past about the change in toothless’s design and it’s all so incredibly negative. I agree with some of it. The first model is definitely my favorite but I can confidently say that about all the characters in a way. There was less to it. The designs were ALL simpler and I love that about it. Sometimes I do wish they’d stayed closer to that BUT I think with the messages they went for, mainly in the third movie, what they did worked really well.

Hiccup makes a friend, something that to me feels between meeting a wild animal and a strange person. Toothless feels unpredictable and strange, like how I saw my cat when I met him outside. As time goes on he gets bigger and broader and less wild looking. He seems more intelligent and human like. More affectionate and communicative. Again, I can really easily compare this to my own pet cat. Photos for proof

Little guys. Still young. Having a time.

Big boys with bigger eyes

Just like toothless my cat got needier and more playful and easier to understand. I know exactly how much I can bother him and hold him. Nowadays he even follows me around. He’s learned that instead of biting he can gently reach up and tap me on the leg if he wants something which is hilariously person like. Point is he’s less wild animal like the older he gets and so is toothless.

I just think this works really well for the movies especially in the context of the third movie where it’s about that grief and love and letting go. It’s easier to apply it to a broader range of things when toothless acts how he does. Aka your pet OR your human best friend.

Not saying the change was perfect or even for good reason, but I personally think it’s really not all bad.

I definitely agree with your statement. I also love all Movie on an equal level. It’s just sometimes hard to see the amount of hate for the third film regadless if it is a post from the past or present. This is also why I wanted this to share. I sometimes have the feeling I have to dislike it because of what other fans say, even though I really love and enjoy it as much as the other two. Its just sometimes hard because you want to be part of the fandom but like something, others don’t like so much. But I always then question myself into thinking that one of the major messages from httyd is that it is good to be different and do his own thing.

Httyd3: the hidden world

I personally disagree with a lot of people who say this movie is bad, because I personally really enjoyed it. I watched it ten or eleven times total, if you count the first time I saw it. It has a really great, mature story with an excellent message about love and loss and letting go. Love was always a theme in the trilogy but here they scored with it in every way possible with the fact that every character is bond to it, like Hiccup and Astrid or Hiccup and Toothless. There is some reality to this movie that makes it on doubtfully beautiful and let it feel more realistic, because with the theme of loss everyone has a story to tell. Love and Loss always comes as a backache, you can’t have the one without the other.

I hope I will show with this post, how much my friends and I love this movie, even though we have our little nitpicks. We think that it gets too much unesassarcy hate. Maybe some day they will see as much good in it as for Shrek 4.

Stoick, gesturing to all of Hiccup: No more of… this

Hiccup: Sticks and stones may break my bones but a crowbar would do it so much quicker