úlfheðnar, httyd

viii. Secrets Of The Dragon

𖣯 ✹ 🌷(úlfheðnar) ꏍ ！┈─❟
╰───►chapter eight; yrsa
❝ secrets of the dragon! ❞

    "AND with one twist, he took my hand and swallowed it whole!"

    It was important to understand with Gobber's stories, was that most of them made either a) no sense, or b) are completely untrue. It's either got mentions of a hammer-head yak in them or is about how his goat, Phil, grew wings and flew off with his sock. There is no in-between. Yrsa has already heard the story of how he lost his limbs to a Monstrous Nightmare one night in the Great Hall, she didn't really want to hear it again. Instead, she stayed silent and kept to herself next to Astrid. 

    It wasn't that hard when her mind was elsewhere. 

    Yrsa turned her chicken over in the fire, watching the flames flicker up and tender the skin. She felt ashamed for not feeling ashamed. She was guilty for realising that indeed one dragon did change her mind entirely. She saw that dragon put trust in two Vikings who could have killed him, she saw him try and smile, she saw the art he had made for them ...

     Sitting next to Astrid, she wondered what her best friend would think? Her only friend. When no one wanted to be friends with her because of her father, Astrid had seen her fight and decided to fight with her━in more ways than one. Astrid fought with her to get her back on top, to get her out of her father's cold deathly shadow. She had been far better to her than Yrsa ever deserved. Even when she shyly kissed her on the cheek when they were twelve and told her she was very pretty, and Astrid didn't feel the same way, she didn't leave her, she didn't call her crazy, she was still her best friend. 

     Now, what were they? What would she think? Yrsa knew exactly what Astrid would think. Why was she asking? Maybe because she wanted there to be a different answer than the obvious. That maybe, deep down, Astrid felt the same way: that dragons shouldn't be killed. But that was stupid. Astrid wouldn't feel the same way, and this time, she probably would leave, she definitely would call her crazy, and she'd no longer be her best friend. 

     A few days ago, Yrsa would agree with her. 

    But now, it was different. 

     Everything has changed. 

    And if Astrid saw what Yrsa saw? Experienced what she experienced? Would she think differently too? Would she be sitting here, turning over her food in the fire and feel the shame of feeling no shame because of everything her best friend and helped her build up. Feel the guilt of not feeling the guilt over possibly never changing how the village viewed her father. 

    No, she wouldn't. Because Astrid would have killed the Night Fury when she had the chance. 

     "I saw the look on his face," went on Gobber to the eager listening teens that were on the edge of their seats, aside from Yrsa and Hiccup. She glanced at the boy, seeing a similar look on his face to the one she must've been wearing. "I was delicious. He must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg." He gestured to his wooden peg leg, and there was a chorus of gasps from the group. Astrid rolled her eyes from Yrsa's side.

    "Is it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon?" spoke up Fishlegs, and the others turned to him. "Like if your mind was still in control of it━" he smacked his two chicken legs together and Astrid leaned away, shuffling closer to Yrsa to steer clear of the flying chicken, "━you could have killed the dragon from the inside by crushing his heart, or something."