(COMPLETED) Melanie washes up on the shores Berk. When she wakes, the riders quickly realize that she's quite a handful to deal with. However, there's something about her that feels comfortable, even familiar, so she is easily taken in to the team.
...
When the two reached the water, Melanie sighed and sat on the edge of the dock. Her feet just barely hovered above the water's surface as she leaned back on her arms.
Curious about her sudden calm demeanor, Snotlout wondered aloud, "the ocean again, huh?" It was obvious to him that the water had this hold on Melanie. It was as if it calmed her into a sane human being.
"My mother is in it," Melanie responded, looking back at Snotlout with a grin, "somewhere."
Feeling a sudden clinch in his heart, Snotlout sat beside Melanie. In one hand he felt bad for her; she'd lost her mom and never had a home. But at the same time, she didn't seem very broken up about any of it.
"She fell over the side of our boat in a storm three years ago and drown," Melanie continued casually.
"I-I'm sorry..?" Snotlout tried to sympathize with the girl, which was hard to do since she was in such a happy mood.
Melanie let out a laugh, "why are you sorry? It's not like you killed her. Besides, it was her time, she was sick." After a short pause, she sighed and continued, a small frown of confusion on her lips, "though, she never told me what she was sick with."
Snotlout then began slowly, "listen, uh..I'm sorry about yelling at you earlier."
"You weren't yelling at the trees?" Melanie scrunched up her nose as she teased.
Snotlout threw his arms up and rolled his eyes, sighing, "oh come on, I'm trying to be sincere, for once."
Melnie let out a contagious laugh. When Snotlout heard it, he couldn't help but chuckle a bit himself. "I was only joking that time," she assured him, "but I'll have you know, I tend to take things quite literally a lot of the time. Bones doesn't like when people tease me, mainly because I can't usually tell. If I were you, I wouldn't want to get on his bad side." With a snicker, she pointed to the back of her neck.
There, a thick pink scar stretched from one of her shoulders to the other at a slight angle. It was at least eight inches long, and looked like I could've been deadly when fresh. "That's from your dragon?" He asked in shock.
"He wasn't always my friend," Melanie explained, "used to absolutely despise me."
"How did you get him to..not, want to kill you?" Snotlout asked.
"Well that was all him," Melanie corrected, "Bones is the one who changed, not me. I guess he realized how badly I needed someone to look after me...I know I can be a bit of a handful at times."
Snotlout looked down at Melanie. She was still watching the waves swell gently, a calm smile on her face. The moon made her hair glisen in it's two loose ponytails. And her green eyes looked like emeralds in the night.
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⇧ Melanie ⇧
Everything about her face in this moment was calm, collected, sweet and innocent. It was hard to believe that she'd been so uncontrollable that morning. But one thing was clear enough, Melanie was a puzzle. And for some reason, Snotlout wanted to be the one to figure her out.
• • •
The next day, Melanie was taken by the twins to be fitted for clothes, being that hers were absolutely destroyed. While her clothing was being made by a seamstress, she sat with the twins and they talked.
"So where'd you find that boneknapper? I wanna find one," Tuffnut began a conversation.
"I don't know, really; he was alone on an island of ice," Melanie told them.
Then Ruff spoke with a devious smile, "you seem like the kind of person who enjoys a good prank every now and again."
Melanie smiled wildly, "oh I do!" But she immediately stopped herself and frowned ans acolded herself, "wait, no, I can't."
"Why, 'cause of Chief?" Tuff questioned, "trust me, we do this all the time."
"No, I mean," Melanie began awkwardly, "the last time I pranked somebody, they ended up almost dying."
The twins' eyes widened as they stared at her in both horror and admiration. "That..is epic!" Tuffnut shouted.
"Bro, isn't it a bit risky, though?" Ruffnut wondered nervously, "I mean, we don't wanna accidentally kill someone."
Just then, Fishlegs fell from the sky right next to the three. The twins jumped in starts, but Melanie only smiled. "Hello," she greeted as if it were a completely normal situation. Looking up, she saw that Bones was flying just above, a look of annoyance on his face as he landed on the ground.
Many of the other Vikings expressed their shock at the large dragon, making Melanie laugh. Fishlegs then stood and spoke nervously to her, "I-I was only trying to learn a little more about boneknappers..I've only ever met one once before."
"Well, what did you learn?" Melanie asked with an encouraging grin.
Fishlegs looked back at the dragon, it's nostrils puffing smoke into his face, "that they really don't like to be studied."
