(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.
...
Giggling all the way, Melanie yanked Shotlout into the arena and dropped him like a dog playing fetch. Hiccup and the others were already there waiting. Upon seeing Snotlout's fluster, Hiccup raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Thank you, Melanie," he began, "we can always use the extra help with Snotlout."
"You're welcome," Melanie replied innocently as Snotlout got up from the ground.
Snotlout gave Hiccup a death glare, but before he could fight back, Fishlegs began to ramble. "Oh my Thor," he exclaimed, running up to Melanie, "are those baby dragon teeth?" He pointed to the necklace around her neck.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
⇧ Melanie's necklace ⇧
Looking down at her necklace, Melanie responded, "I'm not sure, it belonged to my mother."
Hiccup smiled and approached Melanie as well. "Those are definately baby dragon teeth," he confirmed, delicately lifting the three charms, "look at how clean the roots are."
Snotlout frowned, annoyed by the other boys crowding around Melanie. "Baby dragon teeth, big deal," he scoffed, "don't we have training to do?"
Astrid gave him a look of surprise, along with Hiccup. Finally, the one-legged leader answered, "actually, we don't. I just got a terror mail from Dagur, he's visiting today to meet with my dad; he wants to apologize formally for the years he spent trying to kill us."
Melanie scrunched her face up and spoke questioningly, "Dagur?"
"Right," Hiccup began, remembering that Melanie was new here, "he's Chief of his tribe, the Berserkers."
With an understanding nod, Melanie looked out of the arena. "Are we going to meet him then?" Snotlout asked.
"That is the plan," Astrid responded with a sigh, as if to say he should've known that already.
Snotlout crossed his arms and muttered to himself, "shut up, Astrid." He climbed onto Hookfang as the other riders began to fly out. Seeing that Melanie hadn't moved, he held his hand down to her and asked charmingly, "you coming or not?"
Melanie grabbed hold of his hand and let him hoist her up. Once she was situated behind him, he looked back over his shoulder with a cocky grin and warned, "you might wanna hold on to something." Then Hookfang took off.
A high pitch screech pierced Snotlout's ears as Melanie dug her fingers into his shoulders. But what he'd thought was a scream in fear quickly faded into laughter. "Too fast?" He asked teasingly, speaking loudly to outmatch the rushing wind.
Melanie continued laughing, adrenaline pumping through her viens like a racehorse. And over the sound of them tearing through the air, he barely heard her utter the word, "faster!"
Snotlout couldn't help but smile. However, it was almost time to land Hookfang at the incomplete stables building on the side of the island, so he slowed down. Melanie's grip quickly loosened and the wind died down immensely. "How was that?" Snotlout asked with a smirk.
Throwing her hands up, Melanie expressed, "amazing; way faster than Bones." She started to lose balance again, though, so she grabbed hold of Snotlout's waist. Feeling him tense up, she wondered, "is everything alright."
She was clearly clueless of the effect she had on him, seeing that she didn't even begin to remove her arms from around him. Snotlout forced himself to relax. "O-of course," he stuttered, "it's just, flying Hookfang can be stressful."
At this, Hookfang snorted and twisted his head, effectively wacking Snotlout with his right horn. Then, they landed. So far, the place was only a large platform with the frame of a building beginning. The other riders were already landed and talking to a red haired man that Melanie assumed must be Dagur.
She and Snotlout hopped off of the monstrous nightmare and walked over to meet the group.
"Snothat!" Dagur greeted upon seeing their arrival. He made his way over to the Viking and gave him a tight, quick hug.
"Hey, Dagur," Snotlout responded, obviously not a fan of the nickname.
Dagur looked from Snotlout down to Melanie and smiled, "and who might you be?"
"I'm Melanie," she responded, lifting her chin proudly. But when she did this, Dagur's smile dropped.
Hiccup gave the Berserker Chief a nervous look and asked, "is...something wrong?"
But Dagur didn't answer, he lifted a hand and touched the dragon teeth that hung against Melanie's throat. "Where did you get this," he demanded.
Melanie was taken aback by his sudden hostility. "It's not yours, if that's what you think," Melanie retorted, backing away from the man, "my mother gave it to me."
Everyone stared as the pieces of the puzzle floated together. Dagur let out a deep breath of disbelief, "you..what..?" His word were unusually weak and confused.
Melanie looked around at everyone, then back to Dagur. "Don't even tell me.." Snotlout trailed off in awe.
Then Hiccup asked hesitantly, "Dagur..?"
Finally, the red-headed man spoke. "I made that necklace when I was a boy," he explained, "it was a gift for my mom.."
