⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
.*･｡CHAPTER TWELVE.*･｡

——

Vega watched in horror as the boy dove under the surface of the water, searching for his dragon that had been unable to float. She stared helplessly at the scene, pleading the Gods to let him come back up alive and breathing.

He had to come back up alive.

The girl swung her Gnasher around and let out a yell, ready to fling herself into the salty depths below, but stopped herself when she saw Stoick commence the action instead. Within seconds, the chief had pulled his sons body out of the water and set him on the rocks of the shore, before diving back in. Hiccup spluttered and coughed as he pushed himself to stand, running back towards the water and crying out for his father and his dragon.

"Dad? Toothless?"

He hadn't gotten far when the very dragon shot out of the water with his wings spread out, stopping Stoick onto the ground and perching himself high upon the rocks.

Toothless let out a roar that sent Vega and her dragon back a little, but the girl only laughed in amazement and adjusted her hold on the rope. That dragon had managed to grow on her, whether she would ever admit it to him or not, and she felt her cheeks warm at the prospect. She had never thought that she would be so fond of a dragon that had kidnapped her and debated leaving her for dead, especially not when knowing that her parents would have been disappointed if they knew, but it had changed. Weeks ago, she would have tried to kill any dragon to step out in front of her. Now, Vega was incredibly glad that she hadn't killed him when she had the chance.

It took only minutes for Hiccup and Toothless to launch themselves into the air, travelling quicker than anyone's sight could capture. Vega grinned and signalled for her dragon to fly onwards, heading towards where the other were circling the beast. "He's up!"

"Get Snotlout out of there!" She directed the twins who nodded, then looked at Astrid with a smirk, "Show it what you're made of!"

"I'm on it!" Ruffnut called out, her voice wavering as Tuffnut drove his dragon's head into her own.

Tuffnut snickered, "I'm on it first!"

"Hey, let me drive!"

"I'm ahead of you."

Astrid rolled her eyes and sent Vega a salute, diving down towards the beast with a battle cry and waving her axe around like a madwoman. The girl was bound to give it hell, no doubt — it was very Astrid.

"No, this way!"

"Don't push me!"

Snotlout ran up the back of the beast and over its head while Astrid jabbed at it brutally as a distraction, hauling his body through the air with a shout when he landed successfully in between the two heads of the Zippleback. He looked up as the bickering twins and then to himself in amazement, "I can't believe that worked!"

"Me either," Vega muttered with a scoff.

The girl turned her dragon around and headed south, furrowing her eyebrows together when the Gnasher barely moved. Her hair began to pull back and her dragon whined, flapping her wings helplessly. Vega turned to look over her shoulder and as soon as she saw what was happened, she wished that she hadn't. The beast continued to suck in its breath, causing the pair to draw closer to its jaw with each and every second.

"Come on, girl!" Vega cried out, holding onto to the rope tightly as her body was lifted from its back. The dragon let out another whine, "You can do this!"

"Night Fury!" A Viking shouted from down below, a familiar whistle reaching Vega's ears. "Get down!"

Vega heard the sound of a plasma shot before she had seen it, or even registered that the beast had let the air surrounded them to. Her grip lost hold of the rope when her dragon lost balance, flapping through the sky and turning to find the girl sat upon her back. But she wasn't.

A violent scream ripped past Vega's pink lips as her body fell through the air, waving her arms helplessly as she tumbled and sliced through the clouds. Her dragon let out a roar as the young Viking cried, the ground coming closer at an alarming rate. She squeezed her constellation eyes shut as she hurtled towards the land, bracing herself for impact and hoping that she would live through the experience with at least a few limbs left.

Vega couldn't help but wonder whether it was karma for having not fulfilled her parents wishes, leaving her to die a horrific death just as they had. It was an awful but very present thought as she suspended down and down, waiting for the pain to start.

But the feeling of hitting the earth never came.

The teenager gasped as her leg was caught by something, pulling her through the sky by in a different direction. She opened her eyes and looked around, finding a familiar black dragon looking right back at her.

"Did you get her?"

Toothless moaned in confirmation and threw Vega through the air, sending her round in a flip and grabbing her arms before she had a chance to fall again. The girl let out a laugh as they swooped lower to the ground, earning a swift lick to the face from the Night Fury as he set her down beside her dragon. The animal nudged her and cried, nuzzling it's face into her body and showing that she was glad Vega hadn't died. She smiled at the dragon and looked up, watching as Hiccup and Toothless ripped through the air and into the clouds.

"Go." She nodded confidently when Hiccup looked back at her, too far to heard her words but close enough to see the shine in her eyes, "You've got this."

Soon enough, the pair were out of sight. Vega squinted to see through the clouds, but to no avail, her body being tugged into the Gnasher at her side as the Vikings of Berk crowded together to see the fight. It was quiet for a moment before the Night Fury came crashing back down, sending another shot at the beast and swooping away as it fell to the ground on its side.

   Vega coughed at the dust in her face as it drew a wing, ducking behind her dragon as the dirt tickled at her nose and lodged in her throat. Then, the beast was off and into the sky, right behind the son of the chief and his trusty stallion.

Watching the fight was like playing a game of hide and seek. All three entities had vanished right before their very eyes for only a minute, soon reappearing as Toothless and Hiccup soared along the coastline. The crowd of Viking watched in shock whilst the teenagers cheered and yelled, pounding their fists into the air and jumping in joy at the sight of their friend saving the day. Vega couldn't help but grin.

   It wasn't long before the beast had caught up to them and they soared up into the air, getting lost behind the clouds and smoke. The Berkians gasped in horror when a flame shot through the skyline and backed away, all but the six teenagers who watched with adrenaline pounding through their veins. This wasn't new to them; they had watched Hiccup outsmart dragon's for weeks, they had seen him suss out their strengths and weaknesses, and they had every faith that he would impress them all over again. This was just another training session. He would do it.

   An eery silence fell over them, and then there were cracks of blue and purple everywhere.

   Vega let out a cry when a ball of fire appeared and the beast came flying back towards the ground, Toothless and Hiccup nowhere to be seen. She shielded her vision as the animal collided with the rubble, sending an explosion of orange and red through the air and past her cheeks.

   The Gnasher flung her into the air and caught her in its wings, wrapping her secretly in its embrace until it was safe for her to be released.

   Letting out a cough and sniffling slightly, Vega rolled down the Gnashers wing and into the ground, groaning at the feeling of pebbles in her side. The girl slowly pulled herself up and watched as the fire dulled, Stoick racing into the ash and embers left in its wake.

    "Hiccup!" He yelled out and stumbled, "Son?"

   Holding her breath, Vega launched her body through the crowd of Vikings that stood in her way, gritting her teeth and barging last them. The Gnasher squawked at the people in her way and they cowered, letting her through.

   What she saw, however, had left her falling to the ground.

    "No-" she whispered, feeling her dragon catch her fall and holding her up with its head, "-no!"

   Toothless whimpered and moaned, lifting his head an inch from the ground and blinking up at Stoick dizzily. He watched the tearful man who watched him right back, a certain heartbreak identifiable in his eyes. The Night Fury allowed his vision to scan over the crowd, pausing for a brief second when he looked at Vega, and moaned again, opening his wings.

    "Hiccup!" Stoick pushed himself towards where his son lay, tucked in the arms of the dragon that he had claimed to shoot down that night. "Son!"

   He ripped off his helmet and placed his head to his chest, a laugh bubbling out of his throat as he heard the steady beat. The chief clutched the boy tighter and smiled at the dragon with gratitude, "He's alive! You brought him back alive!"

   Vega pulled her hands to her face and let a laugh of disbelief pass her lips, screaming in a mixture of shock and joy when the Gnasher pounced on her and began to lick her face. She squealed, raising a hand to push her away.

     "Easy, girl!" She grinned, "Easy!"

   The Gnasher wiggled its tail and backed up, allowing Vega to haul herself from the floor. "Thought you didn't like him much, huh? What happened to that?"

   Then again, Vega didn't think she had liked him that much, either.

• • •

   A lot had changed in the time it had taken Hiccup to heal.

   Vega hadn't visited the boy too much whilst he was asleep, though the few times that she had had been spent sketching his face with charcoal and paper, paying attention to each and every detail. The freckles scattering his cheeks, the scratches and bruises blossoming like flowers upon his forehead and jaw. Even the scar on his chin, almost faded so much that she couldn't see it, the one that she now found herself wondering where it came from; she had drawn everything.

   Other times she had taken to drawing Toothless as he watched over his friend, the Night Fury eventually having sussed out what she was doing and smiling a gummy grin. It was sweet that he hadn't left Hiccups side, not even once. The dragon truly loved him.

When she hadn't been visiting the boy that would likely never found out that she had, Vega had been drawing out thousands of pictures of the Grim Gnasher that now liked to follow her around like a lost dragon. The purple creature seemed to be attached to the young Viking and would never let the girl far out of her sight before she came running and growling at anyone who tried to talk to her.

The dragon had become protective since that day that Hiccup had defeated the beast. Since she had protected Vega from splinters of wood and fiery explosions, she had been doing the same everyday.

Half of them weren't really threats, only Snotlout trying to show off and impress her with how good his flying had gotten, but Vega hadn't complained. If it took a dragon to send him off screaming and flying for the hills, then she was perfectly content with that. He hadn't flirted with her in a good week.

Had she mentioned that Berk allowed dragons?

Living with dragons had been something odd for Vega, something that she had found hard to get used to. She had difficulty allowing herself to love the creatures as much as she had wanted to; a feeling deep in her stomach making her queasy and sick.

Guilt.

Astrid had told her many times to not feel guilty about how things had changed. Vega wasn't a dragon slayer, nor had she won Dragon Training, but the blonde has assured her that her parents wouldn't be disappointed. Not when she had worked to save the villagers of Berk and the animals who were suffering with the threat of the queen of their nest controlling their every move. She had protected the people around her, and that was all that her parents had ever wanted of her. It was in her own mind that the intentions had gotten twisted — they wanted her to be alive, not to be a murderer. Not if they could live with dragon's in harmony.

Part of the guilt had stemmed from the fact that she no longer drew them as much as she used to. They had died at the hands of the animals that Berk now loved, and she had been too distracted to appreciate them in the same way.

Vega used to draw her parents everyday, and now she hardly drew her mother. Her father crept up sometimes.

It was nice to have something new to draw; a new muse to improve her skill. She would never be as great as her father once was, but that was okay. Vega kept his spirit alive whenever a piece of charcoal was in her hand. She would draw him and he was no longer sad, nor was he at all disappointed. Now, on the rare occasion that he appeared upon her paper, he looked content.

The lack of images of her mother had been strange. It wasn't anything she had been able to figure out the route of, nor why she didn't feel so bad when leaving her out of the sketches and scribbles.

Deep down, she wondered whether it was because her mother had moved on. She had always believed in reincarnation, another life to live, and maybe this was a sign that the woman had finally come back to earth as a different entity. It was what she had always wanted.

Vega smiled at the dragon in front of her, purple scales reflecting the light as they sat at the top of the cliff. She thought about her mother's sprit and shook her head.

Maybe she had moved on.

"Hey, Atlas!" Vega cooed when the dragon bounded towards her, "Want to fly?"

She nodded her head up and down, spinning in a circle and leaning down the Vega to climb up and onto her back. She adjusted where she sat upon the saddle and patted her friend's head, just how she liked it.

Vega had changed a lot over the time that Hiccup had taken to heal. She had slowly adjusted to their new way of life, and she had slowly become less statuesque alongside it. The girl now laughed and smiled, no longer simply rolling her eyes and raising her brows. Now, Vega was a human — not a robot that she had programmed herself, no other drive but to become a fighter and avenge her parents. Now, Vega felt kind of normal. It would take a while for her to really accept this new way of being, but it was good good so far. She no longer wanted to kill any dragon that crossed her path, and she tried to no longer dwelled on what her parents would have wanted.

Astrid was right. They would want her to be alive. Even if that meant befriending the creatures to have killed them.

On her flight to the bottom of the cliff, Vega grinned at the feeling of a the breeze running through her curls. It was a feeling that she was sure she would never get over, for as long as she would live. Her starry eyes glowed in the sunlight, constellations alight.

"Vega!"

Frowning, the teenager looked over her shoulder to see Astrid and Stormfly behind them, the two in blue flying through the wind.

    "Slow down, girl," she spoke softly to Atlas, happy when she did as told. Sometimes the dragon could be a bit sassy and act as though she were in charge of Vega, instead of it being a mutual friendship. It was like having a fight with her mother, sometimes. "What's wrong? Snotlout chase you out here, again?"

   With having laid off of Vega lately, Snotlout has focused his unwanted attention on Astrid. Even after a punch to the face he still hadn't received the message that she was no more interested than Vega had been, he still didn't seem to get it.

    "Can't you take him back?" Astrid pleaded with a scowl, now floating alongside them with Stormfly. "I'll do anything."

   Vega snickered, "Not in the name of Odin."

"I thought you'd do more for your best friend!" The blonde said dramatically. They had gotten even closer over the last week, and Astrid seemed much happier with their new way of life. She was nowhere near as bossy as she had been before, though she would still tell people what to do, here and there — it was in her nature, after all. But Vega liked this happier Astrid, it was nice. "Apparently not."

"Oh- go and cry to Snotlout!" Vega laughed at her playfully when she glared even harder, "I'm sure he'd wipe those tears and kiss it all better, for you."

For a moment, Astrid looked stunned. Then, she smirked.

    "Look, I know you're all loved up about Hiccup now, but it would be great if you-"

   Pulling Atlas' reigns and sliding to a halt as they landed upon the docks, Vega stared at Astrid as though she had lost her mind. Her cheeks burned and her heart span inside of her chest, so much that she had barely noticed the older Vikings that had began feeding Atlas fish, which the animal had happily accepted.

    "What?" She choked out. Astrid hopped off of Stormfly and rolled her eyes, walking towards her friends with the same smirk still upon her face. Vega paled, "What are you on about?"

    "We all know that you've been visiting him, Vega. Not much, but more than any of us have." The blonde girl responded as though it were obvious. She gave Stormfly and Atlas a scratch under the chin before striding off, Vega quickly following. The dragons sent one another a look and trotted behind their humans, occasionally nudging one another. "I saw your drawings, too. They're good. Soppy, but good."

    "I don't know what you think is going on here-" Vega glared at the blonde when she turned a corner, waving at their friends as they came into view. "-but for the love of Gods, I am not in love with-"

    "Hiccup!"

   Astrid giggled when Vega froze. The pair shared a challenging stare, the blondes eyes full of knowing, to which the brunette huffed.

Maybe she did like him, just a little.

——