Ch. 13- The Time Has Come

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I woke up as good as new, having slept great. I woke up at dawn and before Emerald.

I smiled, watching her sleep peacefully for a minute before getting dressed. I had dragon training in a few hours, sadly, and the lessons were getting shorter, much to my enjoyment.

Once we finished the assignment we were free to go, so of course I've been helping the class along and finishing the assignment up for us. We ended up having an hour or less of class every day, except Sunday and Monday's when we had no class.

Emerald woke up soon after I did, and we went for a morning flight around the island.

I swear dad saw us but didn't follow, just smiled and watched us fly by over Berk. Weird. He knows something. Oh gods, no. It's probably just my imagination after last night, I tried to convince myself.

After two laps around the island, avoiding Berk on the second lap, we headed back to the cove.

"Be back in a few hours, or less. Bye, Emmy," I waved goodbye as I left, heading to Berk.

"Today we are learning about tricks. Certain tricks will make dragons, wild or not, become harmless, without hurting them," Gobber added, looking at the twins and Comet.

They groaned in disappointment. While we no longer were at war with the dragons, they loved inflicting pain upon others. Viking, dragons, anything that reacted.

"Oh, and we have a new student," Gobber added, as a boy came walking into the academy.

He had pitch black hair and freckles all across his cheeks. His deep ocean blue eyes looked at the ground, scared. He had on a long sleeve orange shirt and brown pants. He had a Viking helmet slightly tilted on his head, not fitting him properly, and a small dagger rapped in leather at his waist, held there by a belt.

He looked up every few seconds, not lifting his head, and slowly walked closer to us.

"Everyone," Gobber said, placing an arm over the boy's shoulders when he was close enough. "This is Tyson. Tyson, this is Comet, Hachette, Yorkie, the twins Twinkle and Periwinkle, and Starfire, the chief's only daughter."

I frowned at the way Gobber introduced me, different from everyone else.

"Hey, Tyson, wanna be our friend?" Comet asked, boldly.

"No, thanks. I don't do friends so soon," he said, not taking his eyes off me, probably because of who my father is.

Comet snorted, "Your loss, loser."

Tyson took his eyes off me and turned to Comet, "You first asked me to be your friend, and now you're calling me a loser?"

"Now now," Gobber came in, stopping Comet from speaking. "No fighting. Let's get the lesson started." He repeated the lesson plan to everyone and let a wild deadly Nadder out of its cage.

Everyone ran to the shields, not expecting the Nadder so soon.

I had finally finished my Gronkle iron shield, which was more than just a shield, the morning before and grabbed it off my back.

Gobber widened his eyes as he saw my shield, like it looked familiar or something, but didn't say anything at the moment.

I waited a while for the others to try to get the dragon to stay still long enough to tame it.

I leaned against the wall, shield in hand in case something happened, and watched, smiling at how little they all knew about dragons. Pathetic.

Tyson, who was from a different island and was still use to dragons being the enemy, eventually gave up and stood beside me.

It was a while later that I noticed dad standing above the area, looking down at the show.

I smiled and waved, he waved back with no smile, and I sighed.

"That your father?" asked Tyson.

"Yup. The pride of Berk. The chief; the dragon conqueror; the dragon master; my father," I said, proudly.

"Must be hard to live in his shadows."

"Not really. Bard, my older brother, has it easy though."

"Easy how?"

"Well, he has it easy now. When he becomes chief it won't be so easy, but he is going to become chief so people respect him, they listen to what he has to say. Sometimes, because of my father, they listen to me, not like they do Bard, but that's alright."

"Strange," Tyson said.

"What's so strange?"

"You sounded happy when you say that. That's all," he said with a shrug.

"Okay," I trailed. We stayed in silence for a while.

"This is taking forever!" Tyson complained.

"They barely know a thing about wild dragons," I snickered.

"Neither do I for that matter. I'm still getting used to seeing dragons everywhere," he chuckled. "It's pretty cool. When do we get our own dragons?"

"A couple months from now. When you're ten you get to pick out a dragon. We'll the kids born in that year get to. We call it Dragon Day. It's also the same day, years ago, my dad defeated the Red Death with his night fury, Toothless."

"Wow." We waited a few minutes until he sighed.

"You really to leave?"

"Yes. They're taking forever!"

"Okay then," I pushed off the wall. "Watch and learn."

I walked into the battle and pulled some dragon nip out of my pocket. The Nadder saw it as it chased Yorkie past me, and I blocked its path, holding the dragon nip to its nose. The Nadder smelled it and plopped down. Then I made it roll onto its side and dropped the dragon nip in front of it before walking back to Tyson. I saw dad smiling at me from above the arena before walking off.

"There," I said.

"Nice work, Starfire," he chuckled.

"Please, call me Star."

"Okay, Star. Call me Ty."

"Okay, Ty. Are you ready to go home?" I laughed.

"Yup. Got some unpacking to do."

"Good work, class," Gobber said. "Come again tomorrow." He left.

"I gotta get home. Bye, Star," Ty called over his shoulder.

"Bye!"

"Oh, look! Starfire here has a little crush!" teased Comet. "Look, Starfire. You use to rarely participate in class- and that was good- now your participating a lot, and it's making us look bad."

"So stop it," Twinkle said, punching me lightly in the arm. It hurt a bit.

"It's not my fault you guys suck," I said. "I get tired of waiting for you guys."

"What did you say?" Comet asked, getting closer.

I held my ground. "It's not my fault you suck. I get-"

A punch to my eye interrupted me.

"Ouch! What was that-" another punch busted my lip open.

"You ungrateful little brat!" Comet said, pushing me to the ground before kicking my leg.

"Ouch!"

"Comet, I don't think you shouldn't beat up the chief's only daughter," Yorkie pointed out.

"I agree. We can get in big trouble," Hachette said in a quiet voice.

"Shut up! But fine." He stopped kicking me and knelt down. "Now, don't go running to daddy or next time, we'll make you silent for good." He laughed as he walked away.

"I'm so sorry," Hachette said, helping me up before following the others out of the arena.

I ran straight to Emerald, where I started crying. I had a black eye, busted lip, and bruises on my legs, arms and torso.

I couldn't show mom and dad my eye and lip. I just couldn't! They are to protective. It's not always bad but it's not always good either.

"Shoot. Emerald, what should I do?" I asked, looking at the setting sun.

She did this shrugging thing before lying down.

"Thanks for the help," I said, sarcastically.

I thought of ways to hide or cover my injuries. I could cover my eye with my hair and put something on my lip to hide the scab. I thought of the red edible berries I found nearby the cove. I could mash those.

"That's it! I'll be back, Emerald," I called, running out of the cove.

I found the bush and picked as many berries as I thought I would need, which wasn't that many, before returning to the cove. I used a rock, that I had cleaned in the pond, to squish the berries before filling a small jar with the paint. I put the jar in my bag, after putting a bit on my lips to hide my busted lip.

"I gotta go. Bye, Em," I gave her a hug before running home. Before I walked inside I covered my eye with my hair.

"You're late!" Bard said, his mouth full of tonight's dinner.

"Sorry," I said, looking at the floor.

"It's okay. Just don't do it often," dad said. "Now come eat."

I barely nodded and sat down, staying quite as usual, but perhaps a bit more than usual as well. I normally said a sentence or two during dinner, when we talked together as a family.

"Star, can you watch Stoick II and Blade for me tomorrow afternoon?"

"Yes, I can. Can I spend the night with Emerald tomorrow, please?"

Mom and dad had a silent conversation for a few seconds before nodding at the same time. "Sure. We don't see why not," dad said.

"Thanks."

"Oh, can I come too?" asked Blade.

"If mom and dad say you can," I told him.

"Can I?" They said yes and moved on.

After dinner I excused myself and went up to bed early, telling them I had a long day.

The next day wasn't that good either.

It started fine, got up, got ready, and went to dragon training. Mom reminded me that I was babysitting in the afternoon before I left.

Once class started, Ty and I were leaning on the same wall as yesterday. Today we were supposed to learn how to take on multiple dragons at once, and without hurting them, take them down. The exercise was simple at best. But for some reason, no one could bring down one of the three Gronkles. Lame.

Ty and I talked about yesterday.

"You're pretty good with dragons, aren't you?" he asked.

"Um, yeah. I guess you could say that."

"Well I am. You're better than those dorks."

"That's not too hard to do. They are the worst in the village," I pointed out.

"Really? I couldn't tell," he said, sarcastically. He chuckled before saying, "That's not really surprising."

"Nope. Not at all."

"So, Star, I, um- I was wondering if- if you- you know- if you wanted to hang out sometime?"

"Like a date?" I asked, smiling.

"Yes! No. Maybe. If it's alright with you-"

I saved him from continuing, "Ty, I'd love that."

He sighed, relieved. "Okay. Good. So, Tomorrow?"

"Not tomorrow. I'm busy."

"The day after tomorrow?"

I shook my head, "My older brother plans on spending time with me and our little brother. I'm free the day after that. Is that okay?"

"Yes. It's a date."

"It's a date," I repeated, turning back to the fight.

"Do you always cover you eye with your hair?" Ty asked.

"No. Uh, I'm just trying it out. If I don't like it then in a couple days I'll stop."

"Oh, okay."

We stood there for another twenty minutes, watching the slow moving 'fight', as everyone else called it.

"Do you always do what you did yesterday?" Ty asked.

"Not always. Sometimes we sit down and have class studying or learning something new or reviewing what we did wrong in previous 'fights'. In classes, or 'fights', like these, I normally wait half an hour so longer, if I have the patience, until I come in and end it. Sometimes I leave early without anyone noticing."

"Why didn't you leave early yesterday? Or today?"

I turned my head towards him and smiled, "Because someone would notice." I then gestured briefly to my dad and the elder, who were watching from the sidelines, outside the arena, the same place as yesterday.

"Oh."

"I got in trouble for skipping class before, don't want to again."

"Do you want to hang out after class?"

"I'm sorry. I can't. I'm babysitting my two little brothers."

"It's okay. We have two days after tomorrow. How many brother's and sister's do you have?"

"I have three brothers and zero sisters. One brother is older, two younger. My older brother, Bard, is fifteen, five years older than me. My little brother, Blade, is five years younger than me, so he's five. My baby brother is a couple months old, five years younger than Blade."

"Five, five, five years apart," he muttered.

"I know. Weird right? But I wouldn't have it any other way. I love my brothers, and my mom and dad."

"Your family seems close."

"Is your family close?"

"Not really. My mother died giving birth to my twin little sisters a couple years back, one of my sisters died of illness when she was a year old. My father only paid attention to my older brother, he avoided the rest of us because we look like mom. He sent us away on a small boat a couple months ago. We got here last week. Now it's just me and my four year old sister. But little Luna and I are close."

"I'm sorry for your losses, but I'm glad your sister and you are close. And she's probably going to start dragon training soon. Don't worry, they don't see dragons like those for a while. They see tamed ones."

"Okay."

"Ready to see Luna again?"

"Oh, yes. She hates being left alone for too long," he nodded.

"Okay. Watch and learn," I stood up straight and walked up to a Gronkle. I held up an eel I had in my bag- don't ask why- and slowly made it back up into its cage before shutting it.

Then I stood in between another Gronkle and Twinkle. I held up some dragon nip I had in my bag- again, please don't ask- and slowly made it go it to its cage before making the Gronkle roll on its side. By now, the rest of the students stood in a group next to the exit.

The final Gronkle I slowly walked up to, my hands out in front of me. I scratched its the side of its neck before scratching once on the bottom, and it collapsed.

I saw dad smile and the elder point at me and exchange a quick set of words (AN: in case it wasn't clear before. Yes, a new elder that isn't Gothi and actually talks) before they turned around and disappeared from sight.

"Good job, Star," Gobber congratulated.

"Thanks, Gobber," I said as Comet glared at me.

"You should all be like Star here," Gobber told everyone.

"Thanks, Gobber," I said, softly.

"No class tomorrow or the day after. See you Monday." Gobber walked out of the arena, not knowing what was going to happen.

"Starfire," Comet sneered. "What did I tell you yesterday?"

"Comet, not today. I've got to go see Emerald."

"Your imaginary friend Emerald? You gotta see someone who isn't real?"

"Emerald is real!" I shouted.

"Then how come no one has ever seen her?"

"Who's Emerald?" Ty asked.

"Starfire's imaginary friend. No one, not even the chief, has seen Emerald," Twinkle told Ty.

"Imaginary friend?" he asked, looking at me.

"No, Emerald is real. You'll see! Someday," I said, marching out of the arena.

"Get her," I heard Comet yell before the twins grabbed my arms as they easily lifted me up and carried me to Comet.

"Stop! Let go! Put me down! Let go of me!"

"Someone's a bad girl. Do you know who that is? That's you, Starfire. And we have to punish bad girls," he said, punching me in my stomach.

"Hey! Stop it! Let her go! Leave her alone!" Ty tried to get them off of me.

"Periwinkle, Twinkle, hold Tyson, I got Spitfire," Comet said. They let go of me and grabbed Tyson. Comet then pushing me to the ground and started kicking me.

"Star!" Ty cried. "Stop hurting her! Let go of me! Stop!"

"What's going on?" a voice called. "Starfire!" Oh no. "Starfire!" Darn it! Dad landed Toothless and came running towards us. "Let Tyson go," he told the twins, who finally released Ty. "What is going on here?" he asked, putting an arm around my shoulders and another under my knees, lifting me off the ground.

"Starfire hit me!" Comet lied.

"That's a lie!" Ty shouted. "They started teasing Star about Emerald, so she started to walk away. Those two," he pointed to the twins, "grabbed her and pulled her back over here where he," he pointed to Comet, "started hitting Star!"

"That's believable," dad said.

"He's lying! Your daughter hit me for no reason!"

"She didn't even touch you! And if she did she had a better reason then you did!" Ty shouted.

"She hit me, chief," Comet tried again.

"Comet, you're telling me that my daughter hit you for absolutely no reason. The same daughter who didn't hurt her brother when he slapped her and who didn't hurt her kidnapper when he cut her throat, even though she had the chance both times."

Comet was losing, and he knew that. "Yes, I am," he muttered, defeated.

"Okay then. Come on, Tyson, we need to get Star some help," he got on Toothless, holding me in front of him, and let Tyson get behind him. "As for you three, I'll be talking to your parents later." Three? I looked around and Hachette and Yorkie were nowhere to be found. They must've left. They weren't big fans of violence.

Dad took off on Toothless and brought me to our medical place where they put stuff that burned on my cuts.

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