How a Girl Became a Woman (with the help of a dragon) Chapter 15: Helga Hardrock, a how to train your dragon fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon. All credits go to Dreamworks.

"A-choo! A-choo!"

"Thor Bless you."

"Thanks. A-choo!"

"Thor Bless you."

"Thank you. A-choo!"

"Oh Gods…A-choo!"

"What's up with those two?" Ruffnut asked.

The Riders, old and new, were supposed to get started on the Dragon Training Academy, eager to enrich the young children of Berk with lessons of Dragon Riding.

But the classes were disrupted by the constant sneezes of two riders.

"Oh, my head…" Fishlegs moaned, scratching his hip.

Hanna groaned as she swaged about, her head in a dense daze. She had never felt this sick before in her life. And she got the eel pox twice!

She almost dropped from the exhaustion this mysterious illness was giving her, but thankfully Alaric caught her. He held her gently in his arms, pressed against him.

"Hanna, what's wrong with you and Fishlegs?" He asked.

The girl he loved shrugged while her hand scratched under her chin. "I don't know- A-choo!" Her face was red, and her voice sounded as hoarse as a saw. "I woke up this morning, fresh as a daisy- A-choo- strong as a Gronkle- A-choo- then I'm sneezing every two A-choo- seconds!"

Fishlegs and Hanna started sneezing madly together, creating a symphony of sneezes.

"That G should've been a B flat." Snotlout mentioned.

Fishlegs and Hanna moaned together, finding it hard to do anything without a sudden sneeze, even breathe, not to mention to the contrast scratching and the dizziness.

But as they wandered over to their beloved dragons, their symptoms had gotten worse.

"What the?" Heather uttered.

"What happened?" Brant wondered.

"It seems that Hanna and Fishlegs's illness worsen as they got in contact with their dragons." Alaric observed. "But why?"

"It's so weird. I mean, I never…oh…ever…Ah-choo!" Fishlegs sneezed and scratched. "Get sick."

"Well, something-ACHOO-clearly not-ACHOO- right with us." Hanna commented with a red nose.

"Looks like a simple case of adult-onset allergies." Tuffnut theorised.

"Adult-onset allergies develop in your elder years when your immune system mistakenly identifies a dangerous substance." Ruffnut followed.

Everyone, Rider, Viking and Dragon, stared at the twins for their joined unusual yet common stroke of genius. The twins were smarter than they look.

"What? That is ridic-"

Fishlegs was cut off by Ruffnut pressing his whole, big face into Meatlug's body and he responded immediately with crazy sneezes.

"Oh, yeah, diagnosis confirmed."

Hanna glanced to Toothless who gazed back with worry in his big green eyes. Her lip pursed. She gingerly reached out, stepping slowly his way, only to sneeze violently as well within a few inches. Toothless whined, wanting to move over to his best friend but she exploded repeatedly in sneezes.

"Oh man, I'm allergic to my best friend!" Hanna moaned. She loves those dragons to death, especially her own. "I'm doom. Doomed!"

"There's only one thing to do." Alaric said firmly.

"Yes!" Tuffnut cheered. "The Thorstons' allergen detection system!"

"That's a system?" Ruffnut inquired.

"It is now. I'll get the yak hair, soiled milk and 1000-year-old yak-dragon egg!"

"What, no! I mean get them to Gothi, you idiot!" Alaric snapped.

"Oh, thank Gods." Heather sighed out of relief.

Brant, on the other hand, was curious. "How can you get the 1000-year-old egg of a yak-dragon?"

Everyone gathered at Gothi's hut, their dragons stayed below. The old woman was doing yoga moves, standing on one short leg, staff in hand. Gobber was there as well, as was Vipermei as she was helping Gobber in his shop and was concerned for her friend.

"Ohh…I gotta see this!" Snotlout chuckled, leaning against a post.

Vipermei rolled her eyes at his outburst.

"Why are we here?" Hanna asked, growing more irrigated by the endless sneezing and scratching.

"Because you need treatment for your illness?" Heather answered with a smirk.

"For the last time, I am not sick! A-choo! I don't get sick! Period! A-choo!"

She was right. Apart from the lack of muscles, Hanna was one of the healthiest people on Berk.

"Maybe you're just allergic to something?" Gustav wondered.

Fishles groaned as he scratched his back. "Uh, that's impossible. Allergies don't run in the Ingerman family. I'm clean, serene and-"

"And an itchin' machine!" Ruffnut rhymed, pointing finger guns.

"I'm telling you - A-choo- we have never been allergic to anything- A-choo!"

Hanna scratched the rash growing on her neck, near grossing Alaric out. The man, despite his obvious disgust of her ill behaviour, stayed close to her.

"I don't see what the big deal is, okay? Everybody sneezes and scratches sometimes."

"Not like a honey-covered yak on an anthill." Tuffnut admitted. In response, Everyone stared at him blankly. "What? You've never seen a honey-covered yak on an anthill? Well, those things scratch. It's terrifying. The horrors haunt my dreams."

Heather groaned out of disgust.

Suddenly, Gothi flew her eyes open. She came down her stance to write on the dirty ground, her staff making visual words for speech.

Gobber, the only one at the time who could understand the old woman's scribbles, looked at the ground, making grunts, bringing the whole group into an uncomfortable air of suspense and impatience.

"What's she saying?" Gustav asked.

Vipermei noticed her foster father was taking his time studying the marks. "Dad?"

"What? What?!" Fishlegs demanded in an outburst.

"She wants to paralyse you two." Gobber said casually.

Hanna and Fishlegs gasped, the cure seemed worse than the illness. Alaric stepped in front of Hanna as if to protect her for the treatment.

"YES!" Snotlout exclaimed, pumping his arms.

Then Gothi's staff helped itself to a hard swing at Gobber's head, sending him into the familiar world of pain.

"HYPNOTIZE. She wants to HYPNOTIZE them." Kerstin corrected firmly. Kerstin was bringing a bowl of ointments and lotions, watching her mentor meditating and writing.

Hanna and Fishlegs sighed in relief while Snotlout moaned in disappointment.

"Uhh, come on…OUCH!"

Vipermei frowned at him, her fist out.

Gothi stuck the end of her staff at the two young adults' faces and begun a slow and easy circling motion. Green eyes, one a fiery shade of emerald and one a gentle hue of a pea, followed the staff, boredom sagged on their owners' faces.

"Yeah, I don't think this is working."

"Ha, ha, ha! Unfortunately, guys, this is never gonna work on me because I'm way too- okay."

"Yeah, me- yahoo!"

Both fell for Gothi's spell and promptly dropped like rocks, snoring fast asleep. Alaric caught Hanna before she fell to the ground, leaving Fishlegs crashing. Then Alaric laid her down gently.

"Unconscious? Ha!" Snotlout looked over the two, barely contained excitement as seen by his jittering knees. "Quick, put their hands in warm water!"

"We are not going to do that." Vipermei snapped at him.

"Alright…hey! Gimme some chalk! I'll draw breads on their faces instead!"

"Touch her or him and I'm throwing you off this platform." Alaric threatened Snotlout into taking silence.

Gothi drew on the ground, writing her words again.

"Okay, now that she's under, she wants us to tell her that they're not allergic to the dragons." Gobber read out, actually getting the translation right this time.

"Does that really work?" Heather questioned.

"I guess we'll find out." Alaric said.

"Let me try!" Tuffnut piped up. "I have a melodious voice."

"Yeah, as melodious as a Terrible Terror. I'll do it." Heather stepped forward and started chanting a singsong sang line repeatedly.

"Hanna, Fishlegs, you are not allergic to Toothless and Meatlug…You are not allergic to Toothless and Meatlug…"

Hanna and Fishlegs made faces in their sleep, unknowingly reacting the chant and then they relaxed to a deeper sleep.

"So, that's it?" Brant questioned.

Heather shrugged. "I guess so. Hypnosis is very powerful. Now let's snap them out of it."

Gothi placed her two fingers together, ready to snap her patients back to reality.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! Hang on a second!" Snotlout interrupted. "We've got an opportunity here. We can rebuild Hiccup!"

"What babble are you going on about?" Alaric asked, annoyed.

"For years, we wondered if Hiccup actually lived up the expectations of a chief's child. Now here's our chance. We can make her the ideal Viking that was expected of her as the daughter of Stoick the Vast. A true heir of Berk. A worshiped, fearless, godlike hero in a dress! A Viking who commands attention with arms as strong as three yaks! A Viking through and through who follows the traditions of our ancestors wholeheartedly!"

Unknowingly to everyone, Hanna's face shifted to scowls and frowns by each line Snotlout preached and she slowly sat up, her face frozen in a permanent glare, even her teeth bared and low growls uttered through her throat.

"In other words, a Viking worthy of my friendship."

"Snotlout, no one is worthy of your friendship. No one wants you as a friend." Vipermei deadpanned.

"She's perfect the way she is." Gustav admired. He turned to his idol and got confused of the position she was in. "Uh, did someone sit her up?

"None of us touched her." Heather said, Brant and Vipermei nodding in agreement.

"Looks like she's ready to wake up." Alaric said. "OK, Gothi, you can bring them out of it now."

Gothi nodded, raising her hand and snapped her fingers.

Fishlegs sat up, half-asleep. "Huh, what?"

Hanna snapped her eyes open, smirked with a darker glow on her face and stretched her arms, cracking her knuckles.

"Hanna?" Brant asked wearily.

"Hanna?" She spoke in a haughty accent, sounding deeper. And not herself. "What pathetic name is that? No true Viking names their child Hanna." She glanced to Fishlegs right beside her and frowned. "Who's the fat boy?"

"Excuse me?" Fishlegs squeaked.

"Well that was a bit harsh." Gobber commented.

"Not to mention out of character." Vipermei also mentioned. "Hanna, are you all right?"

"What? Are you deaf, pale-skinned girl? The name's not Hanna!" Hanna snatched Gothi's staff from the old woman's hands. "It's Hardrock." She brought the staff down on her raised knee, snapping it in half much to everyone's horror. With no remorse at all, she tossed the broken pieces away, hitting Vipermei. "Helga Hardrock. Get it right."

Vipermei made a face of upmost horror. "Oh Tianzhu! Snotlout, do you realize what you've done? You've created-"

"My very own super-Viking!" Snotlout screeched in childish delight. "Helga Flipping Hardrock! I love it!"

"Well, I hate it! Change her back!"

"Gothi can't change her back without her staff!" Kristen explained.

Helga yawned mockingly. "All this yapping is annoying me. I'm going out."

"Don't let her escape!" Heather cried.

Too late.

Hanna - Helga Hardrock - was already gone.

The Riders and the Vikings rushed to the village to find their changed friend surrounded by the Vikings of Berk, lively talking and gesturing to herself in proud arrogance.

The villagers originally found Helga odd, the daughter of their chief behaving weirdly, acting as if she was brainwashed. But in no short time, Helga Hardrock was instantly popular among Berk.

The Vikings were baffled, shocked.

The Riders were appalled at what they saw.

Only Snotlout was impressed by the sight. "What are you guys worried about? She's fine."

"FINE?!" Vipermei screamed. "SNOTLOUT, SHE'S NOT FINE! YOU HYPNONTIZED HER INTO BECOMING HER POLAR OPPOSITE!"

"And that's good! She was such a weirdo!"

"You are unbelievable!"

"Thank you very much." Snotlout bowed before Vipermei. She used her elbow to hit him on the head, making him fall straight face first on the ground.

"That was an insult, not a compliment!"

"You Vikings are so ungrateful!" Heather shrieked, furious at the Viking for changing her best friend.

"Hanna did so much for you, and you brainwashed her into someone you wanted." Brant scolded, his voice dripping with venom.

"Look, you can beat up Snotlout as much as you want, we never wanted this." Alaric said, trying to smooth things over.

Fishlegs eyed Helga warily. "Let's hope the chief doesn't see-"

"WHAT HAPPENED TO MY DAUGHTER?!"

Sure enough, Stoick was marching over to the young people.

And he was not happy.

"I may be a neglectful father in the past, but I know that Hanna is not that!" He glared at them, impatiently waiting for an answer. "Well?"

Snotlout rose from the ground, face smeared with mud. "…We accidentally made her into the daughter you always wanted."

"We? That was all YOU!" Heather yelled.

"I wanted her here! No matter the personality she has! But that personality is getting on my last nerves in the first ten minutes she's been here! She's already taken my axe!"

"Your special chiefing axe?" Gobber said in both bewilderment and awe. "Wow. Helga is hardcore."

"Told you!" Snotlout exclaimed, standing up.

"How do we change her back?" Brant questioned.

"Do we have to change her back? I mean, come on! She's finally one of us!"

"She's already one of US!" Stoick bellowed in Snotlout's face. "She's just different! She is one of us as you, as the twins, as Alaric, as Fishlegs, even as Gobber! We are all different and we are all part of Berk, but now my own daughter isn't!"

"Okay, so with the chief's permission, we need to get Helga Hardrock back to Hanna Haddock III before we lose her forever." Alaric said. "We need to keep her in our sights at all times."

"Sounds like a good plan." Vipermei said. "Better than Snotlout's."

"Just one thing…" Tuffnut asked, raising a finger up. "Where did she go?"

Hanna - no, Helga – was found in the great hall, sitting at a table, drinking mead and telling stories to Vikings flagging her left to right.

"…I wrestled that Thorstopian to the ground, narrowly missing its poisonous spikes. It was glorious, I almost made it into a suit of armour for myself if I wasn't then attacked by Scauldron!"

The young Vikings and Dragon Riders burst through the doors to hear Helga telling everyone lavish tales of her great adventures to eager Vikings.

"She didn't slay a Thorstopian! She helped it!" Vipermei exclaimed, totally appalled. "And that Scauldron was Sea-king! We were coming to her aid to help it!"

"She's twisting her adventures to what those beef-heads wanted to hear!" Heather proclaimed, spitting out the words with disgust.

"We better stop her before she mentions Va- you-know-who." Brant suggested, quickly covering up his near slip-up.

"…that Boneknapper was no much for me, especially when I held its neck in my- Hey, get off!"

A baby Gronckle got onto the table, grasping her mug. Rather than Hanna gently coax the baby dragon off or let go of the mug, Helga tossed the little Gronckle across the hall, sending it crashing into the wall.

"My poor baby!" Its owner wailed.

The young woman shrugged, uncaring of her action. "It's just a dragon, not an actually baby."

The Viking woman cradled her little Gronckle. "I think you broken its wing."

"Good. A downed dragon is a slayed dragon."

She took a sip of her mead while her 'adoring fans' opened their eyes.

"How could you say that, after everything you stood for?"

"How could you do that?"

"Hanna, what is the matter with you?"

"My name is not Hanna. Its HEL-GA!" She roared and threw a dinner knife at a Viking's head, the man barely dodging the cutlery to allow it to stab the wall. "Get it right."

"What is the matter with her?" Another Viking asked.

"Snotlout happened." Vipermei said.

Many heads turned around. "What did he do now?"

Snotlout pursed his lips. "Why does everyone assume I did something to Hanna?"

"Because you did, Snot-for-Brains."

"Hey, that was my great uncle's third brother-in-law's name."

"Oh my Gods, you're so hard to beat down!"

"Why are you like this, dear?"

Helga propped her legs on the table, clearing the dishes off with her feet and sent them shattering on the ground with a single care.

"That's what I'm been taught all my life, you practically hammered it into me. This is the real me."

"Since when did we tell you to be so…"

"Heartless?"

"Uh, every minute of my life? Be a true Viking, Hiccup. Don't be such a wimp, Hiccup. Hiccup, you will never be one of us. You're always telling me I was weird as a kid and weird as a teen. Pushing me around, ignoring me."

"We were giving you tough love!"

"Oh, you gave it. And I'm giving it back like a true Viking!"

As she said that, Helga was propped on the chair in a heroic pose.

"Okay, now she's really lost it." Alaric remarked.

"She's worse than Dagur!" Tuffnut cried. "Thank Loki Hildr isn't here to witness this madness!"

"I think by hypnotizing her, it brings out stuff she suppressed." Fishlegs suggested timidly.

"What kind of stuff?" Alaric asked.

"Knowledge she knows but doesn't agree with, experiences she hated, lessons she was taught and ignored…"

"…You mean the Viking way we embraced."

"The evidence is stacking up to that conclusion."

Stoick voiced the sad realisation first. "We made her this way. I was right. She is a Viking. A true Viking."

"She's basically everything we wanted." Ruffnut said quietly.

"And we…don't like it." Alaric finished off.

Every Viking could see the consequences of their wish on poor Hanna the Dragon Rider. As Helga the Viking, she was rude, cruel, callous.

This woman doesn't even any Viking as a human with feeling. She treated everyone with contempt and without a care.

There was no honour in her behaviour.

She learnt from experience.

No wonder she left.

"You mean this is what we're like? This is what a Viking is?" Mulch accused.

"I don't like her, change her back!" Bucket whined.

"First you want to change her to your liking, now you wanna change her back?" Heather gawked. "Make up your mind!"

"She's not a mannequin you can change to your liking every 10 minutes!" Brant shouted.

"What's a mannequin?" Tuffnut inquired.

"…It's a kind of statue that shops use to display wearing clothes. A lot of merchants used them to show off outfits to customers."

"Look, the moral of this story is Be careful what you wish for." Vipermei said smugly.

"This is NOT the Hanna we know and love!" Heather exclaimed, pointing to the possessed girl. "Hanna rescued me from the pirates that killed my parents. She saved me from the depths of the ocean."

"Not to mention she is the first person to treat me as an actual being." Vipermei added.

"Okay, okay, we get it. Hanna is better than Helga, understood." Snotlout said, waving his hands.

"Kerstin said Gothi needs to make her new staff from the sacred Blackwood tree on the Isle of Odin. Gustav is on his way there now." Fishlegs stated.

"How long will making the new staff take?" Stoick asked.

"Tomorrow morning at least, sir."

"I don't know we can stand Helga for another hour, much less a day." Alaric said dryly. He hated the transformation of the girl he loved the most.

"Just before Gothi left with Gustav left, Kerstin translated Gothi's note she made with a small stick." Fishlegs added.

"I thought she could only talk through scribbles by her staff?" Gobber questioned.

"She could write but prefers to use her staff. Says it's better. Anyways, she said that the only way to bring Hanna back from her hypnotized state is fear."

"Fear?" Everyone gawked at the same time in the same tone of stagger.

"We need to scare her?" Mulch asked as she pointed to Helga.

"I seriously don't think Helga Hardrock is not the type of person who gets scared so easily." Alaric said dryly.

Just then, Helga noticed Alaric across the hall and grinned. She pushed herself up and shoved Vikings out of her way as she strolled confidently towards him. When she reached him, she planted her hands flat on his board shoulders, grinning devilishly up at him.

"Hello, handsome." She purred.

"Oh great. She's finally acknowledging him!" Snotlout exclaimed. "At least give me that!"

Alaric leaned back in disgust, and then he shoved her off of him. Helga reacted by scowling and shoving him so hard he flew into the wall. Everyone was shocked. Having the mind of a true Viking also gave her the strength they held.

Alaric moaned, arching his back when Helga shoved him back against the wall, pinning him with her newfound strength. She smirked at his angry glare and puckered her lips out, leaning in to kiss him full on the-

Forehead?

His forehead made contact with her lips as he shamelessly headbutted her, shoving her off of his body.

"My lips are off limits!"

Helga pouted. "You're promised to me, handsome. Deal with it."

"No, I'm promised to Hanna Haddock. Not Helga Hardrock. Get it right."

Helga glared at him hatefully.

Then the doors to the Great Hall flew open, alerting everyone of the big, black winged reptile bouncing in.

"TOOTHLESS!"

"We told you to stay in the stables!" Heather cried.

"He must've got too impatient to see Hanna." Vipermei theorised worriedly.

"There's no Hanna now, there's only Helga." Brant mentioned sadly. "Helga who mercilessly broke a baby dragon's wing."

Helga directed her attention to Toothless, a large grin taking over her face, all caused by happiness.

The wrong kind of happiness.

"A Night Fury!" She exclaimed.

Toothless burrowed over to his beloved partner but Brant jumped in front of him, blocking his way. The Night Fury growled at him, angry he was getting in between him and his best friend.

"No, boy, don't come any closer!" Brant pleaded.

"Hey! That dragon is mine!" Helga yelled.

"Listen to me, Toothless. Hanna is not well. She has been brainwashed by Stupid-lout into becoming a Viking. A dedicated dragon-slaying Viking!"

Toothless's eyes went from full-on green to black dots on a pool of green.

"I said he's mine!"

"Toothless, run!"

Toothless hopped out of the Great Hall, casting a sad look to his deranged partner before running off to hide.

"Come back here, you scaly overgrown turkey!" Helga shoved anyone in her way, grasping Stoick's chiefing axe in her hand. "No dragon is a match for Helga Hardrock!"

"Hanna, no!" Stoick cried as he grabbed his daughter by the arm, trying in vain to stop her.

"Move aside, ya big lung!" She shoved her father's hand off of her and, with a blood-curing yell, dashed outside.

The Vikings and the Dragon Riders stood in silence.

Then Vipermei turned to Snotlout, asking him.

"Snotlout, when you said she would follow the traditions of her ancestors wholeheartedly, does that means the ancestors from 300 years who hunted and maimed dragons?"

He shrugged. "I guess?"

POW!

"You moron!"

"Oh Thor!" Fishlegs exclaimed.

"Hell's teeth, she's going dragon hunting!" Alaric realised.

"Hanna?" Tuffnut said in disbelief.

"Dragon hunting?" Ruffnut said in the same tone of disbelief.

"We gotta stop her before she kills Toothless." Heather demanded.

"Toothless wouldn't hurt her. He'll be easy prey." Brant said.

"And he can't fly!" Gobber pointed out.

"If she kills Toothless, she would never forgive herself." Vipermei said as she knew her best friend will do that.

"She would kill herself if she does." Stoick said last, realising the horrible future consequences. "Everyone, go and stop her!"

"Oh man! My super-Viking has gone rogue!" Snotlout wailed. "By the way, my grandpa's twin brother was named Stupid-lout."

"Oh, shut up!"

The sky was a dull grey. The cloud released rain. Thunder boomed. The air chilled to the bone.

The Night Fury was fearsome, the most feared dragon of all dragons.

The Night Fury was supposed to be flying through the night, not cowering behind a bush.

Toothless never felt more scared than he was now, being hunted by his best friend who was not his best friend at the moment.

But Toothless refused to kill his dear friend, even in self-defence.

Even if she killed him first.

"Come on out, little dragon…"

Hanna's voice sang through the forest, bouncing off the trees.

"Where are you?"

Her voice used to sweet and soothing with a feisty fire.

"Helga Hardrock wants to talk to you…"

Now she spoke of a harsher, unfamiliar grime that people who tried to kill him carried.

"GOTCHA!"

Like a true Viking, Helga announced just herself before she attacked her prey. Toothless narrowly moved before her axe could chop off his head and he darted off deeper into the woods.

"Get back here!"

As Toothless hopped through the glen, he was hit with noglastia, rushing memories of his and Hanna's first meeting, the secret meetings in the cove, the flying they shared together.

Good times now replaced by a bad time.

Eventually, Toothless skidded to a stop. A cliff cut off his escape. Stones from his skidding fell over the edge, dropping into the ocean below.

"There you are…"

Helga approached him slow and deadly, holding her axe in both hands.

"Now you're done for…"

"Hanna, no!"

Hanna's fellow riders and Berk's most prominent Vikings emerged from the woods, still far from her.

"Back off, losers! This dragon is mine!"

"Hanna, snap out of it!"

"Gothi said you need to scare her to snap her out of it!"

"I. Am. HELGA HARDROCK!"

Helga lunged, axe out, at Toothless. But Toothless narrowed dodged her blade. She stubbed her foot on his disabled fin tail, falling over the edge.

Falling over the cliff.

"HANNA!"

The young woman hurled through the air, falling down to the dark waters below, screaming her head off.

Arms waving and hands grabbing thin air, she saw Toothless looking down from the cliff's edge, screeching for her.

The sight stroked her of her greatest fear.

Flying without him.

To her, it meant losing him.

"TOOTHLESS!"

When she screamed, she felt as lift a heavy weight has been lifted off of her body, her eyes widening, shifting to different views and then closing.

Just before she hit the water and the rocks below, a blue flashed swooped down and engulfed her in its warm embrace, flying in a fast U-dive. The blue Deadly Nadder landed back on the cliff, surrounded by the Riders and Vikings and their dragons.

Alaric held the woman close as he carefully hopped off his dragon's back, caressing her in his arms. Then her eyes fluttered open.

"Hanna?" Alaric whispered.

She blinked, looking up at him with confusion. "Yes?"

"Oh, thank Gods!"

He hugged, tears leaking out of happiness.

"Hanna!"

Hanna was then torn out of Alaric's arms only to engulfed in the cage of her father's embrace.

"I've never been so happy to see you again." Stoick said hoarsely.

"O…K…"

It was safe to say Hanna had absolutely no idea what was going on or what has happened.

"Did I sleepwalk or something?" She asked, getting out of her father's arms. "Because I- GAH!"

Out of the blue, Toothless jumped on her, licking her all over.

"Toothless!" She whined. She was thoroughly coated in his slobber. "That does not wash out!"

"Hanna! Are you ok?" Fishlegs questioned.

Heather scoffed. "That's a stupid question, of course she's not. After what she went through?"

"What, hypnotism? A-CHOO!" Hanna's sneeze answered her question. "Obviously didn't work."

"Where's the axe?" Gobber inquired, looking at Hanna's hanging arms and hands.

"What axe?"

"You must've dropped it in the water when you fell." Brant said.

"Where did I get an axe? I'm a sword-fighting kinda girl."

"Apparently, it's Stoick's chiefing axe." Heather confirmed.

Hanna glanced to Stoick, bewildered. "I took your chiefing axe? I would never do that. You'll kill anyone who takes it."

"I wouldn't kill you. You took me off guard." Stoick admitted.

"What about your chiefing axe?

"I can always find it, or I can buy another one. I cannot find or buy a daughter like you."

Hanna smiled. "That's sweet, Dad, but where do I have your axe in the first place? What happened to me? I remembered Gothi waving her stick in my face, then I fell asleep and I woke up on the other side of Berk."

"Snotlout hypnotised you into becoming the perfect Viking." Vipermei explained. "Turns out the perfect Viking is not so perfect for the other Vikings. They saw the error of their ways."

"Forget that! You almost killed Toothless!"Brant exclaimed.

…

"WHAT!?"

Hanna dropped to her knees and hugged Toothless, crying in his scales, ignoring how her newfound allergy to him flared up at such close contact.

"I'm so sorry, buddy. I'm so sorry…I don't know what happened to me. I wasn't…myself."

"I know what happened: Snotlout!" Vipermei remarked.

"I'll deal with you later." Hanna threatened her idiotic cousin.

"You don't scare me." Snotlout snorted.

She glared. Toothless glared. Stoick glared. Alaric glared. Gobber glared. The Riders and the other Vikings glared. The dragons. Even Hookfang was glaring.

"OK, maybe you do!"

"A-choo! A-choo!"

"A-choo! A-choo, A-choo!"

"The E flat was a nice touch, but the C is out of place."

Hanna and Fishlegs kept sneezing during the flight home as bad as earlier, as if they were never cured.

"Gothi obviously didn't cure them." Gustav said.

"She did, it stopped when Hanna broke out of her Helga state." Kerstin told him, causing him to blush in embarrassment.

When the Dragons, Riders and Vikings arrived back at Berk, many of the town's people ran up to Hanna, telling her how were sorry they for treating her harshly for the first 15 years of her life. Apparently, Helga made them realised that fact because her own behaviour was taken from them.

Monkey see, Monkey do, Monkey hear, Monkey say.

"A-choo!"

Hanna and Fishlegs kept sneezing and scratching like crazy.

Then the rest of Hanna's dragon herd came thundering through the village towards their beloved owner. Sharpshot flew straight into her arms, Double and Trouble rubbed against her legs while purring and she laid a hand on Banshee's forehead as he growled.

"Hey, guys." Hanna said softly, smiling to see them.

Alaric noticed one important feature about her now.

"Hey, you're not sneezing anymore." He said. Then he realized another obvious clue. "You're not allergic to your other dragons."

Hanna looked down her dragons. She glanced to Toothless, sneezing at the sight of him.

"Alaric, you're right!" Fishlegs exclaimed, hopping in between Meatlug and Loptr.

"When did you two first started sneezing?"

"This morning."

Hanna wondered on that morning. "But Toothless was with me and I didn't start sneezing my head off right after we got our new saddles."

"Toothless is the only one wearing a saddle. You're allergic to the saddles! Not your dragons!"

"What's so different about our saddles that makes Fishlegs and I break out in rashes?"

"Dad, what did you do with the saddles?" Vipermei asked.

"Nothing! I used the same materials as always. Well…"

Gobber twirled a finger at his ear.

"You didn't."

Gobber planted his finger in his ear and pulled out some icky yellow earwax.

Everyone was grossed out. "EW!"

"I thought you said you used leather oil on the saddles!"

"We ran out, so I had to use me ears."

"Gross!"

"Puh-lease!" Snotlout scoffed. "You put firecrackers down my dad's pants and you're getting squmish about earwax?"

"I want to put firecrackers down your father's pants, I do not want earwax on my saddle. It's all about consent!"

"How is that about consent?"

"It was all your fault!"

"My fault? If Gobber didn't use his earwax on our saddles, Hanna wouldn't get hypnotized in the first place! Admit it, I'm right!"

"You're dead!"

Vipermei pounced on Snotlout, beating him to the ground, twisting her limbs on his body to bring on the pain.

Snotlout turned red in the process, his voice turning to squeaks. "I'd dreamed of you wrapping your legs around me but not like this!"

Gobber cheered his foster daughter on enthusiastically. "Nut him, Mei! Cuff him! Tighten yar grip on him! He built like a yak! That's it! Ya almost cutting his air off!"

"She…is!" Snotlout gasped out and then dropped his head on the ground, lying motionless.

"Mei, I think ya killed him."

Then Snotlout sprung his head up, coughing.

"Oh no, he's alive."

Hanna spent time in the stables, alone with her dragons, rubbing their necks, scratching their chins and hugging them close to her heart. Though she cannot remember her experience as Helga, the information that she tried to maim dragons scared her to the core.

She would never hurt a dragon, even if the dragon was hurting her.

"What a day, huh?"

Hanna turned around. Alaric was leaning against a post, Stormfly dashing from behind him to play around with Toothless and the rest of Hanna's dragons.

Hanna laughed. "Who knew Fishlegs and I are allergic to Gobber's earwax?'

Alaric pushed himself off the post and walked towards her. "That is so weird on so many levels. But at least you're not allergic to Toothless."

"I would've killed myself if that was true. I can't believe I almost killed him. I don't slay dragons." Hanna looked to her beloved best friend bouncing along. "What was I like? What did I do? Besides try to chop Toothless's head off with my dad's chiefing axe, I cannot believe even possessed, I had the guts to take it from him. From what I heard, Helga was the perfect Viking."

"You weren't yourself. Helga was the exact opposite of you. She was, as you said, the perfect Viking. She was strong but she didn't have any heart, no compassion or any emotion. She was a nightmare."

"Can you imagine growing up with me as Helga?"

"I would've killed myself. She threw herself at me, she didn't understand the meaning of 'no'. You play hard to get and understand boundaries."

Hanna laughed. "I play very hard."

Once again, she was suddenly yanked close to Alaric's hard scowl as his brawny hands gently cupped her face.

"What we wanted isn't what we needed. We need you, Hanna. I need you."

And then he stole a kiss from her lips.

Hanna didn't fight him. She happily returned the kiss, hungry for his taste and the passion between them.

Unfortunately for them, they had to break apart for air. They pulled away, smiling at each other, Alaric's hands still holding Hanna's pretty face.

But then Alaric gasped, his skin turning white and his posture freezing up.

Behind him, the Speed Stingers twins had their tails out, dragonish smirks on their mischievous faces.

"Double, Trouble!"