Carried Off, a DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon fanfic by Raberba girl

"Fishlegs's family" subplot (rough draft)

A/N: I'm bad at coming up with Viking names and I'm mentally exhausted tonight (the OCD was bad today DX), so I'm just going to use temporary names for Bunny's mother and siblings in the rough draft.

o.o.o

Bunny always knew that she was a princess, because her father called her one and treated her like one. Her mother was his big princess, and she was his little princess.

For three and a half years, she was perfectly secure in this knowledge. Then one of her playmates, Valka, a year older than her, punched a crack in Bunny's foundation. "NO! I get to be the boss because I'm the chief's daughter! I'M a real princess, you're just a commoner!"

Bunny didn't know words very well back then, and she didn't like to hit, but she was very upset, so she threw herself down on the ground and screamed and kicked her feet and beat her hands on the dirt. Valka climbed onto her back and gave her orders as if to a pack animal, so Bunny reared up and threw her off and ran sobbing to her father, who hugged her and comforted her until she felt better.

"You know, technically she's not a princess. She might be chief one day, but I'll always love you best, Bunnyrabbit."

Bunny felt better, and the crack healed a bit...but not completely.

As Bunny grew older, she realized unhappily that despite her father's ardent love, nothing could change the fact that Valka really was indeed royalty on Berk, and in the eyes of everyone other than Fishlegs, Bunny was simply one of the kids. Nothing special. No one but her father seemed to see anything remarkable about her, so she started to think that maybe he was mistaken, that maybe she was just ordinary and worthless after all.

She didn't dwell on this too much, however, because she would much rather play with her sister.

Bunny was excited at first. She eagerly watched her mother's belly grow, helping her father measure her every day, both of them talking to the little baby hidden inside. She helped her father take very good care of her mother as the baby grew, and she gave up portions of her food without complaining so that her baby brother or sister could have it instead and be born strong and healthy.

Her parents were careful to hide their anxiety from her, so she didn't see her mother weeping in her father's arms late at night, terrified at the coming ordeal. {Ella}, overly eager to marry her hero, had been only 15 when she'd given birth to her first child, and Fishlegs's best reassurances and most diligent research and most tender accommodations did little to ease her mind now that she was experiencing pregnancy a second time.

When the labor pains finally came, Bunny's excitement turned to dismay and fear. Her mother was screaming and crying and cursing her father, and her beloved father looked so anxious and upset. Someone took Bunny away, and she miserably ate as much as she was allowed and then she slept.

When she woke up, she was relieved to find herself in her father's arms, being carried home, and she was even more relieved to see him beaming with joy. "Daddy!"

"Bunnyrabbit! Oooooohhhh, guess what, guess what, princess! You have a brand-new baby sister!"

"Oooh! Is Mommy okay?"

"Yes, yes, Mommy is brilliant, she did an amazing job and she's resting now, oh, Bunny, I'm so happy!"

{Ella} was drowsing in bed with the new baby snuggled against her skin, but she opened her eyes and smiled at the sight of her husband and eldest daughter.

"Mommy!"

"Hey, Bunny...come here and meet your sister."

As Bunny climbed onto the bed and cooed over her tiny sibling, Fishlegs joined his family and encircled all of them with his arms. "You did it," he whispered to his wife.

"You were right...it wasn't as bad as last time..."

He kissed her forehead. "I'm so glad."

"Maybe we can have another one after all."

His eyes lit up. "Really?!"

"Not anytime soon."

"Yes, yes, of course! Whatever you want, Big Princess."

"Daddy," Bunny spoke up, "if Mommy is Big Princess and I'm Little Princess, what's she?"

"Hmm...Bitty Princess?"

"Oooh!"

The baby, {Jenny}, grew up even more doted on than her sister had been. Bunny was an attentive, sometimes smothering second mother to her little sibling, and {Jenny} often chafed at the expectations and restrictions she felt burdened with. Although only two years old when her mother became pregnant again, she still felt relieved when the attention shifted away from her, though she wasn't sure why her mother was suddenly so much more interesting to everyone than before.

She also didn't know why her parents and sister were so upset five months later, when Mommy got sick and her big tummy wasn't big anymore. {Jenny} was frightened by her family's grief, so she crept away and played happily with the other children until her father managed to call her home for supper without the sound of tears in his voice.

{Jenny} loved her sister, but she liked playing with one of the other older girls better. Valka didn't treat her like a baby. Valka talked to {Jenny} as if she was one of the big girls, too, and gave her tasks and sent her on missions that made {Jenny} feel important. Yet Valka had no sympathy whenever {Jenny} got hurt or scared or sad, and {Jenny} eventually learned when it was better to play with Valka and when it was better to go to Bunny for comfort and protection.

Bunny was nine and {Jenny} was six when their little brother was born. Bunny burst into tears of relief when this one came out whole and healthy, with loud screams and reaching hands and kicking feet. "He's alive, Daddy?! He'll stay alive?!"

"Yes, Bunnyrabbit, oh, look at him, oh, he's amazing, I love you, I love you all...!"

The year after that was a terrible year. {Ella} wasn't worried when {Jenny} didn't come home one evening for supper, and laughed at her husband and eldest daughter for being so anxious.

Then hours passed, and {Jenny} never turned up, and {Ella} couldn't find her anywhere, and she became as anxious as the other two.

Bunny was worried sick. She refused to go to bed and leave the search to the adults; she bundled up warmly against the chill of night and looked for her sister with grim determination, calling until she was hoarse.

{Jenny}'s body was eventually found, floating in the cave where she must have drowned at high tide. Her loss was a harsh blow to her family - it was not the first child Fishlegs had lost, but he had never gotten to know his firstborn son, whose weak lungs had not lasted long outside the womb.

To lose {Jenny} nearly killed him. He could not stop thinking of her sweet little face, her voice, her smiles and her laughter, the way she furrowed her brow and stamped her foot when she was angry, the feel of her arms around him when she wanted a hug, the way she imitated her parents' turns of phrase, the dreams and hopes for the future that she would chatter to him with confidence...

Fishlegs's heart felt strained, broken, overflowing with a thousand memories of the beloved daughter he would never see again. He went through his work and chores in a complete daze, only touching reality when his wife or his eldest daughter or his baby son called for his attention. He wept at odd times, not noticing who might or might not be around to witness. His wife comforted him and covered for him when he was not up to a task; his daughter wept with him, the two of them sometimes spending whole hours embracing without speaking. His oblivious little {Robin} was the only thing that made Fishlegs remember that the world outside his shell of grief was still as real as ever, that there were some people who were still experiencing life as usual.

That was the same year that one-year-old {Robin} fell sick. His illness terrified his family, and they dropped everything to tend to him, desperate not to lose yet another child. Fishlegs spared neither time nor expense, and was eventually rewarded with {Robin}'s slow but steady recovery.

They didn't realize the effects of that illness until later. {Ella} thought, to her dismay, that her surviving son had been born a halfwit. She would call to him and he wouldn't respond, yet it wasn't out of spite, for he would startle and then smile in genuine innocence when she clapped her hands sharply in front of his face. He would look at her with amiable confusion when she scolded him; he exhibited a strange combination of disobedience and affection. She didn't have the heart to punish him when he offered no defiance, and she eventually found that he would obey if she caught his attention and beckoned, or mimed whatever task she wanted him to do.

{Ella} found out that she was pregnant again soon after her son was weaned. Overwhelmed by terrible memories, she denied it even to herself until she started showing physical signs of her condition, and then she broke down.

"{Ella}...princess, it will be all right, we'll get through this-"

"No! NO, Fishlegs, I can't do it anymore, I can't do this anymore, I didn't know it would be like this, no, you're never allowed to touch me again, you're not allowed! This one will die like all the others did! I can't STAND IT, Fishlegs!"

Whether that child would have survived on its own or not was never known. When Fishlegs lost his wife before she came to term, his despair was so great that he could hardly get out of bed; his eyes were so blurred by tears that the first arrow for her funeral pyre went wild. He wanted to die himself, and the only thing that kept him on his feet was the knowledge that his two remaining children still needed him.

A year after the death of Fishlegs's wife, Astrid cautiously broached the subject of remarriage with him, trying to be sensitive even as she felt the anxious need to boost her dying village's population. It was no use - Fishlegs couldn't bring himself to even consider marrying anyone or siring more children. He would never stop feeling the soul-deep pain of losing his family; he could never subject himself to risking that pain yet again.

{Robin} never did learn to talk. He would grunt and screech and babble nonsense, but no matter how hard anyone tried, they could never get him to speak intelligible words.

Bunny fiercely defended him from the bullying of the other children, and when he was three years old, his father finally determined that he was deaf. After he had proved this, many of the villagers were more generous about forgiving the child's strangeness. Fishlegs and Bunny, working hard to teach {Robin} without sound, soon became convinced that he was no more lacking in wits than they were. No one else seemed to agree, but at least the disparaging comments about the youngest Ingerman child were more subdued.

o.o.o.o.o

Finn rounded the corner, lost in thought, then came to an abrupt halt. [Thirteen-year-old] Bunny was sitting on the ground, hugging her knees to her chest and crying.

They stared at each other for a minute. Then Bunny's face crumpled and she cried, "I hate your stupid sister!"

"Uh..." Finn shifted uncomfortably. "You had a tough day, huh."

Bunny wailed. Finn finally sighed and sat down beside her. He meant to put an arm around her shoulders, but she seized him before he could, hunching down and tilting him back a little so she could bury her face in his chest. He patted her awkwardly. "I'm sorry."

For a while, she cried and mumbled incoherently into his chest. He had to put both arms around her and lean his head against her in order to relieve the strain in his neck. Finally she lifted her head and he could hear what she was saying. "Why is she so mean to me?! I want to kill her sometimes!"

"Yeah. That's what she wants."

"...Huh?"

Finn sighed and explained, "She thinks you could be so cool."

"HUH?!"

"You're so big, and so-"

"I AM NOT FAT! DON'T CALL ME FAT!"

Finn lifted his hands placatingly, a little frightened because she was so big and strong and was now gripping him too hard. "I didn't. I said you're big, which you are- Like Vikings are! Ow, Bunny, you're hurting me!" Her grip slackened a little, but she was still clearly upset. "You're impressive. Okay? She wants to be like you. Do you know how frustrating it is, being tiny in a village full of people who could crush us?"

Bunny sank back against the wall, looking like this had never occurred to her before.

"...Look, Bunny." Finn rolled up his sleeves, and she gasped at the finger-shaped red marks on his arms that would become bruises.

"Did I do that?!"

"Yeah," he said quietly. She reached out and gingerly touched a fingertip to one of the marks. Then she frowned and tugged his arm out to see the rest of it. "And these?!"

"Some of them are from work, but this one is from when {name} was...arguing with me about my pricing. And I've got a couple of sore spots on my back from people just saying hi."

"...It's the same with Valka?!"

"Sort of. She gives as good as she gets, so people leave her alone more. But she has to fight for it, you know? To be recognized, to be respected. But people like you - you don't have to fight so hard, you know? You're so strong, and you just take it for granted, Bunny."

She was quiet a moment. "So she's jealous of me? That's why she picks on me?"

"No, that's not what I meant. She wishes she could be big like you, but she's not, so she works really, really hard so she can at least be strong. And it makes her mad when you can break things in your sleep and she has to work so hard to do the same thing, and she puts all her blood, sweat, and tears into training but then sees you not working as hard and then complaining about it..."

"But I don't want to work hard! She's crazy, practicing ALL DAY and then wanting to do more! Like it's fun for her!"

"It kind of is..."

"Does she thinks it's fun to constantly fight with me or something?!"

"Yes."

"...She does?!"

"You're a challenge, Bunny. You give her a good workout, and you look amazing doing it. She loves it."

Bunny buried her face in her hands and burst into tears again. When she'd finished crying, she hugged Finn (too tightly...), kissed his cheek, and thanked him.

"You're welcome."

Then she asked shyly for a 'real' kiss.

His mother's ultimatum loomed. It was going to be either Gruffnut or Bunny someday, and much as he shied away from the idea of either, he knew it was better to get used to it now than to keep putting it off and get forced into it later when he was less prepared. "...Just one. One."

She'd gotten better at it by now. She cradled his head gently between her hands and gave him a smooch on the lips that conveyed her desire without being sloppy or lingering too long. Then she left, happier, and he went on his way, thankful that it hadn't gone too badly and hoping that would be the end of it.

After that, Bunny tried to be nicer to Valka. She did notice it now, sort of, the way that Val's grins were more excited than vicious, but the insults still hurt. So did losing.

"I want to be strong!" Bunny burst out to her father in frustration one night.

"Oh, sweetie, you are strong," Fishlegs said soothingly. "Here, you can have some of this. It'll give you more energy."

He started trying to scrape some of the food off his plate onto hers, but Bunny gently pushed his hands back before he could. "No, Daddy. I know you're not hungry, but you need to eat." Her father had lost an alarming amount of weight in the two years since her mother's death, and it disturbed Bunny how little he ate now.

{Robin} made the particular grunt that was his version of his sister's name. When Bunny looked at him, he wrinkled his face in an exaggerated expression of worry and pointed to her.

"I'm okay, {Robbie}," she said, laying her hand over her heart and smiling. He frowned in dissatisfaction. She sighed and then started gesturing, speaking absently as she did so. "Valka [person out there], she's mean [angry, threatening]! [scares me] I want to get better [flexing my muscles]. It's hard, though [sad face]."

He flexed his muscles, too, but over and over again with a calm, slightly determined expression until she realized he meant, "Practice."

"I dooooo practice," she wailed, "but it's haaaaard!"

"Fun practice." This time he made a point to smile and make his unique laughing sound during the gesture.

"Fun? Like a game?" Then Bunny's face lit up as an idea occurred to her. "Bashyball! Daddy, you have to start playing bashyball with me - training bashyball, not fun bashyball!"

"Of course, princess."

{Robin} poked at Bunny's arm to get her attention, and she made a "throwing ball game" gesture. He smiled and vocalized in approval.

The plan worked. Bunny always enjoyed playing bashyball, but now she had a goal and was delighted to discover ways to make the game work for a specific purpose. She trained herself in stamina and agility, and started weighting the ball to strengthen her muscles as well. It was fun, it really was fun, and words could not express her delight the first time she beat Valka in a fight.

"You cheated! You cheated!"

"I did not cheat. I've been training just as hard as you, VALKA!" Bunny lifted her eyes, looking for Finn and his approval, and was extremely gratified when he smiled at her.

To be continued...