Basics

Name: Ashling
Name Origin: Gaelic name

Nicknames: Ash(By Hiccup)

Gender: Female

Occupation: Self-sufficient; spent time learning medicine; works at the outpost stables for the riders

Age: 15 years old à 18 Years old

Guiding Norse god/dess: Frigg, goddess of the clouds, wisdom, and forethought.

Appearance

Hair colour(s): Various shades of dark brown

Hair length: Mid-back, then cut to just-above shoulder length after extensive riding of Thunderburn and dealing with constant hair static.

Hair Style: Long, sleek and straight. After being cut, due to Ashling’s tendency to ride Thunderburn VERY frequently, it is generally staticky.

Eye colour: Honeyish hazel

Skin tone: Pale, fair

Height: ~5 foot(Average)

Weight: About 115 pounds/52 Kg

About 150 lb by age 18.

Build: Long legged/armed, very awkward with little body control. Very thin and lanky, scrawny, and weak.

After maturing, Ashling still remained lanky and relatively awkward, though slightly better. Arms more toned, wide hips, toned but narrow shoulders, relatively flat chest, average height.

Outfit: A teal tunic which goes just below the hips, split at the sides, with an undershirt and pants. She wears typically fur-lined boots, but goes without them if she can.

Grey tunic that falls below the hips, lined with wool. Split at the sides of the skirt with leggings and fur-lined boots she prefers to go without. A wool cloak for cold weather and cloth belts to hold her medicine satchel.

Relationships

Parents: Unknown

Siblings: None

Friends: Hiccup, Bandernach, Thunderburn

Foes: Dagur, Open

Rivals: Astrid, one-sidedly, due to mutual attraction to Hiccup.

Crush(es): Major crush on Hiccup

Crusher(s): None/Open

Love Interest/Boyfriend: None/Semi-Open/picky

                Past: None.

Companions:

Har – a Terrible Terror. (“Har” Translating to Little Shark.)

Thunderburn – A Skrill.

Bandersnach – a rooster.

Flight dragon: Thunderburn(Skrill)

Personality

Personality:  Ashling is the kind to wear her heart on her sleeve – she is emotionally open and doesn’t hide her feelings at all. The only thing she does hide is the fact that she has liked Hiccup for quite some time: They grew up together. Ash is very bright and happy-go-lucky, but tends to lean toward slightly awkward socially. She doesn’t like people very much, as they cause drama, something she abhors. She also dislikes how loud and boisterous Vikings tend to be – this is all why she hangs out with Hiccup rather than anyone else. She enjoys his snarking and sarcasm, but lacks a good deal of sarcasm herself. She prefers stealth insults when they’re open, and they’re the only way Ashling can get away with insults – she tends to dish them out to the less intelligent Vikings, as she doesn’t have to worry about them getting mad at her – she can’t fight, and prefers to do everything in her power to avoid fighting, since she knows she has no chance in a fight. She enjoys going barefoot when she can, and prefers living alone in an overhang in the forest, not too far from the village. She regularly goes in to buy specific things – mostly live animals – or to visit her few friends. She also loves wandering and adventuring the forest.

Likes: Hiccup, dragons, Terrible Terrors, being in the forest, quiet, her ‘homestead’, her flock

Dislikes: Being around loud Vikings, Astrid

Fears: Fighting, the possible response of Hiccup if she ever said how she felt

Traits

Verbal tics: Sometimes says “Yes?” as a verification (“You got that, right?” as “You got that, yes?”), never says “No,” but says “Nah.”

Quirks: Feet turn in a bit when she walks, fiddles with the bottom edge of her tunic a lot.

Goals: Mostly achieved

Favorite food: Fresh white onions

Least favorite food: Loathes tomatoes

History

Ashling was born within the same week as Hiccup. After she was just old enough to eat solid food, her parents were killed in a dragon raid. She was raised nearby Hiccup’s house, and it didn’t take a four-year-old Ashling long to discover her equal-age friend. She got out of the house to go play with him almost daily.

                This was how the beginning of Ashling’s life went. She and Hiccup were best friends as she grew, long before Hiccup was noticed. The two matched in adventure, and Ash was always up for exploration.

                However, as she grew, she showed no interest in killing dragons. She wanted nothing to do with that way of life, and became an outcast, just as Hiccup would: However, she acted more logically. She left. She went into the forest, taking a flock of chickens with her as well as a few sheep. She found an overhang in an old, dried river valley, where she made her home. Trees protected the area from above, and she reinforced the integrity of the hollow in the wall of the bank with wood, then put in a bed and draped a cloth over the opening to keep out the cold. She built a way out into the forest just behind and above her new home, and built a make-shift shelter for the sheep and chickens. This was where she lived, supplied with a large garden, water, and clothing, for quite awhile.

                She was happy if not slightly lonely, wishing Hiccup was there – she’d begun to realize she actually rather liked him. However, she saw him pass by every now and then and asked him what he was up to – nearly always he told her he’d hit a Night Fury. However, there came a day when this came true.

                “Hit another Night Fury?” She asked her old friend, who threw her a look.

                “It’s not like the last times – I really hit it!” he told her. She simply shrugged.

                “Well, whatever you do with it, be sure you show him to me before you kill him,” she teased. She had him stay for lunch that day, then Hiccup went on his way to find none other than Toothless. She wouldn’t meet the magnificent dragon for some time, though.

                Before too long after that, she was on her way back to her home from her first visit to the village. The weather was slick and rainy, as well as dark – terrible. She was walking along a particularly high bank, and slipped – she fell, breaking a few ribs. She stayed here for quite awhile, until she got the chance to be rescued.

                No one came to her area except Hiccup, and when he finally did, she couldn’t be more thankful. He helped her back to her house, and she thanked him. He stayed with her for awhile, in which time he told her about Toothless. She swore to him she’d tell no one.

                She never did.

                After several weeks, she finally healed enough to get up and move around. All was pretty well, and she went to the village to pick up a few things and sell eggs. When she got there, she found that Hiccup had fought the Green Death and was in bed, having lost his foot and not gained consciousness yet. Ashling was frantic. She stayed in the village for hours which turned to a few days until he woke – when he did, and came out, she immediately threw a hug on him. She was so pleased to see him alive she couldn’t stand it.

                What else she couldn’t stand, though, was her sheer inability to tell Hiccup she liked him. How could she blame herself? He had a girlfriend, after all. Astrid. But it bothered her still.

                It was about a month later when, during a storm, she was out gathering wild berries when she suddenly found herself in the presence of a Skrill. If you asked her today how she stayed alive in its presence, much less tamed it, she couldn’t tell you – she doesn’t remember how she managed anything. All the same, his name is now Thunderburn – The first Skrill tamed.

                She left the island of Berk shortly after gaining Thunderburn as a companion, seeing him as a friend and good mode of transportation: Skrill are not small dragons and she used him to scout out small islands all around Berk until she found one suitable for her purposes, then he helped her move off the island of Berk altogether. She settled on a small island within an hour’s flight of Berk so she could sell whatever she pleased there, and found her new home lovely.

                Three years passed Ashling by on that island and she met no resistance, safely tucked away from the Outcasts, from Alvin, from Dagur – everything. She heard news of them occasionally on her trips, but within her first year of living on her island, her visits became less and less frequent until, finally, she stopped going to Berk – she didn’t need to.  During this time, Ashling grew, just like the other riders did – she became more coordinated, though she still had two left feet and poor muscle control, she grew stronger with a sturdier build, and most important, she became adept at riding Thunderburn at high speeds. She grew tired of fighting her long hair that was so constantly tormented by static, and cut it short. Becoming aware of the cold of high altitude, she made a wool cloak to wear over her clothing. She became a woman and not merely a girl.

                After the third year began, Ashling heard news of the Dragon Eye and Hiccup’s outpost outside Berk’s fog ring. She learned that the riders had become a sort of order. She, eager for adventure and the chance to see her old friend again, leaped at the chance to go see Hiccup’s outpost.

                When she arrived at the outpost, she learned three things: First, she was still in love with her old friend. Second, though she had physically grown and changed, she still didn’t dare bring it up. Third, and most importantly, Dagur had escaped.

                She offered her assistance to the riders, though she knew she was not an adept fighter. She suggested to the chief-in-training that perhaps she could work in the stables in order to free up others for more important tasks – she could bring her flock, offer her services as a homesteader, and work with the animals. She’d move to the outpost.

                This was a welcomed prospect. Ashling moved onto the outpost island shortly after, pleased once more to be with Hiccup and finding out that maybe the others weren’t so bad anymore – maybe they’d grown up some, too.