Disclaimer: I own nothing. Zilch. Except for the character I created a while ago who I mention in the A/N.

Author's Note: Valka's character really intrigued me, because I had a character a while ago who was kind of similar to her in personality from what I can gather, and her back story will be interesting to tell and write... MWA HA HA HA HA! Plot bunnies are running loose in my head :)

Read and Review please. This is a short drabble, but there will be longer ones.

"I don't suppose sorry cuts it?"

Hiccup cocked an eyebrow, tipping his head to stare up into his mother's weathered face. "I don't suppose you could have alerted me of your presence instead of sneaking up behind me like a cat?"

Valka sighed in defeat, running a finger down the bridge of her nose. Her voice was strained through her lips as she asked quietly, "May I join you?"

He gestured to the empty earth beside him, where Astrid had left to take care of her weapons. She sat down, still as silent as a night fury and probably just as deadly.

"Why?" he asked her, and she winced at how broken the boy sounded. She had laid so much on his shoulders in one day, and it left her with even more guilt to suffer after fifteen years of questioning her decision.

"Why did I leave?"

"What other why is there?"

She understood his grudge; after all, she had left him with a tribe of Vikings to lead and the task of making them see past the tips of their weapons. Which he had succeeded in doing, though he lost his leg in the process. And she could not shake the feeling that this was all ultimately her fault. So the least she owed him was an explanation.

"What do you want to know?"

"Who you were. Why you left. Why you never came back to us."

"That is all quite a long story to tell."

"I have a lot of time."

She sighed. "You'll have to go back to Berk eventually, you know. You cannot run from your responsibilities forever."

"You mean like you did?" he shot back. "You've been here for -what- sixteen years at the least, running away. Hiding. Why shouldn't I do the same?"

"Because my life was a mistake, while yours was a miracle."

"Well then why didn't you stay?" He closed his eyes, taking in the ocean breeze and pretending it could sweep him away from all of his problems and duties. "What were you running from?" There was a long pause as she pondered the question, turning it over in her mind like a riverbed worry-stone.

"Myself," she whispered at last. "I was running from myself."

More of Valka's Back Story Later :)

Updates are not going to be totally consistent but I won't abandon the story