He'd seen her happy. So happy, she'd whooped and shouted with joy. She'd been uncontrollable, ecstatic and exhilarated. Her joy infected everyone she passed. He'd seen her angry. Fury coursing through her, vicious and sickening. How much she'd destroyed in the past just to feel better, her words as sharp as blades. But the one thing he'd never seen, and thought he never would; he'd never seen her cry.
She looked so lost, so broken, so alone there, tugging her long braids as if it could make it all go away. But it couldn't. It didn't. Nothing could make the horror leave. She simply hugged her knees, hid her face in her hands and sobbed, so plaintive, so childlike. He felt a need to protect her, but had no courage. How could he possibly do anything to make the situation less painful? He wasn't that strong.
So he could do nothing but watch her slowly slip away, hiding in the darkness, not eating, not sleeping, just mourning her loss. She looked worse every time he saw her, thinner, more pale. He was losing her and he knew it. But what could he do?
One day, she had become so weak that she couldn't even stand, collapsing in the middle of town, where everyone could see her. That was when he couldn't ignore it anymore. He couldn't just sit there and pretend it wasn't happening. He had to help her.
"Ruffnut..." He swooped in to help her.
"Get off me, Snotbutt!"
"Please, just let me help..." he sighed, sliding his arms under hers and lifting her to her feet. "Come on. Come and get warm."
To anyone else, it would have looked as though Snotlout was taking advantage of Ruffnut in her appalling state, but the sincere truth was that he simply couldn't leave her like this. Nothing compares to the pain of losing a mother when she was as attentive and forgiving as hers. Snotlout knew well enough that there was an empty void left by the beautiful, strong woman. Ruffnut would have given anything just to see her mother again. Even her own life.
He sat her down by the open fire and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. The shadows of the dancing flames accented the jutting bones and jagged figure.
"You want something to eat?" He ventured to ask. She simply shook her head. "Ruff, come on. The way you're going, you won't last the week. Please, just eat something."
"I don't want to." Her voice had no emotion. It was just full of gravel.
"Ruffnut, look at yourself. Would your mother really want you to starve to death on her account?"
"You have NO IDEA what my mother would want!" She screamed, tears brimming in her eyes. The pain in her voice choked Snotlout for a second. He looked away, embarrassed.
"I know, but... if I was a mum, that's how I'd feel."
She stopped to think for a second. "You have no idea how stupid that sounded..."
All of a sudden, she was overcome and began to sob, biting her lip and pulling her hair. Her nails dug into her palms. Snotlout felt like his heart was breaking, and he just couldn't explain it.
"Ruff..." he whispered and put his hand on her shoulder. She sniffed loudly and whined slightly, looking up at him. Almost without thinking, he embraced her tiny frame in a warm hug and held her tightly for a long time. They sat this way, in silence, for the best part of half an hour, until Ruffnut's crying stopped and she regained some self-control.
Lifting her face from his shoulder, Ruff looked long and hard at Snotlout. She, too, was seeing a very different side to the usually vain and shallow creature. He lifted his hand and softly wiped the tears from her cheeks. Her shoulders had slumped; she had visibly relaxed. Her eyes stared at him with a yearning for company, the likes of which she could not obtain from her brother. He smiled, and received a slight upturn of her lips in return.
"You wanna eat now?"
"Oh, Thor, yes."