I do not own "How to Train Your Dragon."
I have been working on this story for some time over the last 2 years and I finally have the courage to submit. It still isn't complete but I finally am getting to where I want it to flow. Please let me know your thoughts.
Astrid sat at the kitchen table, spinning a piece of oval metal with her thumbs on the table. She watched it spin around, until it lost it's momentum, and toppled until it lay flat on the wood. She then picked it up, and spun it again.
Outside, she could hear the wind beginning to pick up outside just as night was falling upon the village. She knew it would storm. The dragons on the island were becoming a little restless. She had to put Stormfly away in the stables earlier than she wanted to. Now, she sat at the table, trying to be patient. Trying to do what her mother-in-law was asking her to do. With each passing day, it was growing more and more difficult to keep her wishes.
"Try to get along with Mom while I am gone, please?" were Hiccup's words to her before he left two weeks ago. Those words kept ringing in her ears when her patience were beginning to wear thin.
Valka and Astrid hadn't completely seen eye to eye since she and Hiccup married. That was when Astrid moved in. Although both were very strong and independent, their personalities were clashing a little bit. Especially the last week. Hiccup had left, alone, to take care of some matters over at Outcast Island. He wasn't going to be gone for more than a week. Here, it was week two. And Astrid was growing worried.
"He's fine," Valka said to her on day two past his expected arrival. "He's probably still helping them rebuild from the hurricane that passed through a month ago."
Astrid didn't think so. He would have sent a Terrible Terror to deliver a message to them if that were the case. But, Valka wasn't worried. Astrid looked up to her because she was one of the strongest women she had ever met, outside of Mala. Her patience were wearing. Especially now that the rain was coming.
Valka came from her bedroom, poured two bowls of soup for she and Astrid, and took a seat across from her. Silence hung between them, other than the wind outside. Astrid had picked up her piece of metal and instead of spinning it on the table, she moved it around between the gaps of her finders in her left hand. This way she could eat a little bit.
When the sudden wave of rain came over them, Astrid had to bite her tongue from telling Valka they should have gone after Hiccup.
"I know you are worried," Valka said a moment later.
"I just want to know he's okay," Astrid replied.
"You worry too much," Valka said to her.
Astrid let some silence pass between them. She was trying to bite her tongue. "They have never been gone this long. Not without sending a Terrible Terror."
"Even on Dragon's Edge?"
"We were all together most of the time back then. We didn't go alone too often. Not for more than a day. Two weeks is a little long, Mom." Astrid sighed. "He shouldn't have gone alone. I should have gone with him."
"But he asked you to stay here and help the village," Valka said.
Astrid sighed. "I know, and that hurts."
"He trusts you to help run the village, Astrid. I think he chose wisely as a chief."
"I don't know if he's alive or dead," Astrid spoke quietly.
Valka pushed her bowl of soup aside. "Astrid, I didn't know the same thing when Stoick was gone. Back when we only had ships and boats to rely on, it was easily a month or more before they would be back home. When he became chief, we had just been married not long before. The winter came and his father became very ill. He became chief shortly before I became pregnant with Hiccup. It took me some time to get used to as well. Stoick was gone for a month or more during my pregnancy. Gothi had placed me on bedrest while he was away." Valka gave Astrid a weak smile, and after a long pause, she said, "If it wasn't for your mother I wouldn't have been able to carry Hiccup as long as I did."
Astrid smiled softly. The thought of her mother and her now mother-in-law as friends always warmed her for a little bit. She missed her family. Valka was making sure to keep her memory alive. Since Valka had been back, she would tell Astrid stories about when they were young girls. Astrid's mother had wanted to hunt dragons, but Stoick's father had banned women from being involved in the dragon slayings. Eventually, she and Valka grew apart because of their different views on how to manage the dragons.
"When Stoick made it home I didn't speak to him for a week," Valka chuckled, continuing on with her story. "Then, I went into labor with Hiccup. I forgot all about telling him how much I loathed him for leaving me pregnant." She smiled slightly. She stood up from the table to get herself and Astrid something warm to drink. The air in the home was also growing chilly, so she threw a log onto the fire.
Astrid became lost in her thoughts for another moment, toying with her metal disk. When Valka came back with some warm yak's milk, Valka asked her, "What's on your mind?"
Astrid sighed again. "I want to know that he made it to Outcast Island safely. I want to know that Alvin did not attack him again—"
"Wasn't there a treaty signed a few years back—"
"There was, but I still do not trust the man," Astrid said coldly. She sighed and leaned up against the table a little bit more.
"Toothless won't let anything happen to him without a fight, Astrid. He will protect Hiccup until his last breath, you know that."
"Why aren't you worried?" Astrid said with her voice raised. She was tired of hearing Valka's words trying to reassure her, when they just kept making her angrier. "He is your son-"
Valka cut her off by putting her hand up, motioning her to stop, especially with the tone. "I care, Astrid." She kept her voice soft. "I learned a long time ago that a chief is going to do what he is going to do—what he has to do. For the village. Hiccup is the chief. I left him long ago when he was a baby. I loved him, but after Cloudjumper stole me, I realized the dangers I put him in that night. As we flew off I saw Stoick struggle to get out of our home. Thankfully, he made it out safe with our son. I knew they would be okay. I knew if I were to come back—I wasn't coming back without Cloudjumper. Back then Stoick would have killed her—and Hiccup would have died if he had been in the middle of us adults and a dragon."
Astrid looked away. She was digesting the words, beginning to understand more than she did before. Part of her had a small angry flame burning inside her at Valka because of Hiccup. She had seen him struggle when they were young without his mother. Stoick could be very hard on him. Astrid had seen Hiccup try for years just to fit in with everyone. He only searched for acceptance. He was lanky and clumbsey. The opposite of a Viking. Without Valka being there to sort out Stoick and Hiccup's wall they had built between them, their relationship became tense. That was, up until he met Toothless.
"I came back one night," Valka said suddenly. It took Astrid by surprise. "Hiccup was probably about four or five years old. I had found a weak spot in the roof of the house, and peeled away the shingle. I just wanted to get a look at my son. He was having a nightmare. I wanted to reach down a touch him." She had reached out and grabbed the air slowly. She sighed. "I thought we were spotted after I sat and watched him, so I mounted Cloudjumper and left. I decided I wouldn't come back. I was risking too much already."
"You are here now," Astrid said, reaching her hand across the table to Valka's. "He needs you. WE need you. We are glad you are here. I don't know what he would have done without you here when Stoick left us."
Valka gave a weak smile. Suddenly, the light in the room shifted with the cracks of lightning outside.
"I think I will head to bed, Astrid," said Valka. "Sleep well."
"Thanks, Mom," Astrid replied. She sat her piece of metal on the table and watched Valka close the door to her bedroom.
