Hiccup
Hiccup went over yesterday's date and today's.
Yesterday had been November 28th. That would mean today was the day. It was Siren's eleventh birthday, assuming she was still alive.
He still remembered her last birthday, which was when she turned ten. She'd asked him to play with her, but he didn't have the time, so all he could do was give her a kiss on the forehead and tell her he loved her. He had his duties as chief to worry about, so he couldn't spend more time with her, which he regretted, but it wasn't something he could help.
When he'd come back home that day, she wasn't there. For a moment, Hiccup had panicked, but just three minutes after he'd gotten there, Siren had come through the door.
"Look, Dad!" she said, smiling eagerly. She was holding something in her hands. "It's a snail!"
Hiccup took the snail out of her hand and left it outside. He figured it would be best if she kept away from things like snails, fish and
Dragons.
Hiccup was angry with himself for bonding with Toothless. It was the reason Astrid wasn't there for him. It was the reason his dad died, and the reason he had only half a leg. It was the reason Fishlegs and Gobber and Astrid's father and his own mother were dead now. It was probably the reason Siren wasn't with him anymore.
He always thought that if he kept Siren away from the unknown, she wouldn't bond with things like dragons. She wouldn't go through the heartache he had to suffer because of a dragon. She wouldn't have to learn the hard way that sometimes people she hated were probably right, like Mildew, who was around when he was her age.
For the umpteenth time, Hiccup thought to himself, what did I do wrong? Did he not give Siren enough attention or love? Did he do something bad to her that made her hate him?
For the first time in five years, Hiccup realized something he wasn't willing to admit until now.
He missed Toothless.
He regretted the fact that he sent him away. That dragon was his best friend, and now he was gone.
There was also another thing he realized.
He still loved Astrid.
Hiccup put his head in his hands. There were all these shouldn'ts that were coming to him. He shouldn't have sent Toothless away, even if it drove Astrid away. He should have given a little more time to Siren, even with the chiefly duties. He shouldn't have discouraged her from bonding with animals, even if it would bring her the same heartache it brought him.
He should have stopped Siren from running away. He shouldn't have made her hate him. He should have gone after her, instead of sending Snotlout. Even if his own daughter hated him, it should have been him who went after her instead of Snotlout...even if he thought at first that by sending Snotlout, it would be easier to convince Siren to come back.
He couldn't rewrite what happened in the past, but he could fix what would happen now. He could have a ship built and go after Siren himself. What he would need to do was to find someone be the de facto chief in his place while he was gone.
Who would that be?
Siren
Toothless was sleeping nearby while Rupac, and I were sitting at the base of a mountain, far away from a village in the distance. I was really uncomfortable, partially because we were sitting on rocks and I was barefoot because my boots had holes in them, partially because my clothes were beginning to grow small for me.
Rupac coiled himself around my arm. "We should go to that place sometime tomorrow. At least it will be warm and your dragon will be up and going. Eh?" Rupac smiled cheesily.
"True," I said, "though I don't know how the people are going to treat us. Do you think you can translate if they don't speak Nordic?"
Rupac looked offended at that. "Girl, you think I can't speak what language they can speak? Remember what I told you about quetzalcoatls?"
I took out The Book of Dragons and flipped to the page on quetzalcoatls.
"The quetzalcoatl is the smartest dragon ever. They can speak every language that has ever existed and supposedly know everything there is to know." I looked at Rupac.
"Still think I can't speak their language?" Rupac was waiting for an answer.
"No." I set him down. "What's the date today?"
"November 29th." Rupac raised one of his eyebrows. "What makes ya wanna know that?"
"Odin's beard..." My voice trailed off.
"What is it?" Rupac seemed curious.
"My birthday," I said. "I'm now eleven."
"Well, happy birthday! What do ya say? Let's have a party!" Rupac was smiling for a couple of seconds, but then he stopped. "Something wrong?"
"My last birthday." I took Rupac and wrapped him around my shoulders. "I wanted Dad to play with me because he hardly ever did, but all he could do was give me a kiss on the forehead and said 'I love you.' I got only ten seconds with him, but it was good enough."
"Ten seconds?!" Rupac sounded like he was spitting beer out.
"I hardly got to see him."
"So that's a start for you?"
"Guess you could say that."
Rupac was silent for a moment. Then he spoke:
"No offense, but your dad's kind of a shit parent."
"He kind of is," I said, nodding. "Continuing on. After I spent some time flying with Toothless and giving him food, I went back home, and on the way, I found a snail. I loved him right on sight, so I took him home. I wanted to introduce Sigurd to Dad, but he thought the snail was gross and threw him outside. He told me not to bring any snails inside ever again otherwise he'd kill them."
Rupac raised both of his eyebrows. "Interesting." Then he looked toward the village. It was growing dark. "Let's get some sleep, y'all. We need energy to fly to the village."
I nodded as I took out a blanket and crawled to Toothless. He stirred, but didn't wake up.
I wrapped myself in the blanket and said good night to Rupac and Toothless. The minute I closed my eyes, I was asleep.
