Chapter 4

Hiccup's lungs were burning by the time Toothless splashed up from the waves and onto the ship. The look on her dad's face was explanation enough- she cut it close. Too close. Hiccup barely had time to tell Toothless to go back to the forest before they landed at Dunbrough's port. Hiccup stood next to Astrid as she looked for her future mother. There she was.

Instead of a brown traveler's dress, the queen donned a beautiful green garment with darker green embroidery. Next to the queen was a man, almost as tall as her own father, and almost as wide. That was certainly surprising. Hiccup's father and her village were all huge, but that was to be expected; they were Vikings. Body fat was needed to keep from freezing to death. The man next to the queen, probably her husband, Fergus, was large by luck, it seemed. No one else seemed to even grow close to his size.

He was fairly like her father in size, but the rest of him was completely different. His nose was more angled, while her father's was straight. His hair was frizzier and his beard nonexistent, while Hiccup had witnessed her father taking good care to keep his hair and beard tangle-free and well managed. The most striking thing about the Scottish king, though, was his leg. He only had one, just like Hiccup, except he was missing his right leg. All the same, Hiccup thought that maybe one day when they were ready, they could swap limb stories.

The next things Hiccup noticed were the three little girls by the king and queen's feet. They all looked the same. They had unruly copper curls and clear blue eyes. The amount of spirit and mischievousness in them sent tingles down Hiccup's spine. Something about them seemed uncomfortably familiar. Hiccup thought for a second, and shivered when she came to the conclusion- they looked exactly like Ruff and Tuff when they were little kids.

Hiccup was sure that her fiancée was next to the girls, but was too nervous to even look at him. Without Toothless there next to her, it was as if all her courage had seeped out of her system and drained into the wood of the ship.

Instead of staring awkwardly at the floorboards of the ships, Hiccup turned to Astrid and asked,

"How is he?"

Astrid chose not to answer, only looking in the general direction of her fiancée. Deciding that that was a good sign, Hiccup gathered up her nerve and raised her gaze to the prince of Dunbrough. Who she saw almost gave her a heart attack.

It was the man from the woods! His wild hair was still tamed into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He was wearing the same black shirt with plaid sash and kilt. He was even wearing the same frown on his face.

Astrid looked at her, studying her face. Hiccup tried for a carefree smile, but that was probably what sealed the deal for Astrid. Astrid grabbed Hiccup by the wrist and herded Ruff with them. Then she dragged both of the girls with her below deck.

"Alright, Hiccup," Astrid said, determined to get answers, "What's up?"

Hiccup looked at Ruff and Astrid and gave up on trying to get out of the situation with a clever response like 'nothing.'

"That guy, the prince,"

"Oh, yeah, he's smoking!" Ruff nodded her approval. "I approve,"

"Yeah, there's a small problem," Hiccup confessed. "I met him in the woods,"

"What!" Astrid cried. Hiccup held up her hands, palms facing Astrid, a signature Berkian way of saying 'calm down.'

"Let me explain," And Hiccup did. The only response she got was a laughing Ruffnut.

"What's a bear? It couldn't possibly be more hardcore or awesome than a full-grown, fire-breathing dragon, with teeth the size of three full grown Viking men, and a body bigger than a mountain, can it?"

Astrid and Hiccup watched as Ruff stomped around below deck. Something clicked in Hiccup's mind in a second, and she laughed. Ruff was trying to make Hiccup feel better. For that, she was eternally grateful. This type of thing wasn't the way Ruff chose to make jokes, and it was nice that she had someone who would try something new to make her feel good about herself.

After stalling another fifteen minutes, and handing Snot, Fish, Stoic, and any of the Dunbrough deckhands any supplies they could, the three girls had to leave, and Hiccup had to face her fiancée.

Hiccup climbed out from below deck and climbed down from the ship. She saw Queen Eleanor lean up to her son's ear and point her out through the crowd. He looked towards where the queen pointed, and even from about ten feet away Hiccup could see his clear blue eyes as they widened. She couldn't hear what he said, but she kept slowly walking towards the two of them. When she was within five feet she realized that he wasn't saying anything, just sputtering. When she was an arm's length away, his brain unscrambled and he pointed at her and said with surprise,

"You!"

All she could do at her father's fierce look was smile sheepishly.