Chapter 7: Truths
She watched as the figure on the beach didn't move. She saw his face, she could tell it was a dragon-killer. But his features, his auburn hair and green eyes seemed almost familiar, as... No, she wouldn't think about it. Nevertheless, the resemblance was enough that she couldn't just stand by and watch him die. Another pair of eyes moved closer to her, starting distrustfully at the boy.
"Cloudjumper, stay hidden, I'll take him to the camp, but I don't want him to finding out about you."
The StormCutter huffed, clearly not liking the plan.
"I'll be fine, you worry too much." She tenderly patted the dragon on the neck and started moving to the stranger on the beach.
He was startled when a masked figure appeared next to him. He quickly surveyed the situation. He was in no condition to fight, weak, and weaponless. And the figure didn't seem threatening, so for now, he would see what it wanted. Later, if fighting was necessary, the stranger had a staff as a weapon, but didn't seem very strong.
"Come."
He heard, before seeing it starting to move away. Talking, sure. Following a unknown person to the woods? A bit of a leap of faith. Still, he didn't know what to do. It's not like he could do much, and the strange stranger was starting to make him curious.
"Come."
He heard again. Not knowing what else he could do, and curiosity getting the better of him, the small viking slowly rose, the little exercise enough for him to feel the lack of food and water in his system. Soon they arrived at some sort of camp, and he not very gracefully let himself fall to floor. He saw footprints that in his right mind would no doubt belong to a dragon, but he was to tired to think of it, and to grateful when he saw a bowl with water being handed to him. While the viking drank, the stranger had took of the mask, and was cooking some fish.
A woman with autumn hair and green eyes stared back at him, but they ate in silence for a while, his head turning and turning with the events of the last day. Who was she? What did she want? He had no way of knowing. So he tried to think again about the battle of the day before, with less pain and more analytically. The more he thought, the more he realized.
The dragons had fled from the fight. And from the size of that thing, it must require a lot of food. Images of the raids flashed through his mind. He never saw them eat the food, they took it. Somehow the huge dragon made the smaller dragons bring it food. Were the dragons forced to fight? Were they inocent? No, a beautifull blonde face told him. But nobody was inocent in a war.
He was pulled out of his thoughts by a familiar voice he didn't recognize, saying something he wasn't able to undertand, as he wasn't paying attention.
"What?"
She slightly smiled, and asked again."What's your name?
"Hiccup ..."
Before he could continue, the woman choked on the fish. Hiccup went closer to pat her on the back. She quickly recovered, and the young viking could feel her gaze on his face, paying special attention to the freckles in the chin, where a small white scar could be seen.
"Hiccup?"
"Should I... Should I know you?"
"No... You were only a babe... But a mother never forgets."
If he was eating, he was sure it would have been his turn to choke.
"You're my mother?"
She nods with a grin on her face.
"Do you even grasp how insane that sounds? Where have you been all this time? They said you were dead. That you've been eaten by..."
The young viking was interrupted by a dragon landing right behind the woman. His mother.
"A dragon..." He ended, almost whispering. His body was telling him to run. But his mind was putting the pieces together. Like the fact that his mother seemed perfectly at easy so close to the dragon. He didn't know what to do, he wished he had his weapon, in case it was necessary. Luckly for him, he didn't, it might have complicated a few things. The fact that the dragon was growling did nothing to calm him, but he wasn't shooting, at least that was a good.
"Calm down, both of you! Hiccup, CloudJumper. CloudJumper, Hiccup."
A look of disgust found its way to Hiccup's face, which in turn made her respond with a hurt look on her own. Truth be told, it was less about the dragon itself, more about...
"So, that's where you've been for 15 years!? You chose dragons over your own family, never coming back!?"
"I couldn't just return and seem them slaughter the dragons!"
"You could have tried to stop the war!"
The shouting wasn't helping, and she took a deep breath.
"Berk was a land of kill or be killed, but I had always wanted to stop the war. It was a very unpopular opinion. One night, I found CloudJumper in the room with you. I grabbed my sword to defend you, but what I saw was proof of everything I believed in. They weren't mindless killers, but gentle creatures whose soul reflected my own. By that time, Stoic apeared, you know how he is, and just atacked. I don't know if he thought we were both in danger or just thought I belonged here, but he just grabbed me and flew away. He never intended to kill me. But after seeing the truth, I couldn't see my son raised to be another dragon killer. I guess that didn't work out so well."
"But now you had proof! There could have been peace, and you choose hide!"
"There can't be peace. Viking are too stuburn, and dragon will always atack, they have to. In their nest there's a huge dragon, and if they don't take enough food, they will be eaten themselves. The night where I was taken we went to the Queen's nest first, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but then everything made sense. The huge dragon atacked us, and Cloudjumper fled, until we finally found a safe place here with the Bewilderbeast, the king of all dragons."
He listened to her. He wanted to shout, and scream she had doomed everyone by withholding the truth. But truth is, it couldn't blame everyone but himself for taking everyone there. And if his father knew a way to the nest sooner, sooner the village would have been destroyed. And he thought back to that night. The Nadder protected the Gronkle. It wasn't a murder, it was a rescue, as painful as it was to admit it.
He fought to keep the tears from his face.
"I... I saw it too..."
"You dont mean...?"
He told her everything that had happened from the moment he shot down the Nightfury. By the time he ended, they were embrancing each other, lots of emotions under the skin, and not good ones, pain, sadness, sorrow, grief, regret, guilt...
"Hiccup, you didn't know."
"It was still my fault."
"No, it wasn't!"
"Who led them there?"
"... The Queen."
"What?"
"The Queen commanded the atacks. The Queen killed the tribe. And it was the Queen who controlled the Terror, in fact leading you there."
"I... Thanks..." He gave a very week smile, but it was all he could do for now.
Val didn't know what else to say. Instead, she got atop of CloudJumper and extended an arm to Hiccup.
The small viking looked at her with disbelief.
"Come. It always makes me feel better, I think it will help you too."
He took a step closer and the dragon growled at him. She patted the dragon and it seemed to relax a bit.
Hiccup slowly and carefully joined her, resting his arm around her waist.
"CloudJumper, up. Slowly..." Hiccup didn't see the mischevious grin of the dragon as it took off...
