Chapter 7
There was Heather on his mind
I ain't no angel, I never was
But I never hurt you, it's not my fault
You see those eggs shells, they're broken up
A million pieces, strewn out across the ground
There were way more people hovering around the Twins' house than what could have been expected.
Most of them behaved as if nothing had happened – the Vikings were strolling in the neighbourhood, trying to look completely uninterested, having more than a few explanations for their presence, yet still unable to refrain from giving furtive glances, cast on the Thorston family hut in the passing. The others did their best to stay out of the way; they silently watched the wooden building, neither looking for excuses nor trying to get closer to its wall, only inwardly wondering what course this entire business would take.
There were also those, who just offhandedly approached the door, where they – firmly held back by Snotlout, who was keeping guard at the entrance – demanded clarification. And the less they knew about the real reasons of the confusion going on around them, the louder they pressed on him to get it.
With an undoubted astonishment, Hiccup was glaring at the scene, having landed quite far from his friends' dwelling. Eventually, he hopped off the saddle and nodded at Toothless, who happily followed him. As they were getting near to their target, the whispers around them grew in strength.
"It's Hiccup!" someone wondered.
"So something has happened after all..." somebody else remarked.
"Maybe he'll tell us more?"
"Why does Snotlout refuse to let anyone in?"
"I've heard Sven saying…"
Dang.
Bright violet light flashed when Toothless let out a single plasma blast and made it fly into the sky. The effect was immediate.
"Okay, Bud, that's enough," his Rider mumbled, patting him on the neck, and with a more resonant tone, he added, "Alright everyone, that would be all for today. I don't know what brought so many of you here, but it's a high time to terminate this gathering. Let the Thorstons live."
And waiting no longer, he set off towards the entry, reaching the threshold with some difficulty. He was greeted by an exhausted sigh, coming from Snotlout.
"Oh, finally," the Viking moaned, leaning on the door frame. "Do you have any idea how long I've been standing here?"
"Absolutely none," his Chief answered, turning back and gazing meaningfully at the onlookers who had remained at the place. Some of them were still putting their departure off, however, seeing the man's resolute glare, they decided to carry out his order.
"Ha, ha. Here we go again," Snotlout muttered mockingly. "Seriously, Hiccup, that sarcasm of yours won't impress anyone."
"I'm afraid I'll have to live with that."
"And you're doing it again. Okay, so are you coming in, or are you waiting for a special invitation?"
"And you say my sarcasm won't impress?"
"On Odin's beard, just get in there!"
The young leader rolled his eyes, amused. He rested his hand on the handle fitted to the door.
"You stay here, Toothless. Be quiet and don't go anywhere… Oh, no, don't give me that look, you know that I won't let you in there now."
Avoiding the Night Fury's pleading gaze, the man opened the door ajar, and almost noiselessly, he slipped inside.
Those who were settled inside didn't even notice his arrival.
Without much thinking, he briskly moved closer to one of the wide posts that were supporting the ceiling, and took his place behind it. Thus covered, he was still able to observe the situation in the centre of the room, not revealing his presence in the process. Had he thought about for a little while at least, he probably would have found his behaviour rather immature – unfortunately, he had other things to worry about at the moment.
Here he was, staying in the house which he'd so eagerly left just a few hours earlier; and even though he'd been doing everything in his power not to analyse the previous night's events, he couldn't have not felt guilty of his behaviour then. At the same time, he had this awful feeling that no matter what, he would end up saying something outstandingly improper – he could've prepared an entire speech, and yet, there wouldn't be much benefit from doing it.
He sighed. Last night, he had told them they would come back to their conversation when they would all be calmer.
Unluckily for them all, Hiccup's blood was still boiling just as much as it was then.
"Well, well, look who's decided to visit," Ruffnut's sharp voice resonated right behind him, almost making him jump; he put a finger to his lips, ordering her to stay silent.
"Stop shouting," he drawled through his gritted teeth. "There's no need for that."
"And there's no need for your standing here," the warrior retorted. "Are you hiding?"
"What? No, of course not," the man denied firmly, offended by the very suspicion. "I just didn't want to come in like a… What, what is it? You think that's funny?"
"Sure not."
A derisive smile tugging on his interlocutor's lips was a proof of something completely opposite though; it widened when Hiccup rolled his eyes again, annoyed.
"Okay, listen," he began, trying to bring her back to reality, hoping to get to the point as soon as possible. "How did -"
"No, but really, why are you standing here?" The girl interrupted, as if she'd made it her personal goal to taunt him. "It's nicer by the bed – brighter, warmer..."
"I'm perfectly aware of that." The dark-haired boy harnessed all of his will not to let Ruffnut get his goat. "Now please, be serious. Where did that crowd in front of your house come from?"
Ruffnut shrugged.
"You don't know or just don't care?"
"I don't know."
"And don't you have any suspicions?"
"Nope."
"Have you told anyone she's here?"
"Who? You mean, the girl?"
"No, Viggo Grimbourn. Of course I mean the girl! Who else is it all about?"
"Geez." Now it was Ruff's turn to roll her eyes. "Why are you so tense? I haven't told anything to anyone, since yesterday I haven't been farther than the stables. Tuff was out, ask him."
Hiccup didn't answer immediately, sinking in his own thoughts for a while, and wondering if the news really could have spread on the island so fast – and how true was the actual gossip.
"When was it exactly that Tuffnut left?" He turned to the girl a moment later.
"Sometime in the morning. Barf and Belch wouldn't move an inch for the whole night, so he went to drag them away some hours after the dawn." For the first time that morning, she hesitated; "And now, when he was gathering all those people, he was running there and back again for an hour at least..."
"What people?" Hiccup asked without thinking, and only the astonished look Ruffnut gave him made him realise that while coming into the house he had missed something incredibly important.
When he had been crossing the threshold, his attention had immediately been caught by a post next to which they were standing now; he hadn't even glanced at the central part of the room. Having heard the last of the fair-haired girl's comments, he leaned out from his covering, and transfixed. Until that moment he'd heard nothing – now his ears were approached by the ordinary chatting which previously he had unconsciously, but effectively, ignored.
With a quick glance, he scanned the room and his friends settled in it. Fishlegs, Tuffnut, Eret…
"Hold on a second," he started, amazed all of a sudden. "What are Barf and Belch doing by the bed?!"
"Calm, down, will ya?" the warrior silenced him. "Everything's fine. I know you wanted them to stay outside, but you know what the dragons are. You can't -"
"Keep them in line?" her Chief ask spitefully.
"Not always, if only they have a little will of their own," the girl got even. "Besides, it's all under control, so what is this fuss about? Loosen up, man, or we will all go mad."
As if to confirm their owner's words, the two-headed dragon purred in delight. The man took a closer look at the scene: the animal was lying on the floor behind the bed's head, stretching its long necks along the furniture, breathing calmly – the strange girl was sitting in between, her feet rested on the ground. On each of her sides there was a pair of big, dragon eyes staring at her.
Hiccup understood it was his time to join the rest of the group, no matter how much out of place he was feeling at the moment.
This kind of anxiety on his side didn't forecast any good.
He only had a few seconds to think it all through, but he did manage to recall one thought, one event which might help him play his cards in a way that would make him appear a bit more friendly – or less disagreeable, at least – in their guest's eyes. Last night, in his silly joke he had mentioned Heather – now that memory was meant to help him go back to his forgotten courtesy. To what he had been six years back.
He inhaled deeply and finally, he set off in the direction of the gathering. There was no need to mark out his presence this time – it was enough for him to step out of a shadow and all the faces, one by one, turned towards him. Only the dark-haired girl still seemed too busy with the creature lying by her feet but this was something the young Chief missed himself. As long as he could, he avoided looking at her, fixing his sight at his old companions instead. He smiled weakly to greet them, lost in thoughts of his own memory. When he eventually reached the hearth, there was only one picture looming in his mind – an image of Heather, scared, unsure, fearing to trust the people who wanted nothing but to save her.
And then he experienced the first of many disappointments.
When the stranger finally raised her eyes, there was not even a trace of that fright, which he saw in his friend's face all those years ago; even the agitation, so sharply written across the girl's features only a night before, suddenly seemed to be a momentary anomaly, a weakness which gone, had left no sign of itself. That morning she was looking at him with certainty and joy, as if she hadn't even remembered the last night events. She said nothing, though, allowing him to fulfil his duties properly.
"Good day," Hiccup gasped out, once more surprised and embarrassed at the same time. He couldn't bring himself to say anything more.
"And the same to you," she answered with a smile, and by doing so, she tripped him up even more. "Hey, easy!"
She broke into laughter when Belch rapidly snuggled his green head into her torso, tickling her quite effectively. At the same point Barf drew closer to her from the other side and gifted her with something that, treated with the appropriate amount of good will, could have been taken for an unusually soppy dragon kiss. The brunette hopped off the bed, completely taken aback, however, even that couldn't make her smile die down. She moved away, clearly entertained and as she did, the house resonated with a joyful murmur coming from the other Riders.
'You should know that it doesn't wash out...' Hiccup thought at once, being the only one who didn't laugh at the sight. Only a weak, slightly ironic smile seemed to be almost accidentally appearing on his concentrated face.
Taking advantage of the fact that the overall attention had turned on somebody else, he decided to give the young woman more attentive glare. He'd already had a great opportunity of examining her expressive, green eyes, and yet, remembering all that followed that observation, he was far from desiring to repeat it; it more that contented him to see that her own gaze was fixed on someone exactly opposite to himself.
He gave a quick glance at the young woman's haircut. He found nothing extraordinary about it, although, he might have been surprised by her hair's length – cut a little beneath her ears, composed freely over her neck, it was quite in contrast with the Berkian canon of beauty. Even the hardest, most experienced in the fight, their women would never even consider getting rid of their luxurious locks; Ruffnut, who had done it once, let it happen only because of the very special circumstances, and then she made sure to come back to the natural state as soon as possible.
Having no reason whatsoever, Hiccup assumed that in their guest's case the reason had to be much less noble, and let his scepticism grow even more.
Having arrived to such a conclusion, he shifted his gaze to her dress – or something what had probably been a dress once. That second glare was noticed by the girl, who, as if ashamed, immediately focused on the same thing.
"Oh, right. Perhaps not the best attire for the first presentation." She smiled (this time it was almost apologising), simultaneously taking a good look at her clothes.
She wasn't surprised by the sight; much earlier she had noticed that her dress, once green, was now covered with stains, dirty from dust and sea sand. Here and there the material had been discoloured, affected by the salty see of the ocean, gaining an extremely ugly, livid hue. Both the sleeves and the lower part of her skirt were frayed, to this extent, that the rips on the latter almost reached her knees. All of this she had already seen – but back then nobody seemed to pay any attention to how she was dressed; now however she had to survive the critical judgement of the Chief, who for some reasons seemed to be less and less favourable.
"I didn't mean to offend anyone," she added in a firmer tone, seeing his displeased expression. Despite her obvious uncertainty, her wounded pride was beginning to rise, and her finality was the first sign of it.
Hiccup's vigilance grew significantly.
"I don't think anybody has been suggesting that," he answered coldly, confounded by her sudden boldness. "It's not my habit to judge people so hastily."
The girl's look expressed prominently how much she doubted those words to be true, as if she wanted to say, "Oh, really? So I'm the only one deserving this special treatment?" She remained silent though, doing nothing except staring at his bright, joyless eyes; but she abandoned that as well, turning her head aside shortly after, and transfixing her sight on a random spot nearby.
Silence fell around them. The young Chief didn't look away, eyeing his interlocutor carefully, failing to understand how in the course of those few short hours she was able to gain so much confidence. Last night, he had been struck with the straightforwardness and sincerity of her gaze; now he found a strange haughtiness in it, which, by the way, he didn't like any better. It wasn't Heather, gratefully regarding them as her rescuers – with the two-headed dragon behind her back, this girl looked as if she was feeling herself at home.
'This is almost insolent.'
The silence continued. Casual and content at first, the Dragon Riders became to feel the anxiety which only grew as the time went by.
Not wanting to let another skirmish happen, Tuffnut stood out from the row, and taking his place by their guest's side, he threw in: "So, if you two said hello, I guess we can get to the point. In the morning, when you were not here, we've discussed that name thing. All of us."
"All except me?" Hiccup bridled.
"Relax, H. What's with that guy?" Tuffnut rolled his eyes. "Only some proposition, no reason to get tense."
"Random propositions of what?"
"The name," Eret interrupted, hoping to explain the situation better, than his blonde friend. "You do remember we don't know it?"
"Of course I do. Better than I would wish to," the Chief responded, now ignoring the presence of the young woman, situated only a few steps from him; she still wasn't looking at him.
Eret went on. "So, nothing has changed. But Ruff and Tuff were right to say that we can't leave it like that."
"I know that myself. I need particulars."
"We have those, too, and more than a few. You just need to listen to them first."
"I'm all ears."
The former dragon trapper sighed, tired with his leader's behaviour as much as everybody else. He nodded at Fishlegs, who carried on with the explanation from that point.
"The thing is, we must give our guest a new name – you know, temporarily, until she remembers her own. She's already agreed to that." Saying so, the thickset Viking gave the girl an empathetic smile, which she eagerly returned. "We've begun considering some options, but it may as well be just the beginning."
"So, you have a list or something?"
"Kind of."
"A long one?"
"Depends on how you look at it. Objectively? Quite long."
"And… not objectively?"
"Not objectively, the Twins have their own proposal, and they won't give up on it easily," Fishlegs lowered his voice, hoping that Tuffnut, standing in the distance, wouldn't hear him. "So there are our ideas, there's theirs and there are the variations of the latter."
Pretending not to care, Hiccup peeked at the girl standing in front of him. Even though there still was pride in her attitude, she no longer seemed to be equally sure of her own strength, as if the few minutes of struggling dashed her sudden zeal.
Unexpectedly, the young Chief felt some sort of pity – or at least he felt enough to quit the lingering and say, "Alright, let's hear what you've got."
Fishlegs pulled out a furled parchment; he unrolled it, and cleared his throat, hoping to catch the attention of all of the people gathered around him. Indeed, the surrounding quietened, and all of a sudden the room was filled with silence, full of excitement, yet undisturbed by neither the Twins or their dragon, lazily sprawling on the wooden floor. Still, the man's success wasn't as absolute as it may have seemed.
Even before he begun to enumerate the ideas collected during the preceding, he'd lost the focus of the two listeners who should take the greatest interest in his reading. As soon as the first sounds escaped the Viking's mouth, the thoughts of both his Chief and the mysterious woman standing in front of him took a very different course.
At this point, we should take notice that the girl's fault was incomparably lesser, and her own distraction could have been easily justified. She had already had a chance to listen to her hosts' discussion, which had taken place in her temporary home just that morning. She had also listened carefully to Berk's Supreme Chronicler when he'd finished writing down all the names suggested by the others. And last but not least, she had made up her made about the situation long time ago, determined to hold on to her first declaration – it was not for her to decide about the final result of the discussion. Quite the opposite, she was ready to accept any of the proposed names at once.
The almost twenty-two year old Chief staying nearby had much less to say in his defence, however, he was far from feeling any kind of qualms this time. It made no difference what name the stranger would choose – from the very beginning, and on the contrary to her, Hiccup had thought that the girl herself should be the one to make the decision. If she wanted to ask for Ruffnut's, Eret's or anybody else's advice, she was free to do so; but he was not going to interfere.
Thus, instead of paying attention to Fishlegs, who was in fact re-reading his list only because Hiccup had not heard it yet, he once again shifted his gaze on the said woman, not fully realising how intensively he was staring at her.
And she was just there, motionless and superior, her eyes fixed on the fair-haired man before her. One could have thought she was listening carefully – however, Hiccup did not need a second to understand that her thoughts were as disengaged with the subject as his own.
Had he been able to observe her more steadily, he would have done it now. He could not miss the determination spread across her face – her wounded pride was still reminding of itself, which was notably reflecting on her raised chin and lips, drawn ever so slightly. Yet, she hadn't even glanced at him for this entire time – the Viking was ready to bet, that she wouldn't do it, even if her refusal meant her immediate exile from the island.
Once again, Hiccup was taken aback by this abrupt change, as it seemed abrupt to him. Coming back home after his previous visit, he'd been far from being satisfied with himself – he'd assumed that he'd acted too harshly, got angry too easily, and that all in all, his behaviour had left much to be desired. If only he allowed himself to think about that night, he was immediately hunted down by guilt; how could he have treated a person, a girl like this – a girl, who had just found help after the events that certainly couldn't be pleasant? A girl, who was hopefully waiting for support and comfort? Scared, shy and lost?
More than once, his thoughts led him to Heather, forcing him to compare his former conduct with the present one. Every memory of her first visit made him feel ashamed, because he knew how differently he had acted this time. That was why he came there today with a firm resolution of fixing his mistakes and giving the terrified girl all the help she might need.
The thing was, he didn't find anyone of this kind. The woman who greeted him at first was beaming with a joyful courage – then, she showed her fierce, haughty side.
He certainly had nothing to do here.
"Hiccup, are you following?"
Fishleg's voice brutally roused him from his meditation, although this time, the Viking was almost grateful for it.
"Yeah, sure. Anything else you've got?"
"Nope, that's all from us," the Chronicler rolled up the parchment. "You have any favourites?"
The auburn-haired man focused, trying for all his might to remember the names that had accidentally reached his ears – yet, those few he could recall were so unbecoming, that Hiccup decided to keep his silence on it. He shrugged.
"Not really," he threw in rather stiffly. "I think I can leave it up to you."
"Seriously?"
"Why not? I think there was a few nice ideas at the beginning -"
"Hiccup! You haven't listened to us yet!" Tuffnut cried out, waving his hands as if he didn't believe that his shouting would be enough to catch the general attention.
Ruff accompanied him wholeheartedly, also throwing her arms in all possible directions and calling, "Yeah, Hiccup, you can't leave us behind! Remember whose house this is! And say what you will, but it is our dragon that -"
"Okay, okay, fine!" their Chief calmed them down, simultaneously raising his sight towards the ceiling. "Nobody's going to harm you, you can say whatever you desire to; just please, try not to offend anyone."
"Pff, as if we wanted to do that!" The warrior responded with a theatrical indignation, and then appealed to the whole company. "So, on the contrary to you, my dear thoughtless mob, my brother and I are well aware of how important the right choice of a name is, especially when it comes to a person who's character has already been formed..."
'Which she most probably doesn't remember, either,' Hiccup remarked maliciously. Fortunately for all of them, he only did that in his thoughts.
"…I believe you will understand what a great responsibility it is," Tuffnut picked up with ease. "That's why we thought it through carefully..."
"…considering many options…"
"…deciding to focus on the first feeling that had come to us while meeting our dear guest. And this, my dear friends is nothing but her great quietness! Thus, we say – let her name be – Whisper!"
The house was immediately filled with a sceptical muttering of the other Riders, who had never treated the Twins' demand particularly seriously. Paying no mind to those, Tuff turned directly to his Chief, hoping that the latter would show a little more understanding for the art of naming. Hiccup didn't seem too thrilled about it, though, and despite all of his spirit, Tuffnut was tripped up.
Noticing his friend's brows furrowed, he stepped back, and after a moment of silence, he added in a much smaller voice, "Yeah… that is… you know, that's not the only option. Sure not. We may think of… variations… I mean… Whispy, Whisperer, Whis..."
"Whispering Death," Hiccup muttered.
It wasn't an accident that he said it quietly enough not to be heard by anyone except the stranger standing right next to him; but of course, she could not understand what he was referring to.
"Tuff, look," he picked up out loud. "I can see you're pretty much attached to this idea, but it may not be the best one. It's important to be able to admit that, too; so I think you should give a chance to the rest of the propositions -"
"The rest of the propositions make no sense at all!" Ruffnut interrupted him fiercely, trying to defend the honour of her brother and herself. "They didn't even think if they would suit! Those names are just random words, which they mixed just like they liked!"
"Stop yelling, Ruffnut. I know you're angry, but that's not a reason to raise your voice like that."
"Are you even listening to me?!"
"Good gods, Ruff! I am, it's just -"
"It's just what?"
"It's just -" Hiccup lowered his voice to a whisper – "it may turn out that your description won't be that suitable, either -"
"I'll take it."
Their guest's voice resonated with a new boldness – all eyes turned towards her. The girl set her gaze on the young leader's face, letting him understand that her decision is final and irrevocable. There was no spite, no anger in her look; if anything, there was a soft trace of self-satisfaction, which she didn't fully realise herself. But there was determination in it.
Until that moment, she couldn't have cared less about who would choose her name, and what that name would be – seeing, however, the general attitude towards her hosts, who had been the first to gift her with their friendship, she couldn't refrain from coming to their rescue.
She was aware of the astonishment she had caused. In the corner of her eye she saw the disbelieving, yet thankful expressions on the Twins' faces, while the Chief standing before her looked clearly dissatisfied.
"From the beginning you've been telling me to choose that name, and when I'm doing it, you're looking at me as if you saw a ghost," she explained with a grin. "I don't understand why this name should be any worse that the rest, and if my hosts want it so much -" She gave the siblings another smile - "Then I'll be most glad to follow their wish and take it. You may treat it as a poor sign of my gratitude."
"Yes!" Tuffnut cried triumphantly. "But, which one exactly?"
"Whichever you like. It's up to you two."
Having exclaimed that, she finally turned towards Hiccup and gave him a glare, which clearly expressed the silent question: "So? How much I've lost in your eyes because of this little excess?"
Hiccup ignored that glare.
"So the matter is resolved," he summed up coldly. "I think I may leave you now. Please, enjoy coming up with the new versions; if you don't mind, I'll stay with the simplest one and assume your name is Whisp. As long as you don't decide on the final one, that is."
"Of course," the girl answered calmly; the tone in which he spoke her new name made it sound like an insult. She refrained from commenting it, though – after all, it was possible her assumption was wrong.
"Perfect."
This moment exactly, Belch raised his head highly and roared enthusiastically, as if wanting to celebrate the end of the unpleasant meeting. The whole group laughed with relief.
The next thing they heard was the slam of the door, closed vehemently. Hiccup was no longer in the room.
His friends exchanged meaningful glances, however, none of them said a word.
Author's note: And here we are, with a brand new chapter, posted sooner than ever. There was a few of you asking for an update - I hope you're satisfied now :D
Even though there's so much Jerkcup in it.
Yeah, I know, he's being absolutely horrible, but trust me, the story needs it. I hope he's not acting too much out of character - although, if you think he is, don't hesitate to share your opinion with me!
Also, I know some of you got here because of my amazing, yet crazy friend, Water-Star, who decided she would make you check out this story by actually blackmailing you (yes, Penny, that is blackmail! And it's illegal!). I want you to know that I had nothing to do with it - the idea was hers entirely, because well, she's crazy like that.
But of course, I couldn't be more grateful.
Still, I hope that even if you'd come here only to make sure Thaw Slowly will be updated sooner, I managed to intrigue you with my own, a little at least.
Either way, please, let me know what you think of this story, this chapter especially, sharing your thoughts in the reviews section. Believe iot or not, but even the shortest comment can make an author's day.
Stay safe,
Margaret
