Heather Together Chapter 10

"What do you mean, she's gone?" Hiccup felt a wave of panic.

"She and her family sailed for home last night. Apparently they left without telling anyone."

The black aching emptiness returned. He fought back against it.

"Dad, I couldn't get my first choice for a wife. I am not losing this one! And Dad... if we can't work out some way around the dowry problem, then I'll... I'll..." He threw up his hands. "I'll do something!"

Stoick started to remind Hiccup who was the father and who was the son around here, but he bit his words off before he spoke them. There was steel in Hiccup's expression. He remembered Gobber's words on a far-distant battlefield – "Every bit the boar-headed, stubborn Viking you ever were!" He realized that his son was, indeed, becoming a man, and the days when he could be ordered around were just about over.

He laid his hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "Let's go home and talk about this, son. Man to man."

o

The winds were setting out of the west-southwest, which was perfect from Mr. and Mrs. Ketilsson's point of view. Their ship could run with the wind almost all the way home; they'd probably make it in six days instead of the normal seven. They were halfway there already. It would be good to be home again, especially after all the misadventures they'd had.

Heather stood in the bow of the ship, silent and motionless, staring out to sea at nothing. She'd been that way ever since they'd gone on board.

Her parents conferred quietly in the stern of the ship, and decided it was time for her mother to talk to her. She strode forward, trying to keep her footfalls quiet. Mother and daughter stood side by side for a moment.

"Heather, you're not yourself," Mrs. Ketilsson began. "Ever since we left that island, you've been very quiet. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Mother."

"Are you feeling well?"

"I'm fine, Mother, honest."

Her father joined them. "Did you leave something behind on that island?"

"No, Father, I didn't leave anything behind."

Mrs. Ketilsson was a perceptive woman. "Heather... did you leave somebody behind?"

After a long pause, she looked at the deck and nodded her head.

"You mean that boy who rescued us?" She nodded again. "Heather, he's the son of their chief! He could have any girl he wants, from any family he wants; he wouldn't look twice at a family like ours. Even if he did, we'd have to borrow money from every relative we've got, just to raise a proper dowry. It just wasn't meant to be, honey. Can you see that?"

Her eyes welled up. "Mother, you didn't even let me say goodbye! He saved me, he risked his life to save both of you... and you didn't even let me say goodbye!"

"We never had any ties to Berk, honey. You know we're never going back there; we have no reason to. If we were starting to form some ties, it was best to just cut them off. Do you understand?"

Heather shook her head miserably. After a few more moments of awkward silence, her parents retreated to the stern of the ship.

"When that boy rescued us on his dragon, I said she wasn't so little anymore, and that's the truth. She needs a husband, sooner and not later," Mr. Ketilsson said. His wife nodded. He continued. "I meant to tell you, before we left on this trip, I got a tentative offer from a merchant on Kelso Island. His second son, a young man named Bergsveinn, is ready to marry. He sounds like a fine young man – wealthy, successful, handy with a sword. I think he could be good for our daughter."

The captain interrupted them. "Ladies, gentlemen, this is your cruise director, and we've got trouble. Something is flying towards us from dead astern, and I don't think it's a seagull. Break out those spears amidships! We're about to have a dragon attack!" The other two sailors passed out spears to everyone on board, including Heather, who took her spear listlessly. They watched as the ominous shape grew larger.

"That's Toothless!" Heather exclaimed suddenly. Impossible hope began rising inside her.

"I don't care if it has teeth or not, it's still a dragon," one of the sailors muttered.

"No, that's Hiccup's dragon!" she corrected him.

"A toothless dragon with hiccups? What kind of la-la land are you from, lady?" By the time she got them all to understand, the dragon was nearly upon them. They could plainly see its human rider now, so they set their spears down on the deck and waited.

The dragon glided straight up behind them silently, without flapping once. As it passed over at masthead height, the rider reached out and dropped something. It landed on the deck amidships and hit with a thud. It was a thick sheet of copper, cut into the shape of a heart and polished to shiny brilliance. There was a rolled-up sheet of paper tied to it with a piece of red string. The sailor who had mocked Heather about the dragon grabbed it, glanced at it, buffed his fingerprints off it with the edge of his shirt, then strode to the bow and handed it to her.

"I think this must be for you," he said politely, and stepped back.

She unrolled the paper with shaking hands, and held her breath as she read it. It didn't take long to read.

Heather,
Will you marry me?
My father approves.
Hiccup

She read it three times, just to make sure she hadn't misunderstood it somehow.

Hiccup looked back over his shoulder as Toothless passed over the ship. It was easy to tell which one was Heather at this height, and he could see that she had gotten the note. But she wasn't doing anything! Was she making up her mind? Was she having second thoughts? Had he read the whole situation wrong?

Slowly, she turned and walked aft. Her dignified composure lasted about two steps; then she broke into a run, waving the paper over her head and screaming, "FATHER! FATHER, LOOK!" Her father had a hard time getting the note out of her hands so he could read it. He stared at it for a few seconds, then passed it to his wife without a word. She read it, smiled, looked up, and waved him down.

"What do you think, bud?" he asked. "Can you land on that little ship without tipping it over?" Toothless snorted and growled, offended that Hiccup might question his abilities. They turned into the wind, and nearly hovered as the ship came right at them.

Toothless landed neatly, as close to the middle of the ship as the mast allowed. It settled deeper in the water under his weight, but not dangerously so. Hiccup unclipped his riding harness, slid off the saddle... and was nearly tackled to the deck when Heather threw herself at him. They both would have gone down if Toothless hadn't extended a wing and caught them.

"Can I take that as a 'yes'?" Hiccup asked, smiling broadly.

"You came back for me!" she sobbed into his shoulder. "I am not going to cry, I am not going to cry... well, maybe a little."

"I'm sorry it took me so long," he answered softly. "One of our big ships lost its anchor, and it took me two and a half days to forge a new one. They wouldn't let me go until it was done. I came as quickly as I could."

"Yes," she sniffled. "The answer is yes! It always was. All you had to do was ask."

Now Mr. and Mrs. Ketilsson joined them. "That's quite the romantic approach you've got, Hiccup," she smiled. "Delivering your heart and your proposal by dragon!"

"Is this a serious offer, young man?" he asked.

"I wouldn't joke about something like this, sir," Hiccup replied. "My father's message to you is that, if this match is acceptable, I'll fly him to your village, and you'll work out the terms with him there."

Mr. Ketilsson glanced at Heather, who was still clinging to Hiccup, and nodded. "I think the match had better be acceptable, or my daughter might disown me. There may be problems with some parts of the contract, though."

Hiccup smiled. "I'm also authorized to tell you that my father will match your dowry, copper for copper if he has to, to make it big enough to meet people's expectations."

Heather's mother gasped. "That's an extraordinary offer!" she exclaimed. "Dear, I think this Bergsveinn is going to have to find someone else."

"It does sound that way," her father nodded. "A future chief in our family..."

"Your father will do that... for us?" Heather almost couldn't believe it.

"He feels strongly that Berk needs an alliance with Fedje," Hiccup explained, then dropped his voice to a whisper. "And I feel strongly that you need an alliance with me."

He embraced her, and they clung to each other until everyone but Toothless looked away in embarrassment. Toothless crooned and gazed at them with his wide-eyed look. Apparently, he found the match acceptable, too.