Sorry for my long absence. Life is seriously crazy right now!
The walk was mostly quiet. They'd shared so much that was so deeply personal that in a sense, there was nothing left to be said. Sky was oddly quiet. Though she'd not been harsh especially this evening, her silence was strange. Brunet wondered if perhaps he should speak, to say something. But his mind could not focus on anything much to say.
"Do you think Cerys is right?" Sky asked suddenly. Brunet started and then cast his mind back to their earlier discussion. Sky said Cerys thought she needed someone.
"I, I do not think it is my place to say..." He murmured. Sky scoffed.
"Does that mean you think she is? You think I need someone? Perhaps some great strong warrior like Calen? Or do I need a more intelligent man who is totally useless in battle like Rolan?" She spat bitterly. Clearly she'd argued this many times before. She opened her mouth to carry on but Brunet cut her off.
"I do not think you need someone in the way you assume I do. I do agree with Cerys, you need someone to help mend your heart, but I don't know that it means a man. I think you already have that, you have Cerys, the Valkyrie, Endeavour... They've helped you have they not? And you have your son, what better way to remember how to love than loving a child?" She stared at him a little shocked. "I believe, as I said before, that we can love again. And I think, in time, you will. Not because you NEED to, but because you'll be ready to love again. I do think you need someone, someone who will love protect and care for you even when you think you don't need it. Someone who will stand beside you for every battle and struggle, who with love you and your son and cherish you both, not as a trophy or prize, but because he reveres you. Because he cannot believe he was lucky enough to earn your love." She continued to stare at him.
"Cerys has never said it quite like that before." She said quietly.
"But that's what she means. She just wants you to be happy."
"And what does she know?" Sky scoffed again, sitting on a small rock. She was acting suddenly colder again. "She does not know love, she's never felt its suffocating hold."
"She knows love, she loves you, she loves her family and her people. Just because she may not yet have been in love, she knows love."
"That love is very different. Cerys does not know... I mean... She... She knows pain certainly... But she..." Sky was tripping on her words and thoughts. "She is soft of heart, gentle in her nature."
"And what does that have to do with knowing love?"
"It doesn't... Or it does... I do not know!" Sky exclaimed, throwing her hands up before placing her face in them. "She won't speak to me much. She's mad at me now. But she does not fight, she says nothing. How can she lead us one day? She's too gentle. I'm scared she'll get hurt!"
"Sky, she will be fine. Not all leaders can be fierce. Cerys will make a fine leader, she'll be caring and understanding of all. That's a rare thing to find, especially in a leader."
"But she will not stand up against others."
"I think she'll surprise you."
"And what do you know?" She snapped again.
"What do you know? You close yourself off. If you won't share or be open with others, how can you expect others to be the same with you?"
"Oh so now you think you know Cerys better than I?"
"I think you do not see everything."
"Go on then, go off and see Cerys, tell her what I've said. You both seem so friendly, and since you know her better, you must know everything."
"Why so suddenly bitter? Does it bother you that Cerys will talk to me?"
"Of course not!"
"Then why so bitter?"
"Because... Because..."
"Because what?"
"Everything was fine! Everything! Then you appear and suddenly, everything has changed!"
"How has everything changed?"
"Cerys suddenly fights with me, she won't talk to me. Even the Valkyrie accepted you, and very quickly, she did not accept me so fast. We have not seen the Night Fury for so long, you turn up and it's heard close by! It's been years, since last I saw him, and you turn up out of the blue and I find the possibility of seeing him again much more real! I do not need that! I cannot! I will not!" Hiccup stared baffled at her. She was not making sense suddenly.
"Who? Who have you not...?"
"Never you mind! Just as long as I never see him again!" With that Sky stormed back to the village ahead of him leaving Brunet totally confused.