Light and Heavy Burdens

When Hiccup entered the great hall late that afternoon, he made sure to relax his face and tried to look as if he wasn't scared that the horrible sound of his father's breathing would suddenly stop. Hiccup had even combed his hair, as the mess of it had been rather incredible. Sleeping half in a chair and half on his father's bed had not been comfortable for the rest of him, either.

As usual, when he entered the great hall, everyone turned to look at him, but he didn't mind. He expected it. It was easier, a little, when he knew what to expect.

He greeted people, asked about their health, and said his father was improving and would be in a nasty temper. It was wasn't quite the truth, but it made people relax. Stoick's temper was legendary, but it was normal. And if people thought he was sick and cranky, they wouldn't come to his house to bother him.

Hiccup wandered over to the far corner, and saw Gothi sitting up in one of the makeshift beds. Her face was turned to the bed next to her, where Mornen slept. Gothi's worry deepened the lines on her face as she watched her sister.

"Hello, Gothi," Hiccup said softly, bowing to her.

She nodded at him, then returned her gaze to Mornen.

"She isn't well, is she?" Gothi looked at him again, a considering expression on her face, and slowly shook her head.

"I'm sorry," Hiccup said. Gothi nodded once, then gestured for him to sit on the edge of Mornen's bed. He looked at her, and she pointed again, this time with the staff she always held in her hand.

Hiccup wasn't sure if it was proper for him to sit there, but Gothi would know. Or, if she knew, she didn't care, and he wasn't going to argue with her. It'd be a one-sided argument, anyway.

He sat on the bed, turned partially toward Mornen, and watched her breathing. It was unsteady, like his father's, but where Stoick had a massive chest to fill with air, Mornen was frail, and her breaths were thin and slow.

To Hiccup, it looked as if her lips were slightly blue. That wasn't good.

"Does she cough?" he asked Gothi.

She paused, then nodded halfheartedly, in a way Hiccup understood. She coughed, but not enough. Hiccup knew that his father had woken him up long ago when he was ill, and made him sit up to cough. Hiccup couldn't do that for his father - there's no way he'd be able to lift Stoick so often without a catapult - but he listened every moment for Stoick's coughing to start, so he could try.

"What if… do you think if we sat her up?"

Gothi looked at him, eyes narrowing.

"Might help?"

Gothi nodded, her permission given, and Hiccup stood and crossed to the other side of the bed.

"If I lift her, can you place something behind her?"

Gothi nodded, reaching with her staff to pull one of the bed pillows and a blanket closer.

Hiccup knelt by the bed to slide his arms beneath Mornen, and too late realized that what he was doing was highly improper. He shouldn't be touching an elder, and a woman in her bedclothes at that. He didn't know if Gothi and Mornen had any male relatives in the great hall with them, but at that moment, he couldn't ask. It was too late.

He pushed aside his worry and lifted Mornen gently into a seated position. She didn't weigh much at all, and Hiccup could feel the ridges and bones of her back resting in his hands. She wasn't hot, though.

Gothi pushed a pillow, then another, into position, and then rolled up a blanket and used that as well. Hiccup slowly lowered Mornen so she slept in a reclining position, her head higher than her chest. He covered her with the blanket, but then Gothi tapped him on the hand with her staff.

"Oh - I'm sorry." He'd crossed a line without meaning to, and began to stammer further apologies.

But Gothi shook her head. Setting her staff aside, she reached for his hand, and placed it between her own. She traced something on the back of his hand with a fingertip, then pressed her hand into his skin, as if sealing it into place. He didn't know what she'd drawn - his mind was still running in place over the idea that he'd offended Gothi by improperly covering her sister with a blanket.

Gothi smiled, her eyes shrewd. Hiccup wasn't sure what she was doing, but he was relieved she wasn't mad.

Gothi abruptly dropped his hand, and gestured toward the door of the great hall.

"Time for me to go?" She picked up her staff, nodded, and resumed her watch over her sleeping sister.

He looked around, saw that the hall wasn't as full as it had been when he'd come in, and realized it was long past time for him to get home.

The village talked about that moment for weeks afterward. They didn't see Hiccup lifting a sleeping woman improperly. They saw their future chief caring for one of them, carefully and without hesitation. When he closed the door to the great hall behind him, without knowing it, Hiccup left the room a more peaceful and hopeful place.