Hiccup's Bride Chapter 21
The newlyweds woke up the next morning facing each other. His hair was disheveled and his breath wasn't the greatest, but he smiled when he saw her looking at him. She kissed him, and they held each other for several minutes under the quilt and the sleeping furs. He didn't seem compelled to do more than that, for now at least. It was nice just to cuddle.
Then the house shook from a crash on the roof, and reverberated from an impatient roar.
"Fly-bye time again?" she asked lazily.
"You could come with us," he suggested as he swung out of bed and began re-attaching his leg.
"Would you fly straight and level, like yesterday?"
"Not a chance," he answered. "Toothless gets his crazies out of his system on our morning flight. I hate to say it, but if you like straight and level, you're better off staying on the ground."
"Is he that wild?" she wondered.
"Tuffnut once told me he was bored, so I took him on a typical morning ride. He said I was insane! Then he wanted to do it again, of course." Toothless roared again. "I need to get a move on. If I try his patience too much, it's just a matter of time before he figures out how to work the door latch and let himself in."
She nodded. "No dragons in here; we agree on that much."
He gave her a surprised look. "I didn't say he shouldn't be in here. I said he shouldn't learn how to let himself in. He'd leave the door open and we'd freeze."
She looked back at him levelly. "No dragons in here. Period."
He shrugged. "We'll negotiate on that one later. I'll be back in an hour or so." The house shook from another crash as he ran for the door. "I'm coming, Toothless!"
It didn't take us long to find something to disagree on, she thought crossly as she got dressed. On further reflection, she realized that she'd initially expected to find all kinds of disagreements with him. So far, they'd found only one, and he'd used the word "negotiate," rather than more Meathead-like words like "demand" or "order." Even when they disagreed, he still kept on surprising her!
When Hiccup returned at the end of his flight, looking very windblown, she didn't bring up the dragon-in-the-house issue. Instead, she led him to their bed and pointed to an odd-shaped lump perched on the headboard. "What is that?" she asked.
He picked it up with a tender expression. "This is a stuffed toy my mother made for me when I was very small. It's supposed to be a Deadly Nadder." He chuckled a bit. "I was afraid of it when I was a child. I threw it in the ocean when I thought no one was looking. It turned up years later in some fisherman's net. I don't know how my dad found out about it, or what he paid to get it back, but... aside from my helmet, it's all I have left of my mother."
"And your childhood," she added, thinking of her ruminations yesterday.
"I don't miss my childhood at all," he said firmly, putting the Nadder back in its place of honor. "I think it ended on the day I realized that my dad didn't have my back, and I was pretty much on my own. I've spent the rest of my life trying to be an adult, and trying to convince everyone else that I had grown up."
"Did that change when you trained Toothless?" she asked.
"Not really," he replied. "I think it's finally starting to change, now that I'm married to you." He paused. "Do you miss your childhood?"
"A little," she nodded. "Life was simpler then, I had fewer responsibilities, and if something went wrong, my father was always there to make it right." His face fell and he looked away; she realized she'd inadvertently hit him in a sore spot. She embraced him, and he returned the hug.
"I think I envy you," he said quietly.
When he let her go, she had an idea. "Hiccup, wait here. I'll be back in a few minutes." She was out the door before he could ask her what she was doing.
He sat down on the bed and took stock of his situation. It certainly wasn't what he'd expected.
Thora had somehow changed from an ice princess into a very pleasing girl. She wasn't demanding or sharp-tongued, she wasn't trying to dominate him, and she certainly knew how to keep a young man happy. She seemed to be made mostly of positive qualities.
The only thing she lacked was that she wasn't Astrid. That was a tough hurdle for any girl to surmount. Well, any girl except one. But he hadn't spent his every waking moment thinking about Astrid, the way he'd feared. That was partially because Thora was so good at distracting him and drawing his thoughts toward herself.
He knew he had to get over his girlfriend and focus entirely on his wife. Anything less would be a betrayal of his vow to be faithful, even if no one else ever knew about it. It didn't seem possible that he could find happiness in another girl's arms... and yet, that was exactly what he'd found in Thora's arms for these past couple of days. When she hugged him, he didn't want to let go, and when she kissed him... wow. She didn't attack him with her kisses; it felt like they were sharing something. And when they went beyond kissing... double-wow. Maybe triple-wow, now that he thought about it. The absence of pummeling on his arms was nice, too.
A part of him refused to let go of the girl he'd loved all his life. That part of him was getting outvoted by the rest of him. He knew it would be a sad day when he stopped thinking about Astrid altogether; it would be a sort of final transition into adulthood, leaving behind the last and dearest aspects of his youth. But he also knew that day had to come, and if Thora kept on drawing him the way she was drawing him now, that day would come sooner rather than later.
Of course, it really helped that he hadn't seen Astrid since before the wedding.
He decided he liked married life. It was nice to have someone around who listened to him and cared what he thought. She was no doormat, but she wanted to please him. She wasn't very warm toward Toothless, but that was understandable – her village thought it was still at war with the dragons – and she might change her mind with the passage of time. It took Berk a lot longer than two days to adjust to dragons on the roof; it wouldn't be fair to expect her to get over a lifelong fear and hatred, just like that.
His thoughts were interrupted by Thora's return. She brought two breakfast platters from the Mead Hall, piled with bacon, eggs, ham, bread, and cups of cow's milk. "I thought it was time we ate a meal alone together," she explained as she sat on a bench by the firepit.
"Thank you," he exclaimed, surprised. "I'm not used to being waited on."
"I can't promise I'll do this every day," she smiled, "but knowing that you appreciate it makes me want to do it again."
As they were finishing their meal, they heard a light tapping at the door. Hiccup opened it, and was quite surprised to find Gobber. He looked embarrassed.
"Mornin', Hiccup. Mornin', Thora. Hiccup, I know ye just got married an' all, but I've got a bit of a problem in the forge, an' I could really use yer help."
"What kind of problem in the forge could be worth interrupting a man's honeymoon?" she demanded.
"It's yer uncle, Chief Mogadon," the smith replied. "He was showin' off 'is favorite sword at the party, wavin' it around, and... I dinna know how it 'appened, but he bent it, an' he wants it fixed, now. He didn't come out an' say it, but I think he'd be flattered if our local sword expert got 'is hands on it, an' I know the work will go faster if we both do it."
"I assume the forge isn't lit?" Hiccup asked.
"It's stone cold," Gobber nodded.
Hiccup turned to Thora. "This will probably take at least two hours, between heating the forge, straightening the sword, and putting a good edge on it. It's not how I planned to spend today, but... duty calls. Do you mind? I'll be back before lunch."
"It's okay – I understand about duty. I should be here when you get done." She gave him a quick kiss on the lips, which made him blush (Gobber was watching), and he left for the forge with the master smith.
His departure was actually very well-timed. She needed a few minutes alone with her father.
He was in the guest home, slowly getting ready for another day of wild partying. He had the constitution of an ox, but Stoick was serving some potent brews in the Hall, and it was beginning to tell on him. Still, he brightened when he saw his daughter and gave her an affectionate hug.
"Is everything going okay?" he asked.
"It's... it's not a bit what I thought it would be like," she nodded. "Can we go for a walk?" He nodded, and they made their way to the deserted harbor front.
"Father, Hiccup told me some things about dragons," she began.
"That didn't take you long," he nodded. "Were they interesting things?"
"You have no idea!" she exclaimed. "You've heard about that Red Death that he killed? I've seen its bones – it was almost as long as this harbor is wide! But that's not the really interesting part."
"I'm listening," he said.
"Hiccup said the dragons raided us just so they could feed that Red Death. Now that it's dead, they won't raid us any more. That's why Berk has peace with them!"
Megadeth considered this revelation. "If that's true, then it means the dragons won't attack us, either. Berk isn't the threat that we thought they were."
Thora knew where that idea was going, and it terrified her. "Father, no! If war breaks out again – if we break the treaty we just signed – I'll be nothing but a hostage! They'll kill me first!"
"War and peace are Mogadon's decision, not mine," he said sadly. "All I can do is tell him what you've told me. He doesn't always listen to good advice, but he won't do anything totally stupid."
"Besides," she went on urgently, "a lot of the dragons have riders, and they'll do whatever those riders tell them to do. Berk could still bring at least half a dozen dragons on a raid if they wanted to. Maybe more – I'm not sure." When he didn't seem convinced, she added, "They have a Night Fury."
Megadeth looked at his daughter speculatively. "How much control do you think you have over that Night Fury's rider?"
"Control? None. Influence? Maybe quite a bit, but I couldn't convince him to go against his own tribe and his own father."
He thought for a few more seconds, then suddenly gathered her up in his huge arms. She could have sworn he was shaking. "I've always been a faithful Meathead," he murmured. "I've let my brother be the chief, and I've obeyed his every command. He wants Berk's dragon secrets, and I've promised to get them. But you're my little girl..." He took a deep breath, then another, and let her go. "You haven't even been here a week. You can't possibly know if all these things Hiccup told you are really true. I need more information before I can tell the chief anything." He stared into her eyes. "Gather some more facts for me, Thora. Take your time. Okay?"
She understood the message and nodded. "I'll talk to more people. Some of them might be hard to catch up with, and they might not trust me at first. It could take weeks, maybe even months."
"I'll pass that on to Mogadon," he nodded innocently. "But enough about the dragons. Talk to me about your handsome husband."
"Well... he's not at all what I expected."
"Do you think you can be happy?" he asked.
"Yes," she said, with no hesitation. That surprised him; he raised an eyebrow but didn't comment.
"Is he treating you well?"
"Of course he is – we're on our honeymoon! The women at the washing told me he'll probably be on his best behavior for two or three weeks, and then I should expect reality to come crashing in."
"What do you think that will mean, in his case?"
She thought for a moment. "He'll probably want to bring his dragon into the house." Her father snickered until he realized she was serious.
"His dragon? In the house?"
She nodded. "He's almost as close to that dragon as he is to me, I think. Maybe closer. I noticed he built the house with extra-wide doors; I'm wondering if that was his plan all along. But if that's his worst fault, I'm sure we'll find some way to work it out."
"If that's his worst fault..." he echoed her, then rested a hand on her forehead. "Are you feeling okay, Thora? Is this the girl who had endless complaints and nothing good to say about her future husband?"
She nudged his hand away. "Father, it's like I said. He isn't who I thought he was."
"So who is he, really?" he asked. "Is he brave? Strong? Romantic?"
"He's a little of all those things," she decided, "but mostly, he's just... nice."
"Can you live with 'just nice'?" he wondered.
"Yes," she said emphatically. "I had no idea how nice 'nice' could be."
He shook his head, but smiled. "You really surprise me sometimes, Thora."
"Not half as much as he's surprised me," she replied, with a matching smile.