A/N: I apologize for the LOOONG delay in posting. My personal life has been nonstop chaos, and I have not been particularly good at coping with it. Also, I had something happen on my birthday (August 6) that turned it into the Worst Birthday Ever, and also made writing the subject matter of this particular chapter especially emotionally difficult, such that I just couldn't do it for a very long time. (If you follow me on tumblr and saw me talking about the Worst Birthday Ever, you might see why)
My life is still chaos, I'm still not dealing very well, and I'm still super busy and trying to hold on for dear life, so I can't promise regular updates. I can promise I will never abandon this story, so even if I end up having to go a while between updates, I promise they will always be coming until this story is complete. On with the show.
Chapter 28: Sins of the Father
"Is it just me, or does it seem like there are more dragons tonight then usual?" Astrid asked, watching the dragons Hiccup had successfully scared off make their way away from the island.
"It's not just you," came his reply. "But there haven't been many raids lately, so she's probably been building up an appetite. That said, this could be good for us. She gets fed, she's happy and lazy for awhile; we use that time to put our plan into motion. Just be careful out there."
Astrid nodded, and then Hiccup and Toothless were winging back into the sky to build up speed for their next attack. Astrid brought her sights back to the village below, on the lookout for fights to break up.
They hadn't been back to Berk since the night she saw her father and sister. Well, she hadn't been back to Berk until that night. Hiccup had been back a couple of nights since, working with Gobber in his forge on something he kept insisting was totally part of his plan. Astrid was still not convinced, but Hiccup was more hopeful and enthusiastic than he had been in a long time, and so even if this plan failed, she was glad he was at least trying.
She passed over the village square and spotted Ruffnut, her child strapped to her chest, caught between a burning building and a curious Zippleback. Astrid's eyes widened. "Down there, girl! Hurry!" They swooped low, spines shooting from Stormfly's tail to stick in the ground between the dragon and Ruffnut.
"Now!" Astrid had just a moment to wonder at Ruffnut's cry before she heard the twang and saw the weighted net soaring through the air towards them. There was no time to avoid it. They were too close to the ground and too close to the machine. The net wrapped itself around Stormfly's body, pinning her wings and legs and tying Astrid to the saddle. They hit the ground, all of Stormfly's control used to avoid landing on her back, and Astrid tumbled from the tangled ropes and fell to the dirt with an impact she was sure had broken something. There was shouting growing nearer, and as she tried to push herself to her feet arms grabbed her around the waist and the shoulders and yanked her up. She screamed, trying to fight back, trying to reach her knife or her dragon.
She didn't care to identify the arms that held her, but she didn't recognize the men who leapt on Stormfly to secure her bonds and hold her jaws closed. "Watch the tail, lads!"
…but she did know that voice. Why did she know that voice?
"Let me go! Stormfly!" Another figure joined the men, one Astrid recognized immediately. Her eyes widened. "Eret?" Eret paused as he approached, pulling a long thin tube from his pocket and putting it to his mouth. Several darts flew from the end of the tube and struck Stormfly's hide, and seconds later the Nadder went slack, her tongue lolling out of her mouth. "Stormfly!"
Astrid struggled against the arms that held her, but whoever it was held firm. "Astrid!" She turned in time to see her mother before she collided with her, arms thrown around her shoulders and crushing her to her chest.
"Ingrid, let go, this isn't the time to—" That was her father's voice in her ear; it was her father who held her. She tried to shake her mother off and pull from her father's grasp. Where was Hiccup?
"Let me go! Let me—"
There was a roar and Astrid turned to see Hiccup and Toothless landing in the center of the square, a fearsome sight in the glow of the burning building behind them.
Toothless roared, his wings and hackles raised in warning.
Stoick stepped forward, drawing his sword. "You failed to keep your end of the bargain, Dragon Master," he said, scowling. "So we'll be taking our sacrifice back now." Toothless roared again, stalking closer, but Stoick held firm.
"Let me go!" Astrid shouted, struggling against the arms that held her. "I chose to stay with him! Just let me go before someone gets hurt!"
Toothless took another step forward, and that's when Astrid heard another sharp twang, and out of nowhere came a weighted net that ensnared Toothless and Hiccup both. Astrid screamed as the force knocked man and dragon to the side, Hiccup falling from the saddle as Toothless rolled and further tangled himself in the net. Vikings and trappers alike piled on to the dragon, holding down his head and muzzling him with ropes.
Hiccup sprinted back towards his dragon but Stoick intercepted him and pointed his sword at his chest. "If you want to get the girl back you're going to have to fight for her yourself. Let's see how capable you are without your little pet, eh?"
Hiccup's fists clenched and Astrid knew that behind his mask he was seething. It was enough that they had captured her; for them to harm Toothless as well...
He reached for the sword strapped to his leg, and in a moment it was ignited and swinging towards Stoick. Metal met metal as Stoick easily blocked the blow. With a growl the chief took a swipe at Hiccup, who ducked out of the way and swung again, his sword clanging against the decorative buckle of Stoick's belt. Stoick lunged in retaliation and Hiccup parried with surprising strength.
Astrid held her breath, for a moment too frightened and shocked even to struggle against the arms that held her. She didn't know if Hiccup would truly harm his own father, but she and Toothless were in danger, and if he had no choice...
Hiccup blocked another attack, and Stoick let loose a mighty bellowing yell, his sword lifted high and his ferocity doubled. He swung his sword over and over, blow after blow that Hiccup barely blocked each time. He was being pushed back, towards the side of a row of buildings. The entire village watching in silence, not even bothering to fight the dragons flying away from the village with their livestock, as their chief relentlessly attacked the demon that had plagued their village for so long.
"You! Will! Attack! Us! No! More!" Stoick shouted, each word punctuated with another clang and shower of sparks as his sword met Hiccup's. "Your beasts killed my wife, my son! Well you will NOT. KILL. ME!" Stoick swung hard, landing a hefty blow that tore the sword from Hiccup's hand and sent him staggering and spinning backwards until he hit the side of a building and fell to the ground.
Astrid distantly heard Gobber's voice as he pushed through to the front of the crowd, the only noise from those gathered. Everything seemed to slow as she watched Stoick's sword rise in the the air, preparing for the final blow, as Hiccup, on the ground with nowhere to go and no time to move, curled in on himself and sheltered his head with his arms.
"Stoick, wait-"
"HICCUP!"
Astrid regretted her scream the second the word left her lips, but it had stayed Stoick's sword, and for the moment that was all that mattered. She clapped a hand over her mouth, her wide eyes taking in the stunned, baffled expression on Stoick's face. The silence grew impossibly quieter before it slowly began to dissolve into soft whispers.
"What did she say?"
"Did she say what I thought she did?"
"She can't mean..."
In the confusion those restraining Toothless had slackened their hold, and with a muted roar the dragon slung them away and tore the ropes from his jaw with his talons. He roared again and tackled Stoick, pinning him beneath his claws. There were screams from the crowd but above them another voice rang out: "TOOTHLESS, STOP!"
Hiccup was on his feet, hand extended towards his dragon, and with a rueful bay Toothless backed away from Stoick and returned to Hiccup's side. No one in the crowd moved. Stoick was still staring at the Dragon Master as he climbed to his feet, eyes impossibly wide. His lips formed the soundless shape of his son's name.
The masked face turned Astrid's direction, and she gave him a sheepish look and mouthed 'sorry'.
He faced his father, and then, hesitantly, slowly, he bowed his head and lifted his hands to remove his helmet.
A collective gasp went up from the crowd.
"Please tell me you've tapped that."
Astrid shot Ruffnut a glare, and noticed for the first time that she held only a bundle of stained blankets in her arms. It had been a trick all along. Her baby had never been in danger. The whole thing had been a trap. Astrid returned her attention to Hiccup. He was watching his father with a carefully controlled expression.
"Hello Dad."
Stoick released a shuddering breath. "Hiccup?" He swallowed. "You're alive." He looked at Toothless, prowling behind his master, then back to Hiccup. "You're...you're the...the..." He took a step forward.
"The Dragon Master?" Hiccup supplied, irritation bleeding into his expression, and Stoick halted. Hiccup packed his helmet into Toothless's saddle bag, eyes pointedly avoiding his father. "Took you long enough to figure it out. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised no one ever did. I mean, kid disappears after fight with Night Fury, a couple years later a mysterious stranger shows up riding a Night Fury...it's not that hard of a connection to make."
Stoick continued to stare. "But you...and that dragon...you…you've been alive all this time."
"Of course. Toothless would never have hurt me. I was never in any danger at all." Hiccup nonchalantly strolled to his fallen sword and picked it up, inspecting it briefly before pointing it at Astrid. "Let her go."
Stoick blinked and seemed to shake himself out of his stupor. He frowned and glanced at Astrid, who for the moment had stopped trying to pry herself away from her father. "We're taking back our sacrifice. You-he-you didn't hold up your end of the bargain. He-you..." He shook his head, confused frown pouting his lips. "We-we're not giving her back."
Hiccup's irritation solidified into a glare. "Yeah, see, you dressed an innocent girl up as a bride and gave her up to be raped and murdered to save your own cowardly skins. It's a little bit late for regret. The return policy has expired." His mouth twisted into a cruel smile. "And I can't exactly say I'd be returning her in like-new condition."
I'm going to kill him, Astrid thought, as Hiccup shot her a glance. An acknowledgement, if not necessarily an apology.
Stoick was shaking his head, his brow furrowed. "Who are you?" He asked. "Talking like this, cavorting with dragons, attacking your own village, this…this isn't the Hiccup I knew."
Hiccup scoffed. "The Hiccup you knew? You didn't know me. And you didn't care to. I wasn't who you wanted me to be, so you stopped trying to understand me. Just like you never bothered to try to understand the dragons."
Stoick was cultivating a glare of his own now. "Understand the dragons? The creatures that have been attacking my home since before I was born? The monsters that took my wife, your mother? The beasts I thought had taken my only son? You want me to try to understand those murderous beasts?"
"Yes!" Hiccup shouted. "Because they're not murderous beasts!" He clenched his fists and his jaw in an attempt to reign in his temper. "They are nothing like what you think they are. They are gentle, kind, even friendly. Toothless is the best friend I've ever had. After I shot him down he could have killed me. If he was the monster you think he is he would have. But I spared his life and he spared mine. For five years he and I have traveled together, lived together, taken care of each other." Hiccup's anger was slowly fading, replaced by the kind of passionate determination and pleading look Astrid had always known was the key to ending the war. She felt hope rise in her throat listening to him. He pointed to Stormfly, still subdued by Eret's men. "That Nadder treats Astrid like she was one of her own hatchings, even after the cruelty shown to her in Berk's very own arena." He took a deep breath and a small step forward. "They aren't what you think, Dad," he said, his voice the softest it had been since he had first removed his helmet. "This, the raids, the fighting, it isn't them. They raid us because they have to, and they fight back in self defense, that's all. If you would just stop the fighting, if you would just try to find another way to-"
"Enough," Stoick said gruffly.
"But-"
"ENOUGH," Stoick repeated. "I have heard enough of this nonsen-"
"No!" Hiccup shouted, his voice cutting through Stoick's firm command in a way no one else on Berk would ever have dared attempt. "I am DONE letting you silence me! I am DONE letting you talk over me! For ONCE in your Thordamned life you are going to LISTEN to what I have to say!"
Astrid held her breath, along with the rest of the village, as they all looked from abashed father to enraged son.
"My whole life you have ignored and dismissed everything I have ever tried to say to you! I was NEVER good enough!"
"You were good enough," Stoick tried to interject, his voice strangely quiet.
"No I wasn't!" Hiccup laughed humorlessly. "The only time I was ever close to the son you wanted was when you thought I was some dragon fighting prodigy. If I had told you the truth would you have listened?"
There was an awkward pause while Stoick's mouth hung open, wordless and useless. Hiccup's eyebrows rose. "Oh now you have nothing to say?" He shook his head. "And you really have to ask why I left?" He scowled at his father. "I spent all my life being this village's resident fuck-up, with you and everyone else making sure I knew it. And then I found Toothless. The best friend I ever had. The first friend, the ONLY friend I ever had. And if I had kept doing things your way I would have had to kill a dragon. After everything I had learned about them. I couldn't stay in this place of ignorance and violence anymore. Where I was supposed to 'walk like you, talk like you, think like you.' I didn't want to think like you. I didn't want to be anything like you, like any of you. Your way of thinking would have had me kill an innocent creature. Your way of thinking would have me kill the best friend I have ever had!"
A shadow passed over Stoick's face and he shook his head slowly. "This is madness. You may have tamed one beast but dragons are not—not gentle. Say what you will about my way of thinking, but it's your way of thinking that got your mother killed!"
"It's your way of thinking that got my mother killed!" Hiccup burst, and Astrid flinched. She didn't know why Hiccup continued to let his father believe that Valka was dead; cultivating guilt, she supposed. There was a look of indignation spreading across Stoick's face. There was too much anger here, Astrid thought. Too much pent up pain and hurt and regret, all spilling out at last in the form of raw, untempered fury. Father and son could not see each other as such; a battlefield 300 years wide stretched between them. "If you didn't insist on fighting, on attacking the dragons that raid us only for survival-"
"Survival?!" Stoick countered, his voice booming through the night. "What about our survival?! Have you chosen them over us? Whose side are you on?"
"I'm not on anyone's 'side'! I'm on my side! I'm on the side that gave me freedom! That released me from the scorn of this horrible village and gave me my best friend! Hel, I don't believe there even have to be sides!"
"You let us all think you were dead for years! You subjected me to all that pain, all that grief, all that guilt! You let me mourn you-"
"You didn't mourn me, Dad," Hiccup said, rolling his eyes. "You mourned Hiccup the Dragon Training champion, maybe. Hiccup the son you always wanted." He scowled. "You didn't know enough about me to mourn. I had to hide everything I really was, lock it all up, pretend I was the perfect Viking, the perfect heir, the perfect dragon-fighting warrior. Be a little less, all, this." He gestured to his whole body, his voice dripping acid. "Well, this," again the exaggerated sweep of his arms, "Is me." He gestured to Toothless. "This is me."
Stoick shook his head, nostrils flaring and lips curling. "No, this, this is not the boy I raised. I may have put unfair pressure on you, but I raised you better than to abandon us, let us think you'd died, just so you could lead dragon attacks against your own people!"
"I don't lead the attacks! I don't understand how that ever even made sense to you; the dragons have been raiding for hundreds of years and I've only been showing up for three. All I do is try to temper the fighting; keep dragons and Vikings from slaughtering each other!"
"You've betrayed this village!"
"I PROTECT this village!" Hiccup's voice rang out, loud and nearly cracking. His outburst was followed by a strange silence. Hiccup stared at his father, at his people, panting slightly. He swallowed and straightened, his hands balled into fists at his sides. He regarded his father with a hard set to his brow.
"How many dragons have died here in the last three years?"
Momentary confusion interrupted Stoick's anger. "What?"
"How many?" Hiccup repeated, his voice calm. "How many dragons have been killed during raids on Berk since I started showing up?"
After a moment Stoick replied with a scowl, "None. You've made sure of that."
Hiccup nodded. His head tipped back, just slightly. "How many people have died in the last three years?"
He was answered with silence. "Well?" Hiccup prompted. "How many people have died? Since I started interfering in raids, how many casualties have there been? How many deaths? How many life-threatening injuries? How many lost limbs? Come on, it's not that hard of a question; how many people have died?"
Finally Stoick's soft answer: "None."
Hiccup nodded again. "Exactly. You may call me a traitor but I've done more to protect this village from its own self-assured destruction in the last few years than you ever did. And I've protected every other village in the archipelago as well, as best I could. I couldn't always prevent death and destruction, but I did everything I could. Astrid and I both did. Aren't you the one who told me that a chief protects his own?"
Stoick had not yet been able to meet his son's eye. "Not by throwing in your lot with our enemy."
"Oh, but something as cowardly and superstitious as virgin sacrifice is so much better?!"
"Sacrificing one of our own for the greater good of our people is not the same as turning your back on your own kind."
Hiccup's breath left him in a shuddering exhale. "Can you not hear me?" He asked, his voice small and strained. "Does anything I say to you even penetrate that thick skull of yours? Even now, even after all this time, and everything that's happened, are you just incapable of listening to me? Is it just impossible for you to put aside all your prejudice for long enough to just listen to your son?"
Stoick's eyes rose to Hiccup's face. Even in the firelight Astrid thought they seemed colder than she had ever seen them. "You're no son of mine," he said, his voice low and hollow, like it took all the air in his lungs to give those words life. He shook his head. "I don't know who you are. I don't know who or what you've turned into, what that dragon has turned you into, but you are not my son."
Astrid wasn't sure if it was Stoick's words or the pain in her ribs, but she felt like she'd been punched in the stomach. Hiccup's eyes widened for just a moment before they narrowed and his whole expression hardened. He leaned forward just slightly and hissed, "Who says I still wanted to be?"
The question, a harsher declaration than even Stoick's disownment, had its intended effect. Stoick's eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped open, and then he was scowling. "Get out!" He growled. "Get off this island! You are no longer welcome here!"
Hiccup didn't react except to point a finger at Astrid, who suddenly realized that her parents had completely released their grip on her. "Not without her."
"We're not giving her back!" Astrid's mother shrieked, grabbing Astrid's arm. Astrid tried to pull away.
"Let me go; I'd rather be with him!"
"She's ours, and she's staying here."
"If she was so precious to you then you shouldn't have given her up," Hiccup said. "And I'm not leaving without her, so you can either give me back my bride or I'll take her back." Behind him Toothless growled in warning.
"Fine." Before Astrid had time to register what was happening, Stoick was marching towards her and grabbing her roughly by the arm. She was jerked from her mother's grasp, who screamed. Stoick ignored her parents' protests. Astrid tripped over her own feet trying to keep us with Stoick's long strides as he dragged her over to Hiccup and threw her to the ground at his feet. She hit the ground hard, enough to jar her already injured ribs and she groaned in pain. "Take your whore and leave this place."
Gentle hands found her waist and arm and Hiccup carefully helped her to her feet. When she faced him she saw how completely his expression had changed. He was staring at her with concern and worry, his eyebrows drawn together. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" He pushed her bangs out of her eyes and ran a tender hand over the side of her face and down her neck.
"I think I cracked a rib, but I'll be okay," she told him. He breathed a sigh of relief and kissed her. It was brief but sweet and took her by surprise. When he drew away he kissed her cheek and then her temple before his gaze shifted to the village and his glare returned.
"Her dragon too."
"Absolutely not."
Hiccup's arms wound around her and drew her close. She wasn't sure she liked this possessive, protective side of him. "This is the only time I'm going to ask nicely. If we have to come back for her, I'm going to be far less forgiving."
"And if I see either of you, or that beast of yours, on my island again, I'll not hesitate to shoot you out of the skies." Astrid heard a whimper, and looked to the crowd, where her father had his hands on her mother's shoulders. Her mother had her hands clapped over her mouth, tears gathering in her eyes. "I'll let you leave this time because of who you are to me. But from this day on you are an enemy of Berk and will be treated as one."
"I keep telling you I'm not your enemy! I've been trying to protect this village!"
Astrid could barely stand to see the cold, cruel look in Stoick's eyes. It was all wrong; this whole thing had gone so terribly wrong. "We don't need your kind of 'protection'."
Hiccup's arms tightened on her waist and Astrid looked at him. His voice was too calm, too low, too cold when he replied, "Then see how well you do without me."
He turned to Toothless, pulling Astrid with him. She resisted, throwing a glance over her shoulder. "But Stormfly-"
"We'll get her later," Hiccup whispered.
He tried to help her up into the saddle but she pushed against his arms. "But Hiccup-"
He spun her around to face him. "I know," he said, and Astrid saw the brewing storm behind his eyes. "Okay, I know, and I promise we'll come back for her, but now isn't the time and she's probably too heavily sedated to fly anyway."
Then Hiccup was lifting her into the saddle and climbing on behind her.
Loose strands of hair whipped across her face as she turned to look at her village.
This was so similar and yet so different from the night of her sacrifice. Again she found herself on the saddle of this dragon with Hiccup before her entire village. Just like before Stoick watched her with a cruel expression, while her tearful parents watched on. Just like before, no one stepped forward to stop them.
Just like before, she was afraid.
She felt no fear for her own life; the warmth at her back was comforting instead of frightening. But she was afraid for Stormfly, for Hiccup and Stoick and the fate of this whole village. For the fate of dragons and Vikings everywhere.
Her heart broke for Hiccup, for the pain on Stoick's face hiding behind the anger.
Toothless's wings rose, and she watched Stoick's expression fall, his foot jerking forward in a hesitant step, and then they were taking off.
She had every intention of talking to Hiccup once they had leveled off and slowed their flight high in the skies, but Hiccup showed no sign of slowing. They picked up speed as they burst above the clouds, Hiccup leaning forwards and pushing her low to the saddle as he narrowed the tailfin to urge Toothless faster.
Normally Astrid liked riding with him on Toothless when they showed off their speed, but tonight it worried her. She could hear Hiccup's labored breathing in her ear, but at this speed she couldn't turn her head to properly look at him. The wind stung her eyes and cheeks; she was used to riding behind Hiccup when they flew this fast and the angle hurt her back and her already sensitive ribs.
The tail shifted and they slowed to a glide. Hiccup straightened and she heard him shifting in the saddle. "Hold on tight, Astrid. Don't drop her, bud."
"Hiccup, what—" She turned in time to see Hiccup sliding off the saddle. She had a moment of wide-eyed terror before Toothless was twisting into a dive and she had to flatten herself to the saddle and wrap her arms around Toothless's neck.
They caught up with Hiccup, plummeting head-first towards the ocean below. They fell through the night sky, the three of them, side by side.
Astrid had her cheek pressed to the saddle, holding on for dear life. She watched Hiccup, his eyes closed and head thrown back, soft lines between his eyebrows. She couldn't say how long they fell. She'd never liked falling, and it felt like hours and it felt like no time at all before Hiccup opened his eyes and Toothless turned his back for Hiccup to pull himself back into the saddle.
They pulled out of the dive and resumed their breakneck speed, leaving Astrid no opportunity to ask Hiccup what the hel he was thinking.
They arrived at their mountain much sooner than usual, and at last Toothless touched down on the stone floor of their bedroom and Astrid felt like she could breathe again. Behind her, Hiccup's panting was growing louder, sharper. He nearly fell out of the saddle and stumbled to his knees on the floor.
Astrid slid off the saddle slowly, careful not to jar her injured ribs, and watched as Hiccup tore haphazardly at the straps and buckles of his armor. His shoulders and chest were heaving. Astrid took slow steps as she approached him, her heart in her throat. Behind her, Toothless cooed mournfully.
Hiccup finally managed to rip off his shoulder and arm guards and threw them away, and tore open his chest piece before bracing his hands on the stone floor. Astrid stepped around him and peered down at his face.
He was shaking; sharp, shuddering breaths sucked in and out through trembling lips. His eyes were fixed on the floor but seemed to look right through it.
She knew that look. She'd lived that look. This was the face of someone whose entire world had been ripped out from under their feet, whose worst fears had come to pass.
She lowered herself to her knees and took Hiccup's face in her hands. He swallowed hard.
"It's funny," he said, his voice quiet and broken. "You spend years knowing something might as well be true, but it still hurts so much hearing it said out loud."
Astrid pulled his face forwards and he buried it against her chest. His arms rose and wrapped tight around her waist. Her ribs protested, but she bit back the pain as she and Hiccup pulled each other close. Toothless padded over and curled himself around them both, a low, sympathetic rumble in his throat.
Hiccup was too stubborn to cry, but Astrid held him as dry, soundless sobs shook his thin frame. She didn't know what to say to comfort him, or even if such words existed. If they did, she did not know how to find them tonight. It was the first time in a long time that she had felt this close to hopeless, and she knew that for Hiccup, at this moment, hope must seem a far-off impossible thing.
In the morning, she would find the words to comfort him. She would find the way to show him all was not lost, that they could try again, perhaps when emotions were not running so high and anger could not derail the entire conversation.
For tonight, all she could do was hold him, and remind him that he was not alone.
Finally she coaxed Hiccup out of his armor and into bed, where they cuddled close together, with Toothless curled on the bed around them, a great comforting warmth against the pain.
She knew how he felt; no one ever mentioned how impossible it is to burn bridges without setting oneself aflame.
Xx
It was another night where no one in the village would be sleeping.
The chief was no exception.
There was no fire in the hearth, no source of light or heat in the house beyond the tiny candle sitting on the desk, but Stoick did not feel the cold. He sat on the edge of the little bed, tired eyes taking in the dust-covered room. He hadn't had the heart to move a single trinket in the five years since this room had been used. Part of him had held onto some foolish, impossible hope that one day Hiccup would be back, and he would be terribly upset if he'd found his father had been going through his things.
Not such an impossible hope, as it turned out.
There was a creak from the floor below as the door opened and closed. Stoick didn't have to wonder who it was. There was only one person in the village brave or foolish enough to seek him out tonight. He stared at a blueprint on the wall, some daft machine or another sketched out in charcoal and surrounded by numbers and notes, as the alternating thud and clunk of foot and wood grew louder with each stair ascended. He didn't look up as the thuds grew closer, or when the weight of the bed dipped beside him.
"Did you know?" Stoick asked softly. Gobber sighed.
"Only for the last few weeks."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Gobber sighed again. "How could I? How do you even tell somethin' like that?"
Silence fell between them. After a long moment Gobber cleared his throat. "Look, Stoick, I know tonight didn't exactly, eh, didn't exactly go well, but, ehm," he coughed and sighed. "Stoick, you really should try to listen to him. He's still your son."
"No," Stoick said, shaking his head. "Gobber, that man…the way he spoke to me, the way he looked at me—" his voice broke and he paused, swallowing through the lump in his throat. "That's not my son, Gobber. That's not my Hiccup. Whoever that man is, whoever he's become…he's not my boy. That boy is gone."
He looked around the room, dim in the soft light of the candle and blurry through the tears that burned as they filled his eyes. He should have seen the signs. He should have seen this coming. He should have stopped it before it all went so very far.
"Then see how well you do without me!"
For years those words had haunted his nightmares. Now they would again, but for a whole new reason.
Tears spilled down into his beard as Stoick looked around the room, as he took in the sight of the helmet on the floor beside the bed, the axe leaning against the wall, the blueprints scattered across the desk, relics of a child long gone.
"Stoick, put the rest aside, your son is alive—"
"The Dragon Master is alive," he interrupted, closing his eyes against this room, against the reminders of his clumsy, awkward, wonderful child. "But Hiccup…Hiccup is dead."
