Through The Ups & Downs
Couple; Harrison X Briana
Rating; Mature
Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD or any songs I might use! In addition, from this point in the story and in future chapters, I do not own the character Ella (Eira) Solveig. She belongs to a good friend, ShadowSpirit020.
29) Missing Everyone
{Harrison's POV}
[April 2016-Fort Benning-Harrison's Room]
It might have been one of the hardest things I ever had to do. Telling my family and friends on Skype that I was needed at Fort Benning, then hung up on them because I was in the middle of wrangling twenty-five wild dragons and needed to have Toothless use his Alpha Mode-the blue glow I learned about in Kuwait, to calm the dragons down. Of course, I ended up getting a pretty bad burn on my right arm from a Monstrous Nightmare. Nothing I couldn't handle, dragons were kind of my specialty and that's why I was made the head dragon trainer to Fort Benning Military Base. It had been three months since then, it was now April 22nd, 2016, a Friday and I'm sitting in my quarters thinking about everything. Gods, I'd been so ready to go home for a bit and see them all but that day at the airport, I was stopped from boarding the plane and told that I wasn't allowed to leave with my unit.
/Flashback: Monday, January 24th, 2016-7:30 pm/
Fury Fire Unit and I were standing in line to board the aircraft that would take us home to Arc Isle, it would be an eighteen-hour flight plus layovers or so Major General Wright told me. I had called my family to tell them we were coming home a week ago because Hagebak and Wright worked something out for me to work between both places; the US and Arc Isle. However, the plans seemed to change when I saw two soldiers from Fort Benning rush to the boarding gate and pull me aside as I was about to get on the plane.
"Sergeant Haddock, you can't leave," one said.
"Um, why not?" I asked.
"Wright said you have to come back with us to Fort Benning, there's an issue with you leaving the states. Grab your dragon and come with us, please? All will be explained back at the base," spoke the male soldier on my right. I sighed heavily and looked at my unit.
"You go, I'll let you know what's going on as soon as I know, okay? Call me on your first layover, I should be aware of all this by then," I instructed the team.
"You sure? We'll stay back with you," Syrus offered.
"No, go on. I'll be fine. Worst comes to worst, I can fly Toothless back to Arc Isle. Go, you'll miss your flight," I urged.
"Alright. Keep us posted," Trevor said and I nodded to him as I grabbed my bag and left with the two soldiers. I got Toothless from where they had him for transportation, then flew back the base ahead of the two soldiers. I went straight to Major General Wright's office and demanded to see him about all this.
[Major General Wright's Office]
"Major General, what is going on?" I ordered him. He was not my CO and this was interfering with me getting home.
"Have a seat, Sergeant. I'll explain," Ethan informed.
"I'll stand, thanks," I remarked keeping my arms crossed over my chest firmly. I saw Ethan sigh heavily.
"I'm afraid there is a complication with you leaving the states right now. According to dragon laws, your dragon must stay with his mate and children until they are old enough to travel with him. The timeframe on this is six months minimal," Ethan explained.
"I am NOT leaving Toothless here for six months," I replied sternly.
"I did not assume you would. In that sense, Mr. Haddock, you understand that you must stay in the states until the six months pass. You and Miss. Grayson have shared ownership of the baby dragon. Even after six months, the two of you will have to remain together when traveling until the offspring of your dragons reach bonding age, which is eight and at six, they can be trained to follow basic commands by a human," Ethan continued.
"Well, run it by Hagebak then. Tell him that I'm not permitted to leave right now and I'll speak to Briana about all this," I sighed.
"I've already spoken to Major Hagebak, Harrison. Our solution to this dilemma is for you to continue your duties here at Fort Benning," Ethan stated.
"Elaborate?" I asked.
"It means that you will stay a dragon trainer with us and since you won't have your team, I'm named you the head trainer of Fort Benning. Wrangling and training dragons, just as you were before. Anyone working with dragons will be under your command. With this job, there will be a pay raise and we'll give you a place to stay too. There are single dorms available; you would be with the American soldier trainers if that is okay? Or you're welcome to find your own place too," Ethan enlightened.
Wasn't this just great? Not. I'm stuck in Georgia due to the ownership rights I share with Bri for the Night Fury babies born from Nightstar and Toothless. I suppose it wasn't all bad, I hadn't wanted to leave Briana anyway and this would give us more time to talk about things. Honestly, this looked like Briana and I were basically married and dealing with a custody battle having to stay in one place until it was settled. The only difference was that we shared custody of the babies and weren't married. I guess this meant I had to talk to Briana about where our future was going because for the next eight years, we had to travel together with our dragons their offspring.
"Very well. Set it up then," I sighed. "For the time being, I'd really like to just get to wherever I'm staying and let the rest of my unit know that I will be here for a while,"
"My apologies, Harrison. We weren't aware there was a law in place about this type of thing," Ethan stated.
"It's fine," I replied respectfully. "Just tell me where I'm going," he added. Ethan nodded as I sat down and waited for my next orders. For the time being, Ethan just became my boss since I was working at Fort Benning as the lead trainer instead of a helper, which is what I was before. I would have to let my unit know about this on their first layover. My family was going to hate this, they believed I was on the flight coming into Arc Isle, but I wouldn't be because I'm required to be in the states by law now. There was nothing else I could do so I might as well make the best of it knowing that now, I would not be away from Briana.
/End Flashback/
So, here I was, three months later and living in that dorm Ethan talked about. It was decent, to say the least. A single bed, four drawer dresser, wooden closet against the wall, and a desk too. There was a small sink and toilet in the bathroom with a stand-up shower too. A mini-fridge and microwave under the window. It really was a small dorm room like an apartment that I lived in. I figured it would be easier to just live at Fort Benning then going out and finding my own place, then having to furnish it and everything. After that day, I talked to my parents on the 25th, them wondering why I was not home. Unfortunately, I had been in the middle of working that Monday and could not talk long. I felt bad, but what could I do?
I was wrangling dragons, ended up getting myself a first-degree burn on my shoulder from a Monstrous Nightmare, and having to tell my family that I was needed here for the time being. I know they missed Nate, my parents and me especially and even now, three months later, I have barely spoken to them other than quick ten to fifteen-minute conversations. I was honestly just too busy or tired to talk long to them. My day ran from 5 am, which was my wake up, to about 8:30 pm, the time I made it back to my room, grabbed a shower, and laid down, then ended up knocking out around 9 pm. My only break would be at lunch hour from 12:15 pm to 1:15 pm. In the mornings at 6 am and at nights at 5 pm, I took a flight with Toothless and that was our thing so I wasn't calling home during that. 6 to 6:30 pm or so, I would eat dinner at the mess hall with the other trainers. And from 6:45 to 8:30, I would spend time with Briana whether we go on a date or just relaxed at her house since she wasn't allowed in my dorm due to the whole no co-ed thing.
I even worked weekends, I just worked less time on them and used the rest to hang with my girlfriend or let my body recover for the next week of work I had to endure. My workday always changed for what I was doing, sometimes it was wrangling, others it could be training, bonding, cleaning stables, etc. It was repetitive work but never on the same day. Weird, right? In happier updates, Briana and I have been dating eight months. Four more months and we'd be together a full year, I couldn't believe how fantastic our relationship was going and I was absolutely positive that it might not be this great if I were back on Arc Isle and we were dealing with a long distance relationship. Briana and I tried to spend a little time every day together but of course, other things always came up last minute. Thankfully, we stuck to texting and phone calls when we had free time and were unable to see each other physically.
Briana's family adored me, I had dinner over their place every other week and they reminded me constantly that I was a joy to have around. Hell, there was one time that they got home from work wicked late so Briana, her siblings, and myself cleaned the whole house and made dinner ourselves for them. Needless to say, they are convinced that I will take good care of Briana should she and I end up getting married and having a family of our own. I suppose it was good to know I had their blessing on the matter, but Briana and I were not ready for that next step yet. Briana and I haven't done anything more than make out, we have discussed having sex before and decided to wait since we hadn't figured the shared ownership of the dragons situation. It was still something we were trying to decide how to manage. We actually talked about it last night over dinner on our date.
/Flashback/
Briana and I just sat down at the table the host led us to and ordered our drinks, nothing alcoholic since the law in the US was that you had to be twenty-one or older to consume alcohol we were only twenty. My birthday was in February and Briana's was April 14th, so hers just passed a week ago and we celebrated that with her family and friends at her parent's house. Tonight, we were going to revisit the conversations about the dragons and the traveling together thing, plus how our relationship was going. It was something we did every two months, just went out and made sure we were still happy together. Call it corny or whatever, but we wanted to ensure we were okay in this since we had to work together with our dragons being mated and having babies of their own on top of it all.
After receiving our drinks and placing our order, we knew it was time to talk about serious matters. I figured it would be easier if I started. However, Bri beat me to it. "How is your family doing?" she inquired.
"Alright I suppose, missing me and wishing I could come home even if it's just for a visit," I admitted. "How is yours doing?" I returned the question to her now.
"Great. Alex graduates High School this year, in two months actually. Mom and Dad love their work, Jasmine is struggling with Algebra and afraid to flunk this year. I guess she didn't do so hot on her midterms and unfortunately, math was not my forte in school either," Briana smiled a bit.
"Your parents or brother can't assist?" I wondered.
"Alex is busy with his own school work and part time job and you know what my parents do. There has been talk that Mom might get deployed, there was a mobilization alert three weeks ago, and nothing since," Briana sighed a bit.
"Hey, it'll be okay. We all know that we can be deployed any time in this job," I told her with a comforting hand resting on hers.
"I know, but it's never easy to process the news about it happening," Briana smiled. I nodded in agreement with her.
"Maybe I could help your sister out. Math was one of my better subjects and I always had A's and B's in school," I offered to her.
"I would appreciate that, I don't want to see her fail," Briana replied. "So, any new ideas on how to make this shared ownership thing work?" she asked.
"Sadly, no. I mean, the basis is self-explanatory. Until Streamwing, Stormsky, and Luna are eight years of age, they go where their parents go which in itself is wherever we go because we're their owners. We know the law, for now, says that in three months I'm allowed to leave again, but it's vague on if that means you have to come with me or if I can at least go visit my family and friends then return afterward," I replied. It was a vexing problem to figure this out.
"I feel that since no one is getting back to us, maybe it would be easier if we just traveled together. Perhaps we can…both put in for some time off work, two weeks and go visit your family and friends, then return here. It might be too much to try and live between both places," Briana offered.
"And it wouldn't be fair. I can't ask you to move away from your family and friends just so I can be home and vice-versa," I added. "So I suppose we will have to just take vacations, I don't mind living here as long as I can see them every few months," I told my girlfriend.
"Well, from what I can tell reading over the law on the website. This law is in effect for Night Furies only, because they are on the endangered species list. They want the babies to stay with their parents until they are old enough to bond and be trained with a human companion so the babies don't end up wild and killed by hunters or trappers," Briana stated.
"Meaning that if Streamwing, Luna, or Stormsky end up choosing their companion before the eight years is up, then it would release us from ownership of them. It just says we can't split the family up unless it happens naturally. I assume that means that if they bond on their own, the ownership goes to that person and they have to follow whatever laws are in place after that," I stated.
"Exactly," Briana nodded. "I suppose that settles it then. We'll have to travel together and visit your family as often as we're able until the babies bond on their own or turn eight. But, we still have to remain here for another three months before doing any of that," she added in. I smiled and I kissed her hand and our food arrived.
/End Flashback/
I guess that decided that, we would have to travel together as one big family between Arc Isle and the USA. In three months, I'd be able to see my family again. I was happy about that because I was really missing everyone back home.
