LADIES AND GENTLEMEN... (here comes Cloudjumper!)
THE MOMENT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR... (here comes Cloudjumper!)
THAT TRAGIC EVENING...(here comes Cloudjumper!)
VALKA'S TAKING!
...
Yes I'm a Hamilton fan...had to lighten the mood somehow! Yes, this is it ladies and gents, the chapter.
Please read and enjoy, and maybe leave a review?
xoxo
Hiccup was whimpering.
Valka, yet again revived from her slumber, sat up on her elbows. Hiccup was not in distress, but his head was turning every which way, as if searching for something. Right as she opened her lips to call his name, she felt it.
The vibration of the great horn.
"Stoick-"
Her husband grumbled.
"Stoick, wake up."
"Val, I just went to sleep-"
"They're blowing the horn."
Gone was Stoick's sleepiness. He sat bolt upright in bed and sprang out of Valka's tender embrace. He darted over to the window, drawing back a curtain to reveal an ominous orange glow. Not steady and tranquil like a sunrise, but a squall of flame.
"My gods…" he gasped. Before Valka could speak he was throwing on his armor, placing his helmet atop his head. "Val, take Hiccup and get out of here. Don't go to the barn cellar, go into the woods."
Valka had already begun dressing in her leggings, tunic, and fur dress.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
She had witnessed several dragon attacks, but at this one Stoick actually sounded frightened.
"It found us."
"Found us?"
He grabbed her arms and kissed her fully, the butterflies in her stomach migrating into her heart.
"Just take Hiccup and run, okay? I'll find you."
His voice was trembling, just like Valka's hands. "Do you promise?"
"Aye," he kissed her again, quickly. "I promise."
His footsteps were like thunder going down the steps. Valka could already hear him shouting orders: light the torches, hide the sheep, ready the nets. She dared not look outside. Instead, she spoke in a soothing voice to Hiccup as she gathered up whatever she could: the sketch and letter from her mother, the pearl encrusted mirror, the medallion Stoick had given her for their betrothal. Everything else could be replaced, but not those trinkets. She tied them up in a sack and grabbed Hiccup, cradle and all. He whimpered slightly at the toy dragon she stuffed inside, but Valka shushed him gently.
"Come on love, you're alright."
She moved them down the steps, depositing the cradle beside the hearth. They would need food: a hungry mother meant a hungry baby. She stuffed a loaf of bread into the sack and reached for her son.
Something struck the roof.
"NIGHTMARE!" Someone hollered just outside.
Valka froze, hearing the screech of a Monstrous Nightmare. Something crashed to the ground with an earsplitting bang as the voices and screeches became louder.
In that moment, Valka made a mistake she would regret for the rest of her life.
"I'll be right back Hiccup. Mama's coming right back!"
She flew into the inferno.
A Viking held his axe above the downed Nightmare's neck. The Nightmare squealed, frightened and injured, too weak to fight back. She did not know who the Viking was, nor did she care. Her only thought was that she had to stop him.
"Stop!" She pulled at the Viking's arm, "You'll only make it worse!"
She held his arm long enough for the Nightmare to slither free. The Viking sneered at her, cursing her with a gruff "wench," before stomping off to find his next victim. Valka could barely breathe.
A horrible noise grabbed her attention.
"Hiccup-"
Ripping into the roof of their house was a dragon Valka had never seen before.
"Hiccup!"
She ran, her legs heavier than armor. No matter how hard she ran she did not feel any closer.
Why did I leave him? Why did I leave him?
Before the door was fully open, she reached for one of the swords Stoick kept on the wall just inside the threshold. She could not see Hiccup behind the bulk of dragon in front of her. The dragon did not notice her, nor did it hear her quivering breath. It was focused on something else. Something small.
Hiccup.
Valka nearly collapsed. No Odin please! Not my son! She raised the sword awkwardly beside her.
That was when she heard the giggle.
That giggle she had heard hundreds of times before. The giggle that was her heart's reason for beating. Hiccup was giggling…smiling…alive….
The dragon extended one of its wings forwards, a talon lingering just inches above Hiccup. Valka froze as Hiccup's giggling intensified, his arms waving wildly in an attempt to touch the dragon.
"What…?" she mouthed, the sword feeling heavy in her arms.
The dragon was not harming Hiccup. No, the dragon seemed to be…playing with Hiccup.
It made a low sound in its throat, as if it was warbling a song. Its massive head tilted from side to side as piercing yellow eyes examined Hiccup. It bore the same expression Valka had seen numerous times on Hiccup's face, the same expression she herself wore nearly every day: curiosity.
A noise from the chaos outside startled the dragon, who had leaned too far forward on Hiccup's cradle. The talon, which Hiccup had finally, successfully grabbed ahold of, came down upon his face, leaving a cut on Hiccup's chin. Hiccup wailed, surprised and frightened, but Valka could not move forward to comfort him.
The dragon was now investigating her.
She raised the sword before her, inching back step by step. The dragon matched her steps, its flat nose sniffing frantically, yellow eyes never leaving hers. Though she could see its teeth, Valka could not say that its expression was unfriendly. The black pupils of its eyes widened, softening the angles of the spikes that surrounded its head. Valka lowered her weapon, her lips parting in the weakest of gasps.
It blinked, and for the first time ever she saw a dragon smile.
Could it possibly be that…the dragon knew?
Slowly, her fingers trembling, Valka reached her hand forward.
"ARGH!"
The metal of Stoick's axe fell between them into the wall.
Valka exclaimed in surprise as the dragon reared its head backwards: the axe had grazed one of its spines. Gone was the gentle creature Valka had just witnessed: the monster had returned.
"Valka!" Stoick cried. The dragon hissed, its eyes narrow slits. An unnatural glow formed in its mouth before it shot out a spout of fire. "Run!"
Stoick dodged the fire, leading the dragon away from her.
He was not nearly quick enough.
"No—don't!"
Without thinking, her palms landed on the dragon's hide.
With a snap of its wing to shrug off her grasp, the dragon turned towards her. Just like before, Valka stepped backwards, but the dragon no longer gazed at her with curious eyes.
Its pupils were deadly slits.
I was wrong, oh gods I was wrong.
"Hold on!"
But she could not hold on.
The dragon lunged at her, ensnaring her in one of its mighty talons. A gust rustled her hair.
"No-"
The ground faded away.
"NO!"
She could see Stoick, clutching their son in one arm and his axe in the other, through the haze.
"STOICK!"
"VALKA!"
Ants…that's what Stoick and Hiccup had become.
"Stoick…"
The air escaped her lungs, leaving her body withered and faint. On the air, amid the chaos of the battle below her, Valka could hear her son crying. Her arms reached for him, for the chance to hold him one final time before a lifetime of mistakes caught up with her.
Instead, the great dragon carried her further and further away, until the fires of Berk were but just a star on the black ocean.
Her beacon, fading away into nothingness.