Chapter 38: …And The Truth

Immediately prior to the conclusion of the Dragon War in AD 1040, Berk's society was structured around four major clans of 110-150 persons—Ingerman, Hofferson, Thorston, and Jorgenson—plus the Chief's clan, Haddock, plus approximately two hundred more clanless members of the Hooligan tribe, grouped in small families or as solitary individuals. During this time, most of the resources of the village and island were under the control of these five clans, granting them significant social and economic influence. This state of affairs is generally agreed to be a result of the depredations of the dragon raids, which made it such that only larger clans were truly viable, as they collectively had the resources to withstand the constant losses that would debilitate any smaller clan.

This can be seen in the case of Clan Haddock, which had been reduced from the 108 persons listed as their maximum in AD 875 down to four (Stoick, Valka, Hiccup, and Gothi) in AD 1025. Stoick was able to maintain control over the rest of the village due to tradition, but also due his charisma, leadership skills, physical prowess and strength—and due to being the sole inheritor of his clan's comparatively vast wealth, which he used judiciously in order to stay in power, creating debts of honor and capital that would need to be repaid by the recipient out of social expectations. He also made use of Clan Haddock's web of kin ties to the rest of the village; for examples, Stoick's sister, Serena, had married into the Jorgensons at about the same time Stoick had married Valka clan Jorgenson, and Stoick's paternal aunt Rhonda was the wife of Rikard clanhead Hofferson and thus the matriarch of a third of the Hofferson clan.

Despite all of Stoick's efforts and skilled politicking, however, his clan was simply not as vibrant and able to absorb damage as the other clans. Stoick's assets were mostly static compared with the others, despite the loans that he constantly engaged in for investment, and only his skills—in politics, and in dragonslaying—allowed him to defer the inevitable collapse of his clan, according to the Gobber Ledgers. This persisted until his son came up with a completely different solution to their problem, revived their clan, and changed the course of history.

Without Hiccup's efforts, however, Clan Haddock would almost certainly have joined the other nine extinct clans listed in the Hooligan records at the end of Stoick's life. Instead, by AD 1050, the social structure had shifted—occasionally catastrophically—to medium-sized clans, ranging in size between 30 and 70 people. Clan Jorgenson was the first to split, in response to the death of…

—Corpus Historiae Berkiae, 1396

December, AD 1041

Chief's Hut, Isle of Berk, Alban Hebrides

Hiccup looked around the people in the chief's hut and hid a frown. Heather's face was splotchy and red where she wasn't covering it with the soaked linen, Fishlegs looked like he was considering how best to precisely dismantle Burl into her constituent pieces, Astrid was glaring at her, Wulfhild was impassive but Hiccup thought that he detected an air of anger from her as well, and Burl and Woodnut were looking angry and defensive; Burl was holding her arms folded in front of her, and Woodnut was grinding his teeth and clenching his fists.

But Stoick and Gobber were looking at them with anger, Gobber still holding Burl by the upper arm—and Hiccup knew quite well how vise-like that grip could be.

Stoick hammered the table with an open palm. "Gobber. Yeh saw it all. Lay it out."

Gobber let Burl go, and she twisted away from him and rubbed at her bicep. "I saw Burl here run past Heather, right in front of her, in a way that would have made Heather drop the tray. But Heather managed to keep that from happening—so Burl punched the tray up into her face and tried to run off." Gobber reached down and grabbed Burl's left fist—the knuckles of which were skinned.

Stoick grimaced and motioned for him to release the girl. He did, and Burl hunched down, glaring at all of them. Stoick looked up at Woodnut, and said flatly, "Does your daughter have anything to say in her defense?"

"I'm sure that it was just a childish prank that got out of hand!" Woodnut insisted. "She's just a child, and I heard Gobber—the burns will heal in a week!"

"Aye, but they might not have," Stoick said, his tone unchanged. "And it was still an attack that caused harm." His eyes swiveled to Burl. "And I want to know why."

Burl looked at Stoick defiantly, and said nothing.

Hiccup caught Heather's eye and mouthed, Should we say something?

Heather blinked and then stared at him, and started to shake her head—which Gobber caught.

"Lass, what's wrong?" the smith asked gruffly, if not unkindly. "At the least, Burl and Woodnut here owe yeh a geld for assault—"

"Assault!? For a prank?" Woodnut roared.

"It's the fact of the matter that's important," Stoick said, "not the intentions, although those count in the setting of the sentence. Like when Hiccup used to… Hiccup? What's wrong?"

Hiccup realized that he hadn't managed to get his face back under control and hurriedly grinned. "Nothing, nothing's wrong?"

Gobber gave him a narrowed eyed look. "Laddie. Heather. What's the matter?"

Then Astrid huffed, gave an apologetic look to Heather, and said, "This wasn't an isolated incident, Chief."

Hiccup caught Burl's expression when Astrid said that—and it was practically a poem to a moment of dawning comprehension of just how much trouble she was potentially in.

Stoick, however, missed it. Instead he asked Astrid, "What do yeh mean?"

Hiccup gave Heather an apologetic look and then said, "Someone cut the belaying lines on Heather's saddle the other day—and I checked the girth as well, and the leather was weakened with a knife."

Stoick gave him an incredulous look. "What?"

Hiccup took a deep breath, and, not looking at Burl or Woodnut, said, "Someone in the village is trying to kill Heather."

Burl burst out, "But I didn—oh shit." Her face turned red as everyone turned to look at her.

Gobber quirked an eyebrow. "Do yeh have something to say, lass?"

Burl looked down at the floor, and cast a single look to her father, the tips of her ears bright red. "No."

Fishlegs snorted and spoke up. "Really? Then do you deny that you've been helping Twiglet harass and prank Heather for over two weeks now?"

Burl's head shot up and she glared at Fishlegs. "Don't you try to drag my cousin in on this! She hasn't done anything!"

Astrid snorted. "Is that what she told you when she orchestrated all of this?" She turned to Stoick. "I talked with my cousin Karolina yesterday, and she told me that Twiglet has been pushing everyone in the kitchen to harass Heather for weeks now."

"Hearsay!" Woodnut said angrily. "And I don't see what this has to do with my daughter's lack of judgment!" He turned to Heather, and said, "I'll pay a geld for the damages on behalf of my daughter, and we'll call this closed, eh?"

Hiccup looked at Woodnut suspiciously. Only a minute or two earlier, he'd been trying to get the idea of a geld dismissed, and now he was agreeing to pay it? Yeah, that wasn't a coincidence. "What are you trying to hide, Woodnut?" he asked pointedly. "Your daughter harassing a freedwoman? I mean, it's not like your dad didn't get kidnapped and sold when he was my age, and your wife and Burl's brother-in-law are both freedmen…"

Woodnut snapped, "That's different!" and then a moment of dawning realization grew on his face, practically identical to Burl's visual poem from a few moments earlier.

Stoick leaned in, a predatory look on his face. "Different, eh? Different how?"

Woodnut glared nastily at Heather. "My wife wasn't a spy, Stoick. Neither was my father, or my son-in-law. And somehow I managed to court Eithne without getting my face bashed in!"

Heather made a pained noise and Fishlegs hugged her.

"Why are you comforting her?" Woodnut demanded. "She joined the tribe under false pretenses!"

Hiccup said angrily, "She sided with us when it counted!"

"But there shouldn't have been sides in the first place, Hiccup!" Woodnut barked. "My family joined the tribe because they wanted to, not so that they could sneak around and find out our secrets and sell them to some outsider king!"

Stoick slammed the table. "ENOUGH!"

"Aye, enough," Woodnut blurted. "This is a farce and a disgrace! I'll pay the geld for the damages, but I want the base libel being made against us to be dismissed and fined as well!"

Stoick gave the Thorston man a flinty look. "Woodnut. I helped rescue yer wife when we were out hunting for the Nest all those years ago. Eithne stabbed me with me own knife." Stoick rolled up his sleeve and showed a silvery scar on his arm. "And yeh know what? I forgave her. Because she had no reason to trust me." He turned to point at Heather, who looked distraught. "She had no reason to trust us either. And like yer wife, she's learned better."

Hiccup blinked. He'd never heard that story before, and shared a surprised look with Astrid—she hadn't either, and he knew that she also had relatives who had been rescued on that same hunting trip.

Stoick turned and looked at Heather. "Are yeh feeling all right, lass?"

She sniffed and nodded. "I'm just getting sick of this. And this," she pointed to her face, "hurts."

Hiccup turned and looked at Burl, scowling. "Happy, Burl? Happy doing Twiglet's bidding and hurting someone that's already been hurt!"

Woodnut growled. "You leave my niece out of this. She hasn't done anything."

"So you say—"

"Dad, stop it!" Burl's voice was loud, frightened, and shrill enough to cut through everything else, as she pulled away from her father's side and turned to face him. "This was all your idea in the first place—"

"Shut up!" Woodnut growled at his daughter angrily.

"No!" Burl shouted back. "We have to tell them, you heard what they think I did, this isn't fun anymore, let's just—"

"Fun!? Fun!?" Fishlegs roared and stepped forward, protectively in front of Heather. "Heather could have died, you idiot! Why?! Why did you do it!?"

Everyone in the room blinked at Fishlegs. Hiccup looked at his friend, shocked. He'd never heard Fishlegs even raise his voice in the past.

"I didn't cut the saddle!" Burl insisted. "I was doing stupid things, stupid pranks! I loosened the spigot on that big beer barrel, put eggs in her shoes and burrs in her shirt, and sand in her drink—"

Fishlegs sputtered. "That was you!?"

Heather turned and looked at him. "You didn't say anything…"

Burl continued speaking, talking over them, "But I didn't do anything that would hurt her!"

Fishlegs growled, and Burl took an intimidated step backwards. "You burned her!"

"I didn't mean to! It was just, just a moment where I saw a chance!" Burl said desperately. "Dad was pushing me—"

Woodnut roared, "Shut up!"

Stoick rose from his seat, and leaned over at Woodnut intimidatingly. "Burl, speak," he said, not breaking eye contact away from Woodnut.

"I, um, I… Dad said that he'd been hoping to pair me off with Fishlegs when I got old enough, and then this… then Heather came swooping in and snatched him up, bedding him out of wedlock—and then she beat him and turned out to be a traitor. So Dad pushed me to let her know that she's not welcome here, and I… I pranked her. A lot."

"What did you do, aside from what you've confessed to already?"

"Um… I was going to dump dragon piss all over her clothes and bed, but they almost caught me first," Burl said sheepishly. "Nothing else."

Fishlegs scowled at her, and then caught Hiccup's eye with a cock of his head.

Hiccup looked back at him inquisitively, and Fishlegs mimed writing something on parchment.

Understanding dawned, and Hiccup darted upstairs and grabbed a quill, some ink, and a piece of spare parchment from his desk, and came back down.

"What's that for?" Woodnut asked aggressively.

"A little test to see how well you know your runes. Don't worry, we'll use the simple ones," Hiccup snarked.

"I don't see why I should help you with your test then!" Woodnut said angrily.

Hiccup caught Heather's eye and quirked his head inquisitively. She sighed and nodded. Hiccup then turned to Stoick. "Dad… if they cooperate, can I suggest a reduced fine?" And then a bigger one if their handwriting matches… he thought.

Stoick nodded, obviously curious.

Hiccup set the sheet down and had both Burl and Woodnut write out Heather's name and a few other words. As soon as they were done, Fishlegs practically snatched the parchment out of their hands and examined it furiously.

Then he slumped and shook his head. "Nope. Not them."

Heather slumped as well, and Stoick narrowed his eyes. "What's this?"

"Tell you when they're not here? It wasn't them," Hiccup said, and Fishlegs nodded in agreement.

"All right," Stoick said, and then turned to Woodnut. "Do yeh deny that yeh set Burl to harass and attack Heather?"

Woodnut glared at his daughter, and then shook his head. "No," he said, his tone poisonous. "He seems to be devoted to his abusive traitor anyway. I'm glad I found that out before I tried to get my daughter to marry him."

Heather made an angry noise at that, and Woodnut turned and glared at her. "You have no right to make threatening noises at me! You nearly killed a member of this tribe! So you got pranked and burned a little! You got off lightly compared to what you deserve!"

"Woodnut, that's enough!" Stoick boomed.

"Is it, Chief? She hurt and betr—"

Hiccup snorted angrily, which cut Woodnut off mid-word. "Woodnut, you're just looking for any excuse to hate Heather." He scowled and crossed his arms. "You admitted it! You set Burl on her because of Fishlegs, not for any other reason."

"Aye," Stoick said. "And they're a courting couple."

Woodnut snorted. "A fornicating couple."

Stoick scowled as Hiccup caught Astrid's eyes and they both gave each other guilty looks; it wasn't fair that they got away with it and their friends… well, they hadn't even done anything.

"That falsehood was my own suggestion to cover them from suspicion that she had turned, Woodnut, and yeh know it," Stoick said. "They swore that they didn't do anything, and I believe them. And they're still courting. So that's another geld yeh owe." He interlaced his fingers and looked at Woodnut with an expression of supreme disappointment that Hiccup was intimately familiar with. "Yeh shall pay Heather a geld of sixty silver pennies for the attack and harassment of a courting couple, which is reduced from what I originally intended to fine yeh in light of the agreed-upon cooperation."

Woodnut snorted, reached for his moneypurse at his belt, counted out the coins, and almost threw them at Heather, but a noise from Stoick made him shove the generous fistful of silver into her hands instead. "Worth it."

Stoick growled. "And if Burl gets caught again pulling such pranks, I won't be so generous next time."

Woodnut glared at him—and then at Burl, who seemed to be trying to fade into the shadows from how Astrid and Wulfhild were glaring at both her and her father. Stoick caught it and his eyes narrowed. "And if yeh take it out on Burl…" His lip curled and his eye twitched. "Well, I'd highly recommend that yeh don't." The chief looked at Burl. "If yer dad does anything to yeh because of this, come talk to me."

"But—"

"Come. Talk. To. Me," Stoick said flatly, and Burl nodded like a puppet on a string.

Woodnut scowled. "We done here, Chief?"

"Aye. Get out."

Woodnut marched off, his shoulders set, and flung open the door, letting in a blast of winter air that billowed across the floor. Obviously caught between the rock of her furious parent and the hard place of Heather's upset friends, Burl backed away towards the door… and then blurted, "I'm sorry!" and lunged through the door.

As the door slammed shut behind her, Stoick turned to Hiccup and his friends. "Now. What was the issue with the parchment?"

Heather gave a pained sigh, obviously uncomfortable with the conversation that was about to occur. Wulfhild, who had been watching the whole time, stepped forward and put a gentle hand on Heather's arm. "Let me." Heather nodded in approval, and Wulfhild said, "Someone left a poisonous letter where Fishlegs would be certain to find it… that… well, it would be the sort of thing to break up any couple, sir, from the slander that Heather was cheating on Fishlegs."

"With Dogsbreath, no less," Hiccup said acidly.

Stoick quirked an eyebrow at that, for reasons that Hiccup understood quite well—Dogsbreath had a history of history of unwanted and clumsy seduction attempts that Stoick had routinely censured him for, up to and including the point of permitting a holmgang between him and Hazelnut for slander.

"And it gave pretty explicit details on what they were supposedly doing with each other," Astrid added in.

Gobber hissed. "Aye, that's a low blow indeed."

"So I was checking the handwriting, because that's how I figured out that it wasn't her in the first place," Fishlegs said, putting his arm around Heather comfortingly.

Gobber and Stoick made sounds of comprehension, and Stoick sighed. "Sounds like there's another one after yeh then, lass. You mentioned Twiglet?"

Heather flinched and then nodded. "Yeah… but I haven't caught her doing anything yet, and we already figured out that the letter wasn't from her."

Stoick nodded. "All right then." He looked at Heather. "Lass, I want your oath that if yeh figure out who else is attacking yeh, yeh will tell me as soon as yeh can. All right?"

"I… Chief… no…"

"That didn't sound like an oath, Heather," Stoick said pointedly.

"I can't… I can't go informing on them…" she said weakly.

"It's not informing, lass," Stoick said intently. "They're tryin' to hurt you."

"But I can't!" she said, and her eyes started to tear up. "Chief, I informed on people back in Vedrarfjord, and I got rewarded for it! I got people beaten, whipped like animals, caged, starved, and I got a good dinner out of it." She threw the silver pennies on the floor with a clatter—nearly two months' pay for her, and she looked revolted at the rolling coins. "I can't do that again!" She turned to Fishlegs and buried her burned face into his shirt and started to sob in earnest.

Everyone else in the room looked around at each other uneasily as Fishlegs patted her on the back.

Hiccup stepped over to Astrid carefully, and took her by the arm, and then did the same with Wulfhild. And then the three of them cautiously approached Fishlegs and Heather, and hugged them both.

Heather didn't resist. She just slumped into their combined embrace.

Gobber's distinctive footsteps came from behind them, and then the door opened and shut, followed by more footsteps. "I got the lass more snow for her face," Gobber's voice came gently from behind Hiccup. "It's important to keep the burn cool to let it heal…"

They opened up and Gobber handed the linen-wrapped wad of snow to Heather. She put it on her face, and Fishlegs guided her over to a chair, where they both sat—the same chair that Hiccup and Astrid usually used for extended kissing sessions, so there was room enough for both of them, although it was tighter, due to Fishlegs being much bigger than Hiccup. The room was silent, the only sound being the wind howling outside and the crackle of the hearthfire in its new stone-lined home.

Finally, Heather picked the pad up off of her face and sniffed again. Her skin was red and flushed from the burn, but Hiccup didn't think that it would be that bad. It would itch like Hel's own curse, though, in a few days when the burned skin started to peel, and he made a note to get some of Gothi's or Nanna's burn ointment that worked so well when he or Gobber managed to scorch themselves in the smithy.

Stoick, sounding as gentle as he could manage, said, "Heather. Yeh can't go on like this. Someone tried to kill yeh. They're trying to break up yer courtship. Yeh say that yeh can't tell me, but someone is attackin' yeh, and a Chief protects his own. And that includes you."

She didn't say anything.

Stoick sighed and rubbed at his face with one broad hand. "All right. Lass. What is it that yeh want?"

"I want… I want to live. I want to move on. I want to be a good Hooligan," Heather sniffed out. "I want to be accepted and stop having to watch for knives in the back."

Hiccup knelt down to be at Heather's eye level, and tentatively spoke up. "Heather… you can't have all of that if you don't stand up for yourself. You can't be accepted if they're attacking you."

She looked him in the eye and then looked away.

A gentle hand touched Hiccup's shoulder. He turned and, to his surprise, it was Wulfhild. "Can I…?"

Hiccup nodded and pulled himself to his feet.

Wulfhild stepped to where he'd been kneeling and extended a hand apiece to both Fishlegs and Heather. "Can I talk with you two?"

Hiccup looked at them as Heather nodded and Wulfhild helped both of them out of the chair. They went to the stairs, as Wulf got a lit taper from the hearthfire and followed them. As the door upstairs closed, Hiccup shared a glance with his dad. Stoick asked softly, "Do yeh think she can help her?"

Hiccup took a deep breath and sat down in the vacated chair, and Astrid slumped into it next to him a moment later. "I hope so."

###

Wulfhild looked at Heather and Fishlegs as she entered her bedroom. Heather was leaning on Fishlegs; she looked exhausted and in pain, and Fishlegs was doing his best to support her. She lit the small oil lamp—filled with Monstrous Nightmare spittle—with the taper, and then shook it out, and took the chair next to the desk. Both of which had been made by Woodnut, now that she thought of it. Meanwhile, Fishlegs and Heather sat stiffly on the edge of her bed, as the only other available seating in the room.

"So… um… look. You're both my friends. And I was thinking about our talk in the tunnels… when we went after Mistletoe and Windshear. And…" she gently extended a hand and put it on the back of Heather's, "Just now, when you said that you wanted to be a good Hooligan… I remembered that moment when I said that I wanted to stay here."

"Yeah…? So?" Heather said.

"Well…" Wulfhild forced a smile. "I… I know how hard it is to stand up for yourself when you've been beaten down for so long. And while yours was so much worse than mine… I think that I understand it more than they," she cocked her head towards the downstairs, "can." She got up out of the chair and knelt in front of Heather. "So… it hurt so much when I said that I wanted to stay. I had been dreaming of it, of having a place safe to stay, and then it was dangled in front of me… and I leapt for it. I said 'I want to stay.' And that nearly cost me my friendships with Hiccup and Astrid. But if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't be here now for you." She gripped Heather's hands more firmly. "You need to take that same step for you. I know it's hard to stand up and do it… but you need to. For your sake. For Fishlegs' sake."

Fishlegs reached out and, cautiously, put his arm around Heather's shoulders. She leaned into his embrace and shifted into his lap.

Smiling at their closeness, Wulfhild stroked the back of Heather's hands with her thumbs. "You're safe here… but you can't let them get away with hurting you like Alvin did. It won't make you into him, and it won't make you worse than him. You're a freedwoman, a member of this tribe, and you need to stand up and remember that you have the right to live. They don't have the right to hurt you."

Fishlegs was giving Wulfhild an indescribably thankful look, and Heather started to shake. "It's so hard," she said.

"I know. But you don't have to carry it alone," Wulfhild said. "Even though it hurt our friendship so much, I still have Hiccup and Astrid… and you. You have all of us. Please… let us help you."

"But if I report on them, they'll all hate me in the kitchens!" Heather moaned.

"Like they don't already hate you now?" Wulfhild asked cannily. "Heather, they've been attacking you for weeks, you said. And either they're attacking you, or letting you be attacked. That doesn't sound like they're going to turn around and love you. Not for being a good archery butt. Not for you. Maybe it's time you stopped working there."

Heather sniffed. "And then what?"

Wulfhild looked over at Fishlegs and met his eyes, and then nodded. He nodded back. "I make enough, helping Hiccup with the Broodery and all of that, to support us both… and your parents and Mhairi, too, for that matter. If you wanted, you could quit the kitchens and work in the glasshouse all day, experimenting to your heart's content," he said softly.

Heather considered that as the three of them sat there. Wulfhild continued to massage the backs of Heather's hands, rubbing her archery calluses over the small burns, knife scars, and scrubbing calluses on Heather's.

Then Heather slumped and nodded. "Okay. But I won't make accusations without proof. I draw the line there." She inhaled sharply, the snot in her nose making an audible gurgling noise. "I have to."

Wulfhild nodded. "I understand. C'mon. Let's go talk to Stoick… and tell him everything."

###

Astrid looked up from her seat next to Hiccup as footsteps sounded on the stairs. Gobber had gone to get some salve from the smithy so that Heather could treat her burns, and it was just her, Hiccup, and Stoick at this point. The conversation had been slight and tight, and mostly focused on the rescue mission of the Burglars. Stoick had agreed with Hiccup's decision to drop the longboat and lose the net, even though he regretted its loss, and had tasked Hiccup with finding a way to make rope in greater quantities. And, of course, Hiccup had ideas.

Meanwhile, even though he'd downplayed the risk that he'd taken, she wasn't sure if she was furious with him for risking his life, or thankful for saving her cousin's life.

Fishlegs appeared first, followed by Heather and then Wulfhild, bringing up the rear. They returned to the circle of chairs near the hearthfire, and sat.

Stoick took a deep breath and asked, "So, lass… ready to give that oath?"

She nodded jerkily, and said, "Chief, I swear that, as soon as I find proof of who is attacking me, I'll let you know straightaway. And I'll refrain from responding in kind as well, as I have been doing."

Stoick turned and smiled at Wulfhild. "Lass. Thank yeh for getting through to her."

Astrid felt a lump in her chest at the smile Stoick was giving Wulfhild, along with a stab of jealousy. Wulfhild had gotten Heather to open up, when Hiccup and the rest of them couldn't.

How long would it be before Wulfhild got tired of the scraps that Astrid was leaving her and set her eyes on the full meal? She had the skills to be pretty convincing…

She leaned against Hiccup's side as Heather started to tell Stoick what had been happening. Stoick was scowling all through it. When Heather finished, he said, "I expected better of Magnhild."

"It's not her fault, sir…" Heather said quietly. "She's one person, and half of the kitchens are out after me."

"Have yeh talked with her about this?" Stoick asked.

Heather shook her head and didn't say anything. Fishlegs just rubbed at her shoulders, concerned. Astrid gave Heather the best supportive smile she could manage.

Stoick sighed. "All right. I'll talk with Magnhild. See if she can't get this to stop."

Heather jerked her head up. "No!"

Stoick gave her a flat look that reminded Astrid of those moments when Hiccup had messed up prior to meeting Toothless. "I'm not used to being told what I can and can't do, lass. In my judgment, the best thing I can do is to talk with Magnhild and let her know what is going on. She's in charge of the kitchens, meaning that everyone in there is her responsibility. It's my duty, as chief, to inform her of what is going on."

"But if you talk to her and she talks to them, then they'll know that I reported them!" Heather said, sounding desperate.

Stoick snorted. "And they'll also know that I know about their efforts to hurt a tribesmate. If they have any sense, they'll shove off and quit it."

Heather looked like she was about to cry again, and Hiccup leaned over and gently patted her hand. Fishlegs had turned the shoulder massage into a hug, and Wulfhild was patting Heather's other hand.

Astrid felt at a loss for what to do, so she got up and gently picked up the drying linen towel from the arm of Heather's chair, the snow that it had contained long since gone.

Stoick sighed. "Lass. The harshest thing I'm going to do to them is a stern talking to—until and unless yeh find specific proof on something that I can fine or punish. I promise yeh. But I hope that you won't have to, because I'm hoping that they have the mother wit to recognize that they should stop and leave yeh alone!"

The door opened at that moment, and Gobber came back in. Astrid did a double-take at his appearance, as the snow in his hair was such that he looked like he'd aged another twenty years. The smithy wasn't that far.

"It's a real howler out there," Gobber said, and looked around the room. "Ah, good." He produced a small stoneware jar the size of his hand. "Here we go. Burn ointment."

Astrid took it and mutely handed him the towel.

Gobber rolled his eyes and turned to go back out, muttering about how he was already half-frozen anyway.

Astrid turned and went back to the circle around the fire, and opened the jar. "Hiccup, how much?"

"Just enough to coat the skin," he said, still patting Heather's hand supportively.

As Astrid scooped out some of the ointment onto her fingers and started to spread it on Heather's face, making her sigh in relief, Stoick took in a deep sigh. "Lass," he said, addressing Heather. "I don't want to make yeh into a stalking goat. I'm going to have a talk with Magnhild, and tell her to tell them to knock it off. If they don't do that, then how in the world would you ever be able to get through to them to get them to stop?" He leaned forward as the door opened and Gobber came back in. "Yeh do want them to stop, right?"

Heather twitched, and then Astrid quirked an eyebrow. She leaned in as she carefully painted some of the ointment onto Heather's forehead, above her eyebrows. "Heather… you aren't sitting there and taking this abuse out of some twisted sense of guilt over what happened in Vedrarfjord, are you?"

Heather froze.

Fishlegs blinked, and an expression of dawning understanding grew on his face. He leaned forward and peered over Heather's shoulder. "She's right, isn't she?" he asked in a soft whisper, and wrapped his arms around Heather's chest in a comforting hug.

Heather started to then cry once again in earnest, the tears coming in a flood, even as she burrowed deeper into Fishlegs' embrace, her whole body shaking like a leaf in a high wind.

"That's why you're not fighting back," Fishlegs continued, and he started to rock her back and forth. "You did all of those horrible things because you had to, to survive… and now you feel horrible."

Heather nodded jerkily, making tears spatter on Fishlegs' trousers.

Wulfhild asked quietly, "Heather… do you want us to leave you alone, maybe with Fishlegs, or to stay? We're supporting you either way… but you might be feeling a little crowded right now."

Hiccup pulled back his hand guiltily, and Astrid turned and gave Wulfhild a wry look. Wulfhild met it without a quaver, and Astrid nodded in agreement. "What she said."

There were tears streaming down Heather's face, beading up on the oily ointment as they dripped. "I can't…" She sniffed and said, "Please. Stay."

Astrid heard Stoick murmur something to Gobber, and then he heaved himself out of the chair. She felt him standing behind her, and he said, "Lass. I'll talk to Magnhild. But I won't levy any punishment, if that makes yeh feel better. Just ask her to talk to them and convince them to stop. But listen to yer friends here, all right?"

Heather nodded, and Stoick and Gobber left, letting in another wave of cold air as the door opened and closed.

As she helped Heather hold the chilled cloth to her face, Astrid thought on what her various relatives who had been thralls had told her, trying to get a feel for what Heather was going through. Of course, the issue there was that Heather's situation was, as far as she knew, unique. But there were still some things that people had told her that gave some insight. Like all other thralls, Heather hadn't really been allowed to have a will of her own, and faced harsh punishments if she tried.

The closest she could think of was her cousin Vigdis; she'd married Steinn after she'd been rescued from a brothel, where she'd been sold after her first owner had tired of his pleasure thrall—a mass breakout that had been orchestrated by Thicknut and Chestnut when Astrid had been a child. Astrid had vivid memories of Vigdis having to be coaxed into doing things of her own volition by the rest of her family; she had regularly broken out in tears at the stress of having to choose for herself, and she'd acted like she expected to be punished for daring to show distress or her own will, and that had lasted for years.

It looked like Heather was going through the same thing now. With that great weight removed, she could stand up straight again… but did not remember how to do it on her own.

Astrid looked around the little group huddled around the chair. Heather was seated on Fishlegs' lap; he was holding her protectively. Hiccup was gently stroking her right arm, and Wulfhild was doing the same with her left, while Astrid was kneeling in front, the jar of ointment still held in her left hand, using her right to help Heather hold the pad of soaked linen to her face.

Well… Heather had lots of support to learn from… and lean on.

###

Norway

Tuffnut and Ruffnut whooped as they flew through the chilly air on Barf and Belch, with Magnus and Vladimir bringing up the rear on Brand behind them. The Rus' prince looked like he was having either the time of his life or a religious experience as he looked around in awe at the snow-covered lands laid out below them.

On the other hand, Tuffnut didn't see why it couldn't be both.

He turned to his sister. "Hey sis! Guess who is getting training in Rus'!?"

"I am! I asked Magnus to start teaching me, since he knows it. I'm also getting some training in Greek! He got taught both by Yaroslav," she said with glee.

Tuffnut felt his jaw drop. "No fair! Vladimir's teaching me Rus'! How come you can't let me have that!?"

She grinned at him. "What's wrong, Tuff? Can't handle a little competition?"

He stuck his tongue out at her and said, "I'll show you competition! I'll speak more tongues than you'll ever even hear of!"

Ruffnut's grin grew wider. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"First to nine languages wins?"

"Twelve," Tuff said pointedly. "And Norse doesn't count!"

"Fine!" she said, spat into her hand, and held it out. "A bet's a bet!"

He was about to shake her hand when he realized… "Hey, what are we betting with?"

Ruffnut paused and considered as Barf and Belch looked at them curiously. "Huh. Good question." She twisted in her seat and called back to her husband, "Hey, Magnus, what should I win from Tuffnut when I know more languages than him!?"

Tuffnut twisted back as well, ignoring the spit freezing in his palm, and bellowed, "She means what I should win from her!"

Magnus looked at the two of them, appalled, and then said something in Rus' to Vladimir, who started to shake with laughter. And that made Magnus start to laugh as well.

They flew on for several hundred more yards as Magus and Vladimir tried to compose themselves, and Brand was giving Barf and Belch puzzled looks, which the Zippleback returned twice over.

Finally, Magnus, tears streaming from his eyes, tried to say something, but he was too far away for them to hear.

"Get closer, we can't hear you!" Tuffnut called.

Magnus, still laughing, directed Brand right next to Barf and Belch and then choked out, "I'd say a forfeit! Something that doesn't break the law and is in the other person's power to give."

"Cool. Thanks Magnus!" Tuffnut said, and immediately turned back to Ruffnut. "For one forfeit! Whoever learns a dozen new languages first!" He spat into his hand again—where he realized that the earlier spit had frozen—and held it out. They shook, while Vladimir and Magnus almost fell out of the saddles behind them, they were laughing so hard.

They turned back, having gone a fair ways away from the city during their discussion over the bet. Magnus and Vladimir held a pointed and exaggeratedly loud conversation entirely in Rus', which made Ruffnut and Tuffnut make silly faces at them, trying to break their composure.

As they flew over Nidaros, Vladimir pointed to a group of dragons working on building something, flying in various shaped timbers. "What's that?"

"That's going to be Ruffnut's new hospital!" Magnus said proudly in Norse. "It should be built in the next month at the rate they're going!"

Vladimir cocked his head. "Hospital? For soldiers and warriors?"

Ruffnut shook her head. "No. For the people, the sick and injured."

Tuffnut watched as Vladimir cocked his head, confused. "But why?"

Magnus said something in Rus', and Vladimir listened, and then his expression brightened. "Ah, I see. Makes sense."

Tuffnut leaned towards Ruffnut, who was suddenly looking irritated, and asked, "What do you think he said?"

"That we're doing it to undermine Einar's support from the local populace," she muttered back. "And that's part of it… but not all of it."

Tuffnut nodded. "Um… sis? Do you want some help with it?"

She gave him a sidelong look. "Bro, you haven't learned medicine-making or any of that stuff."

"I could learn! And it'll give me something else to do between language lessons with Vladimir," he said.

She nodded at him. "All right. I'm sure I can find something for you to do."

Tuffnut grinned, and they banked towards the fortress to land, as he stuck his hand under his armpit. As much fun as it was to fly, it was also really, really really cold out. His hand was freezing!

###

Chief's Hut, Isle of Berk, Alban Hebrides

Astrid watched as Hiccup left Wulfhild's room, the two of them having just pretended to make love again. He couldn't meet her eyes as he walked back to their room, and she didn't say anything. From out here, it had sounded pretty convincing, with the bed squeaking and all of that, so she could just hope it sounded just as convincing to anyone else outside who might be listening.

Taking a deep breath of her own, she cautiously stepped towards Wulfhild's room and gently knocked. "Can I come in?"

There was an extended pause from Wulfhild, and then she heard the princess say, "Yes. Please."

Astrid opened the door and slipped inside, her stockinged feet making little noise on the floorboards, and shut the door behind her.

"Yes, Astrid?" Wulfhild asked quietly; her face was half in shadow from the light of the lamp, giving it a sinister cast.

"I… uh, I wanted to thank you for getting through to Heather today," Astrid stammered out, trying not to let the trick of the light get to her. Wulf was her friend… and was more of a friend than Astrid was managing to be. "Whatever it was that you said, it worked. I… I know you're closer to her than I am, but Fishlegs is my friend and… and I wanted to thank you."

Wulfhild's shadowed face smiled and she leaned forward more into the light, literally brightening her expression. "You're welcome. And Heather's my friend. She stitched this up for me…" she said, motioning to her scarred cheek, "and we have a lot in common, it seems. I'm glad that I stayed here just as much for her as I am for you and Hiccup. You're all my friends."

That was like a punch to Astrid's gut, and she smiled painfully and nodded. "I'm glad. You deserve friends, Wulf. I'm, I'm glad you have them. So… um… I'm gonna go to bed. Good night!" she said a little too quickly, and turned to go.

Wulfhild sighed behind her and said, "Good night, Astrid. Kiss Hiccup good night for me."

Astrid grimaced and fled back to Hiccup. Tackling him to the bed, she kissed him, hard and long, and with fervor.

As she was falling asleep later in Hiccup's arms, her mind was rehashing her talk with Wulfhild… and the thoughts were that she was a coward and should be ashamed of herself. An emotional punch to the gut? Please. She deserved a real one.

"Some friend I am," she murmured angrily to herself.

Wulfhild was still her friend… and she was treating her terribly… She needed to talk to her great-grandmother… and the longer she put it off, the worse it would be…

She needed to. She had to.

But as she closed her eyes and drifted off, she knew that tomorrow, again, she wouldn't.

Because she was afraid of what they would say.

###

Hiccup looked up at the fresh snow on the peaks of Berk and whooped, "Yeah!" which the others—Astrid, Wulfhild, Heather, Fishlegs, and Cami—echoed enthusiastically. The dragons horfed and whistled cheerfully behind them.

Footpaths were already trodden through the snow on the village, and the Gronckle crews were hard at work filling carry-boxes with shoveled snow to be carted off and dumped elsewhere. Hiccup actually had some ideas on what to do with the snow, but it would have to wait for later.

For the moment, he had a fun day with his friends ahead, to take maximum enjoyment from the fresh snow outside of the village, which, despite his worries, hadn't gotten blown away by the storm's winds in the night. For starters, he'd built some new sleds over the summer in preparation for today, and now it was time to put them to the test.

He turned to Toothless and said, "Ready, bud?"

Toothless turned away from the human-sized snowball he was helping Orvi clan Hofferson roll up to his uncle's door, and gave Hiccup an innocent look.

Cami snorted behind him—and then there was a sudden shock of cold as she pasted him with a fluffy snowball right to the back of the head.

He yelped, ducked, grabbed a handful of snow of his own, threw it back at her.

She ducked, and he hit Heather instead.

Heather grinned nastily, and returned fire, and the snowball fight was on.

Fishlegs yelped and ran for cover around a nearby house as Astrid pasted Heather with a snowball, and then ran out of cover as Wulfhild chased after him, grinning madly, a snowball the size of her doubled fists clutched in both hands.

Toothless amused himself by shooting down snowballs that threatened Hiccup with small and precise fireblasts—until everyone ganged up on the two of them and they were pelted by a combined wave from their friends and family. Astrid and Fishlegs each got a bunch of their younger cousins to join in on the united attack.

That drove Hiccup and Toothless from the village square, Hiccup shouting an extravagant vow of ludicrous vengeance that left everyone laughing—just as Fishlegs stomped on the rooftop where he and Meatlug had stealthily landed, sending the snow on the sides cascading down on Hiccup and Toothless, burying them in a two-foot-deep pile.

Hiccup got the last laugh, though, as Cami promptly walloped Fishlegs with a well-aimed snowball, and he tottered and fell into the snowpile on the other side of the house to general cheers. Hiccup and Toothless took the moment to duck away and prepare for their counterattack on the Hofferson snow fort taking shape under Astrid's direction.

"Ready, bud?"

Toothless snorted a yes, and yelling with berserker cries, Hiccup and Toothless sprang out of their cover to charge at the fort, both of them laden with the largest snowballs they could manage to carry.

Astrid glanced up and saw them coming. Grinning, she bent and grabbed a rope that made Hiccup blink in half-realized recognition.

"Oh no," he said just as his wife gave them a sunny smile and then yanked on the rope—and a hail of snowballs erupted from the snowfort to the great glee of her cousins. Hiccup and Toothless shared a mutually doomed look as the snowballs pelted them.

Covered in snow, he and Toothless gave her sour looks as they walked up to the fort. Hiccup glanced inside, and saw one of his model catapults nestled inside, clearly borrowed from the smithy. "Snowball fights should not involve siege weapons!" he said, indignant—mostly at not having thought of it first.

She grinned and gave him a kiss—and he reached forward with the snowball he had palmed in his right hand and dumped it down the back of her coat.

She yelped and tackled him—and in the resulting tussle, they dumped lots of snow down each other's tunics and demolished one of the fort walls, as her cousins placed bets. And, if Hiccup didn't know any better, he would have said that Toothless and Stormfly were trying to get in on the betting pool.

They ended up ducking back inside for a quick warming up after that, and then headed out for the slopes to test the sleds, Cami riding double with Astrid on Stormfly. Finding the perfect hillside for sledding was easy from the air, and they settled down at the top and laid out Hiccup's new sleds; he'd crafted them from pine and iron, and spent an afternoon polishing the runners and bottoms with sharkskin and pine resin to make them slide as smoothly as possible. They were big enough for two people apiece, and they paired off—Hiccup with Astrid, Fishlegs with Heather… and then Cami gave Wulfhild a dubious look that Wulfhild returned with a weak smile. They stood there for a moment until Hiccup, sensing the tension, swapped with Cami.

Then Cami was giving him the dubious look, until Astrid pulled her away and into the sled.

Their cheering echoed as they slid away, and Hiccup sighed and looked to Toothless. "I can't win right now, can I?"

Toothless cocked his head, looking confused.

With a sigh, Hiccup turned to Wulfhild and they pushed the sled up to speed and hopped in.

Then Hiccup realized that Wulfhild was lying on him as the sled picked up speed—and this was the physically closest they'd been since he'd agreed to take her as a concubine.

He shifted uncomfortably as they slid down the hillside, and tried to focus on the fun of the moment. Wulfhild was managing that better than he was—she was whooping with glee, which drew an answering bark off to the side. Hiccup blinked and looked, to see Toothless and Mistletoe sliding along on their bellies like common seals, both of them looking extremely pleased with themselves as they kept pace with the sled. Further up the hill, behind them, was the third sled with Fishlegs and Heather; Meatlug was hovering overhead, while Windshear was following in the sled's wake.

They reached the bottom, where Cami and Astrid were already waiting, the two cousins cheering, high-fiving, and hip-bumping each other in enthusiasm. Stormfly arrived in a gust of wind, and helped carry the sled back up. That set the pattern for the next hour or so, with the humans sliding down on either the dragons' backs, or in the sleds, to the great delight of all. Then Toothless tried to cram himself into one of the sleds, only for the runners to sink into the snow, and the Night Fury turned to Hiccup with a pleading look.

Hiccup laughed and rubbed his friend's head. "I'll make you a dragon-sized sled, bud, don't worry."

Toothless gave a happy horf and yanked the sled out of the snow with his jaws and set it down in front of him—only for Cami to run past the pair of them, crowing and whooping, and grab the sled. She was gone a moment later. Hiccup and Toothless watched her slide away down the hillside, and they sighed together. Behind them, Fishlegs and Heather laughed.

Astrid came up and clapped him on the shoulder, laughing. "Let's race!" she said, and hopped onto Stormfly's back.

Shaking his head ruefully, Hiccup hopped onto Toothless's saddle and off he and Astrid went, the two dragons spreading their wings and sledding down on the slope on their bellies. Astrid and Stormfly took the lead, and blocked every maneuver that he and Toothless tried to get around them. Finally, Toothless blasted a hole in a snow drift with a precise fire shot and plowed through the steaming remains.

"Foul! I call foul!" Astrid shouted cheerfully, and called to Stormfly, "Block 'em, girl!"

Hiccup and Toothless suddenly had to dodge a line of tail spikes protruding from the snow, sending them off course and letting Astrid and Stormfly regain their lead. Then Stormfly inhaled and breathed out fire, melting the snow in front of her and reducing it to slicked ice, and they shot ahead.

"Hey!" Hiccup called.

"You cheated first!" she called back, grinning.

There was suddenly a crack! from upslope, and Hiccup watched as Astrid's face focused on something behind him and went from ecstatic to terrified in a heartbeat. He twisted in the saddle, and saw the top of the slope, where they'd been stomping about and walking for the last hour, give way and start to slide down after them.

Avalanche.

The rushing snow almost instantly overtook Heather, Fishlegs, and Windshear, burying them before they had a chance to get free.

"No!" Hiccup cried out in denial, and Toothless started flapping to take flight—and he was briefly airborne, but immediately corkscrewed off to his left, and they landed roughly on the snow.

As if his tail wasn't…

Hiccup looked back, and felt the blood drain from his face. Toothless's false tail was frozen in position five. Hiccup jammed his foot at the pedal, trying to break the ice, and all the false fin did was twitch a little.

Astrid and Stormfly had gone airborne while he was looking at the tailfin, and she screamed at him, "HICCUP! Get out of there!"

"I can't! Toothless's fin is frozen!"

Her eyes darted upslope—and if she was looking at the onrushing snow, then it was way too close.

She and Stormfly dove towards them, Stormfly's claws extended, clearly with the intention of dragging them free—and then the snow hit, and they tumbled with the impact.

###

Wulfhild gasped as she saw the avalanche let loose. She and Mistletoe had been at the bottom of the hill, and had just taken flight to head back up when the hillside gave way. And then she looked down and saw that Cami had reached the bottom of the hill and was running away from the onrushing avalanche as quickly and desperately as she could manage.

Without even thinking, she steered Mistletoe back down; they snatched Cami up off of the ground only a few moments before the snow hit her—the same snow that had swallowed her other friends.

Cami was screaming and swearing as the snow rumbled past them, the misty powder reaching up in a cloud nearly to Cami's boots.

"You all right down there?" Wulfhild called.

"They're all buried!" Cami screamed. "What the flippin', friggin', flamin'—"

"We should return to the village and get a search party!" Wulfhild said, as Meatlug flew up, looking panicked.

"Aye, that's an idea!" Cami called back. Below them, the last dregs of the avalanche petered out; the hillside looked churned and disturbed, a far cry from the placid surface it had been just this morning. "By Freyr and Freyja… I hope that they're all right…"

Wulfhild added her own silent prayer to that. Her friends were buried under there, and they needed help to find them.

She turned to Meatlug. "You stay here! Try to find Fishlegs!"

Meatlug nodded and dove towards the snow, and started digging frantically.