A World Gives and Takes: Chapter 14

The atmosphere around the encampment and hut remained subdued for many days. It took four days for most of the ice to melt from the vegetation. The greenery wilted and began to rot under the hot sun of midworld. The ground would take much longer to thaw. The two men noticed a discernible absence of birds and insects. Far and above the ones that died in Jack's staggering display of power, most others appeared to abandon the area. The artesian well took three days before it flowed again. Even their hut sustained damage. The fronds used to weave walls became brittle and dry. It meant they would likely need to replace all of it, and the fact added another somber layer to their mood.

Hasna suffered as much as the men who could fully fathom what occurred. Nightmares began to plague the girl. Most nights after the death of her brother she would not, or could not, sleep unless securely wedged between Hiccup and Jack. Their sleep got routinely interrupted as Hasna experienced terrifying visions her sleep. She would thrash about and yell, half in Berkian and half in her native tongue, about Biva and even Jack on occasion. Neither adult could sort out what she thought of witnessing Jack go through his transformation. Even during the day Hasna did not like to lose sight of either man. She would fret when either went off for one reason or another. Days and nights became a series of endless chores.

"I need to go back and find… whatever remains and bury him," Jack informed Hiccup on the ninth day after the attack.

"I figured that's what you were building," and the Viking nodded to the small wooden box the Guardian constructed. "Can we go?"

"Do you really want to subject her to that?"

"Will she even know what… it is?"

Brown eyes met green and silence took over. After nearly a minute Jack nodded his head. Deep down he knew Hiccup needed closure as much as him. The loss of the boy effected both men to a greater degree than either could ever guess. Even after Jack felt they reached a silent accord, Hiccup continued to hold his eye.

"What?" Jack finally asked.

"I need to say something to you, and you won't like it," Hiccup stated and warned.

The Guardian narrowed his eyes.

"Jack, I know what happened to… him," Hiccup said and cast a quick glance at Hasna who appeared to be otherwise mentally occupied, "hurt you bad. It hurt me bad… still is. It will probably always hurt."

"And your point?" Jack brusquely inquired.

"Don't pull away from her. She needs you. You need her. I need both of you."

Hiccup grabbed him by both shoulders and pinned him with a fierce gaze.

"I'm not. I just…"

"Just nothing, Jack Jorgenson Haddock-Fries. I know you. I may not know all three-hundred and whatever odd years you've lived, but I know what inside of you," the Viking sliced through the weak complaint. "You can't blame yourself for what happened to Biva…"

"Beev," Hasna quietly mumbled the word from where she sat and watched her two caretakers confront one another.

"Jack, I don't know how or what it took to bring out your Guardian powers, but I thank the gods you did 'cause we'd all be dead if you didn't. And I know you're beating yourself up 'cause you think if only you did it a few seconds faster that he'd still be alive."

"How would you know what…" Jack began to say in a pout.

"Because I watched Toothless kill my father! I watched my best friend kill the man I respected and loved so much I can't even make sense of it. I sat around for years and years… and you know I did, I sat around blaming myself and saying if I only did this or I should've done that, and none of it worked. I finally had to admit there was nothing I could to save my dad. It sucks, I hate that fact, but I learned to accept it and move on," Hiccup railed at his husband.

The Earthling narrowed his eyes.

"Get mad. Good! Get something," the Viking verbally prodded him. "You were pocking mortal at that moment, Jack. That creature was going to kill you, and I'm pretty pocking sure it was coming after me and Hasna next. Don't you get that?"

Jack opened his mouth.

"No. Don't say anything stupid. Just remember that mortals don't have a lot of control over very much of anything. This is what it means to be one of us. It means we can't save everyone. Great Wotan, we can barely save ourselves most of the time!" Hiccup ranted before his mate could speak.

"I saw Aita take what was left," the Guardian spoke in a dry voice. "I can still feel it."

Hiccup's mind raced in a panic. Since he could think of nothing better to do, he wrapped his arms around the thin man. Jack felt stiff and unyielding in the embrace. Hiccup squeezed him harder. Memories of Death, The Breathless One, assailed him. That Jack witnessed the final end of the boy – a permanent and real finality – explained much about Jack's actions in the past week.

"Then simply love her, Jack. Hold her. Give her comfort in a way you can't do as a Guardian. Let her see you as a real, living person… the one you are. The one I love," the Hallan man almost begged with the words.

Jack raised his arms and held his mate. Hiccup correctly assessed him, and the Earthling knew it. He never guessed so much of his Guardian power remained in his body; moreover, it felt just as strong as what he used on Earth to create large snowstorms. For a brief second he realized he did, indeed, rival Lord of Winter. The realization gave him pause as it did for the past eight days. He wondered if any being should be able to control that much force, and especially one as young as him. Since he could think of nothing better to do, Jack inhaled Hiccup's sent. It lent some stability.

"This is the cost of love," Hiccup mumbled.

"It's high," Jack rejoined.

"And the reward… the reward is we can do it as much or a little as we want. It's… weird, but love is kind of endless. I never really appreciated that."

The two men hugged one another.

"She can lead you back, Jack. Just give her a chance," Hiccup barely whispered.

He released his husband and stepped back. The Viking gazed at the remarkable man that owned his heart. It no longer mattered whether he thought of Jack as a Guardian or a Hallan mortal as he simply only saw Jack regardless of the clothes he wore.

"I'm going to wait outside."

Jack watched his husband step through the doorway and into the outside world. Hasna started to turn to follow, but Jack quickly knelt and grabbed her shoulder. The girl craned her head about.

"I love you, sweet girl," he began and panic nearly seized him. "I love you, and I loved Biva… so much. Both of you. And I'm sorry I couldn't be what I needed to be right then. I didn't know I could."

Hasna spun around and walked into him. The side of her head brushed against his face. Jack's arms slipped around the small body. He held her.

"Beev?" She mumbled.

"Biva is gone."

With that Jack began to cry. For the first time he openly admitted the boy died, and his heart began to break again. The girl seemed to sink further into him. She said nothing, yet provided him a deep sense of reality. He knew she cared for him, and he knew she loved Hiccup. The dirty, fraying wrap around her body seemed to fragile to contain the child. She mumbled words into his chest as he the tears flowed from his eyes. Jack felt her body shudder. They stayed entangled as each expressed emotions neither could not verbally stated.

"I love you so much," the Guardian said to her yet again when his throat eased.

"Love," Hasna mumbled and perfectly spoke the word.

After untangling his arms, Jack held her out so he could see her face. Hasna looked too sad for one with such an indomitable will. Her eyes searched his. His left hand rose and cupped the side of her face. Hasna reminded him of so many different children he saw in various places on Earth. The beseeching in her visage told him no one really needed to be a Guardian to do what needed to be done. He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. He could smell and taste her when he leaned back. Then he stood. Jack held out his hand. Hasna took it. Fear the love he felt for the child would one day betray him by becoming lost lanced through his mind and body, but the man did not release her hand. He gripped a little tighter. The mortal uncertainty of the future wiggled around his mind. Together they left the sagging hut.

The trio of people reached the dying and wilting location where the Biva met his end. The smell of rot and decay pervaded everything. More than just a child and an large reptile died. Smells of destruction made three stomachs turn.

"Yeah, I'm going to go take her to play with Nepta," Hiccup said as he saw exactly why the girl should not be there. "We can go fishing, too."

"Nepta. Go Nepta. Hic-ah fish," Hasna rumbled as her serious face scanned the area she clearly found disturbing.

"I won't be long," Jack promised and nodded to his husband.

Hiccup picked up the child and began to leave the area.

"Ja?" She called out.

Jack walked up to her once the Viking halted. He kissed her on the cheek. Then he forced a smile onto his face.

"Nepta needs to play catch. Go find a coconut," the Guardian answered the plea in her eyes in as cheerful a manner he found create.

Hasna eyed him for a second and then looked up at Hiccup. They both knew whatever other concerns she harbored could not compete against the chance to fish with the Viking. Hiccup swung her arm back and forth. While he continued to worry about Jack, he also conceded the Earthling would rise up to any challenge when it came to children. Hiccup realized he would do the same for the small child who held his hand. An glimmer of understanding as the emotional and psychological pressure Jack must live under as a Guardian staggered him. To care for an entire population of a world seemed incredibly daunting, but he saw Jack and his fellow Guardians in action. Besides, he thought, he trusted Jack.

"Let's go find Nepta!" The Hallan man said in exaggerated excitement.

Hasna succumbed to the entreaty with a final glance at Jack. The two trotted off down the path littered with dead and dying plant life. Jack watched them until they reached the shoreline. He pivoted on one heel and faced the destruction meted out by his powers. A pang of guilt stabbed at him. It would take a decade or two before this part of the forest approached the same lush vitality as the rest of the island. With that final assessment, Jack steeled his mind and began a gruesome search. He could not guess what drove him to find the remains of the boy, but the man could not resist the compulsion. The varying sickly stenches forced him to concentrate as he bent his mind to the grim task.

On the beach a deeply tanned man wearing only tattered and threadbare pants played in the shallows with a small brown girl who shed her wrap to she could play in the water. A large sea dragon, not quiet a leviathan, splashed around in the water as it awaited the short flight of a coconut. The girl could not throw far, but it did not seem to matter to the creature. Every now and again the man would take a turn, and the dragon would dart farther out into the sea to retrieve the object. For over an hour the two humans enjoyed sport with the sea beast. From a distance one could only see happiness. The blue-green water reflecting the sky, spotted with the white caps of small waves driven by the ever-present wind, made for a serene backdrop for the dragon as it dove and surfaced. The girl giggled, laughed, and yelled in delight. The man appeared strangely relieved.

Three days later the trio of people sat huddled under the only non-leaking section of their hut. It rained for two days when the southern edge of a minor squall lashed their island. The already bedraggled hut took a further beating; however, it did not entirely collapse.

"When it clears, we fix this," Hiccup stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

"We'll need fronds… a lot of fronds," Jack reminded him.

"Fron?" Hasna inquired from where she sat in the only truly dry area of the hut and played with her collection of pretty pebbles and shells.

"Frond, sweet girl," the Earthling carefully repeated the word, and he picked up a piece of one laying on the ground. "F-f-f… r-r-r… ahn… dt."

"Fron," Hasna said with certainty as she took the bit of frond from the man.

Hiccup snickered, and Jack smirked a real one for the first time since Biva perished.

The rains brought more humidity to the island, a feat that seemed impossible to both men. Both wore shorts they fashioned from scraps of clothing they found on the eastern shoals. Hasna ran naked through the hut and on the beach. The adults debated whether they should allow her, but Hiccup asked who would notice or complain. They then discussed what to do about clothing for the girl in the future as she grew. It seemed wiser to begin dressing her similar to their attire. Shorts and shirt would stand her well on the island instead of a dress or the wrap in which they found her. It meant going back to the shipwreck fields. Although he hated to admit it after years and years of associating with Nicholas Saint North, Jack told Hiccup he did not know how to sew. Hiccup stated the same. After a few minutes of staring blankly at one another, they went back to discussing the repairs needed on the hut.

"I've got some ideas about improvements," Jack mumbled while they sketched with charred wood on section of wall.

Hasna decorated a separate area, and she began to turn black from the ash the covered her hands. Her face got dotted with dark spots where she touched herself. Whatever she attempted to draw did not make sense to either man, but she seemed pleased as the short section of wall turned slowly into a gray-black smear.

"Does it involve tools we don't have?" Hiccup asked while narrowing his eyes.

"Um… maybe, but I think we can make them."

"For what?"

"To cut lengths of young amboo tree," Jack said the word that got augmented by Hasna, "to reinforce the walls and maybe build a second floor."

"Second floor… Jack, seems like you're planning on being here a while," the Viking rumbled.

"Have you seen a single ship pass by since we've been here?"

Hiccup slowly shook his head.

"Or aerial dragons we can tame?"

The senior dragon rider twitched his head again, but then said: "What about building a boat, a bigger one than what we arrived in, and getting Nepta to pull it?"

"Nepta! Co-nut! Fish!" The girl warbled out the words. "Hasna fish. Nepta play."

"When did that start?" Jack said and glanced at the girl.

"You need to pay closer attention, Jack. She listens to everything you say… everything you teach her. She'll be talking in full sentences soon… I think."

"And her first language is lost to her," the Earthling quietly stated.

"Jack?"

"Nothing, but… I think it'd be nice if we knew some of her original language. Someone might recognize it one day and she…"

"Could go home? What home? Where? This is her home. We're her home!"

Hiccup spoke with such heat in his voice it made both Jack and Hasna pause. They stared at the Hallan adult. He looked angry.

"Hic-ah?" The child seemed to query with the name.

"No, I'm not angry at you, Hasna. Him. Jack," Hiccup said and point to the Guardian.

"Ja, no," Hasna said and pursed her lips in apparent disapproval.

"That wasn't my point," Jack retorted and shot a look at his mate. "My point is she will notice a lot of things about herself that isn't like us. She's going to want to know something about who she is and where she came from. I'm not sure telling Hasna…"

"Ja, no," Hasna repeated at the sound of her name although she resumed her haphazard drawing.

Hiccup snorted a little. Jack suppressed a desire to smile. After days where she would only utter a few words, Hasna seemed to be recovering from the death of her brother and the sudden, destructive appearance of Jack Frost. Both Hiccup and Jack did not think she made any association between the one she called Ja and Jack Frost.

"How satisfied will she be to know we found her and B… Biva in a boat with her dead parents and another dead sibling somewhere in the midworld seas?"

Hiccup did not answer. The thought crossed his mind as he watched when she slept or early in the morning when she clung to either him or Jack waiting for breakfast. Like Jack, she would be alone of her kind among the Berkians if they managed to get home. Even without being on Berk it would become readily obvious to her the two men could not be her original parents. In this way Biva's death became even more cruel toward her.

"She'll ask. She's like you, you know?" Hiccup stated.

"In what way?" His husband rejoined in a cautious manner.

"Can't leave well enough alone. Has got to know everything that's going on around her."

"Oh, like I'm the only adult here who's like that, Mister I'm-Going-to-Trap-Dragon-Farts. You and Fishlegs almost got killed with that idea," Jack rounded on him, but the amusement could not be erased from his voice.

"Ever think maybe were not the – I don't know – best role models for children?"

Hiccup's comment diffused the blooming argument, but the issue remained. They would need to figure out what to tell her. Jack wanted to tell her the absolute truth of her origins when the time came, but Hiccup could not shake the feeling it might alienate the girl if they did. He sighed and looked at the scrap of woven wall they used to draft a reconstruction plan. Neither seemed to realize Hasna followed their lead as she covered her arms and hands in soot.

Jack displayed his clever mind, and Hiccup augmented it. Instead of making saws as Jack intended, they made better axes. The Guardian's idea of wedging sharp stones in slots cut into a piece of timber never managed to become a viable scheme. The stone would pop out of mortices regardless of the wood jammed in around the pieces. Tying the pieces of into place fared no better. In the end the two returned to making a higher quality axe.

Rebuilding their hut, even to a minimal degree, meant going back into the jungle. Hasna violently reacted the first time they tried to take her in. Only when she stood between Hiccup and Jack holding both their hands would she allow herself to be slowly lead toward the interior. Neither man could fault her reaction. The night before they discussed the fact they did not know whether more of the snake-dragon creature roamed the jungle. Jack speculated they never saw enough tracks to indicate more than one. Regardless, Hasna made them extra cautious.

Neither fortune nor folly met them along the way. They faced a tremendous amount of work. The plans for the expanded hut meant they need to gather a greater amount of material. With the jungle denuded for a quarter of a mile in either direction, it forced them walked greater distances. However, aside from gather building materials, they got the chance to replenish their fruit and vegetable supplies. For nearly two weeks they ate nothing but fish, and the diet grew stale. The wide variety of plants and trees, a variety only Fishlegs could love because he would fill two books cataloging it, became a welcomed sight. Thus for five days they returned hauling stout amboo stalks, food, and fronds. They worked through two days of rain on top of everything else.

It took another four days to realize they entered the rainy season. Each morning dawned gray, the rain poured out of the sky during the day, and most nights it coated them in an uncomfortable drizzle. Regardless the trio continued with their project. Hasna got assigned tasks suited for small hands. Slowly but surely, under the alternating critical eyes of Hiccup and Jack, the construction took shape. They made flooring for both the main floor and second floor. Trios of amboo poles got lashed together for loading bearing beans and supports. The days got divided between building and hunting for materials. Over four-eights passed since Biva's death before they finally stood and looked at the completed and expanded first floor. Rain fell over them.

"At least we'll be dry now," Hiccup rumbled.

"Not really. The gaps in the flooring will still let water through 'til we put the roof on," Jack returned as he analyzed the structure that suffered numerous changes in plan when they discovered some ideas to be unworkable.

"Another wet night, huh?" The Viking rhetorically inquired in a resigned tone.

Jack gave him an apologetic nod. The extent of the renovation took longer than expected, as they realized it would early on, but the rainy season threatened to go on for several more weeks. The constant state of dampness made life difficult. Food rotted at an exponential rate. Clothes ripped and tore with ease. Hasna graduated to shorts and a modified shirt faster than expected. Her muslin wrap began to literally disintegrate from her body. Jack worried incessantly the bark twine would shrink and become loose when the dry weather returned, and his concern infected Hiccup. Despite all that, they continued to work at a decent pace. They made sure, however, that Hasna got to play with Nepta every evening. Both dragon and girl appeared satisfied by arrangement.

"You were right about something you said a while back," Jack began a new discussion as he prepared the non-soggy bits of food he could find. None of looked very appealing.

"And…?" Hiccup prodded when the Earthling paused.

"I'm beginning to accept we may never leave this island. I've been watching the weather and the currents, and this island is a deathtrap for ships. I think captains sail as far around it as they can," Jack explained his thinking.

"You're assuming our friends and family gave up on us," the Viking rejoined while picking a biting bug off his chest. All of them wore marks from the insidious little insect that multiplied like a mad craze in the wet weather. "I admit it's starting to look doubtful, but… they're resourceful, and if Toothless made it home…"

Hiccup halted. His statement bordered on admitting the night fury might not be alive or got permanently lost somewhere on Halla. Regardless of his impressive homing skills, the dragon got caught in a violent storm in place far from home. Even Toothless' vaunted abilities would be sorely tested. However, Hiccup refused to believe his dragon met his end. Through the few months following the storm and shipwreck, the Hallan admired the way his mate bore up on the loss of IceSpike. Jack seemed too convinced the woolly howl did not escape a watery end. Hiccup saw no reason to doubt what Jack saw. The loss of Biva frightened the Viking for the Guardian: Jack suffered two catastrophic deaths in a short time. Moreover, he got proof positive the boy no longer existed.

"Until my beard turns white, I'm not counting them out," he spoke as much to his internal thought as to his husband.

"That thing tickles and itches me, by the way, and I wish I could find a razor somewhere," Jack complained about his mate's facial hair.

"That scrub on your chin is nothing to be proud of. Why is it you don't look like you've aged a day?"

The Earthling shrugged. He could see ample signs of his aging when he spied himself in a mirror, polished piece of metal, or reflected in the water. Furthermore, sometimes he thought he could feel himself growing older. Jack wanted to bring up the topic of genetics, but it annoyed Hiccup who counted by saying exactly what family granted him his body. The question could not be satisfactorily answered. His mouth stayed shut.

"In the meantime, we keep building 'til we're happy. It gives us something to do," Hiccup returned to the original topic.

"We could try farming. We could cultivate quite a few of the vegetables," Jack opined.

"What I wouldn't give for some wheat? I miss bread."

"Me, too, but we'd need eggs and butter… and I don't see any chickens or yaks around."

They stared at one another. Hasna worked on her masterpiece and it now flowed onto another section of wall. They warned her drawing on the new walls would not be allowed. If she understood what they said, she hid her understanding. Over the weeks when she busied herself with charcoal from their pit, at least the pieces not soaked through, the girl began to develop a style. She liked swirls and whorls. Jack appreciated that from his days as the ice painter called Isemaler. He picked at spot on his neck where a midge got him while mentally critiquing the new drawing.

"Didn't you warn me not to scratch too much or it might get infected 'cause gods-know-what these things are?" Hiccup dryly asked.

The Guardian forced his hand downward, and then he said something his brain blurted in his mind: "I bet it'll be Ruffnut and Tuffnut that finds us. They'll go on some Loki-quest and accidentally fly into the island."

"My money is on Astrid. She's pretty pocking tenacious… and if she thinks I'm trying to hide from her…"

Jack began to laugh at the appraisal of their mutual friend. Since fighting alongside them to drive Etuchaand from Halla, a deep and warm friendship reemerged between the Hiccup and Astrid. Both Fishlegs and Snotlout informed Jack the two acted more like brother and sister than friends. It made Jack inwardly smile to think Hiccup put his faith in a person from whom he distanced himself for ten years.

"It's better to hope than not, isn't it?" Jack asked, but he did not expect an answer since he already knew it.

"Sort of reminds of that first summer when you came to Berk. You heard the children asking if Isemaler was going to come back. I think they would've believed Isemaler into existence if one didn't show up. Then Grimtooth outdid himself that first year. Remember how crazy it was?" The Viking quietly pondered.

"He was better at it than me."

"I don't see it like that. Never have."

"Why?"

"Well," Hiccup said and sat up.

"Wa-wer," Hasna piped up.

Jack opened his mouth, but Hiccup continued: "I don't think any of the Isemalers after you could do what you do on Earth. What the children face there is… it's unimaginable to be honest. Here the kids need to have fun in the winter. Isemaler and Jack Frost are two completely different people… even when you were both of them."

"You really thought about this," Jack commented.

"I'm the only one who ever really got to see all three sides of you."

"Three… oh, yeah. But during the fight with Aletha…"

"What? An hour or two doesn't really count. The others got to see what you could do, but they never got the chance to see why you do it. I saw it on Earth. The Guardians love you, Jack. Jamie… that expression on his face when he looked at you. He'd walk through fire for you. None of the others ever saw that."

Jack's mouth fell open. For eleven years Hiccup held that inside. The words his husband spoke shortly after Biva's death came back to him. Love could be very painful, sometimes agonizingly so, but the rewards became manifest at the most surprising times. He gazed in wonder at the Hallan with whom he fell in love.

"The day I first saw you on that island asking if something was wrong with you… I never heard anyone talk to himself… herself like that. I never did until I became a Guardian, but not quiet in the same way," Jack found himself speaking before he could think it through. "You… gods, Hiccup, you understood what it meant to have real responsibility. You made me feel less alone in that one second."

"You scared the crap out me when you said the word nothing," Hiccup said and smiled at the memory.

"Hiccup, just so you know, if we never get rescued… I think I'm okay with that."

The Viking mouth fell open and he looked gobsmacked.

"It's because I'm here with you. I wish we had our… dragons, but you're what I need to keep me going. Hasna now…"

"Ja," Hasna almost mindlessly said his name. It became something of a game with her to repeat their names when she heard hers.

"Sweet girl, I need you too," Jack said and felt a sense of panic rise in him. He pushed it down and faced a harsh reality.

She broke off from her drawing and looked in their direction. Her dark eyes darted back and forth between the men. A slow smile came over her face for a reason neither man could fathom. Then she returned to her art.

"You're right: I can't save them all, and especially not as a mortal," he confessed to his Hallan husband.

"Not even as a Guardian," Hiccup filled in an essential piece, and his voice dropped in volume. "Mortal life is messy. Unpredictable. Neither one of us knew that snake with legs was there. I never saw it."

Hiccup watched as two tears streaked down his mate's cheeks before he said: "Sometimes I wonder if your Moon Father knew what he was doing when he gave you this life. I mean, look, what does he really know about being mortal? He never was one."

"Like I always tell you when you say that: I think that's the reason he did it. It means I'll know things he never did… or could. It all sort of puts my powers into perspective."

"And Biva's death?"

"Beev," Hasna quietly, very quietly, said to herself while she stared as the dark spiral she created on the wall.

"How one small, almost insignificant life can change everything," Jack answered in the same manner the girl spoke." I think it took the Man in the Moon millions and millions of years to even get a glimpse of that understanding… and now it lives in me. The immortals here don't understand it either, 'cept for maybe Noro. She loves life, too."

"Then being stuck here with me and her?" Hiccup pressed the point.

"Well, we always did want to spend time together, and that one will probably keep us from killing each other."

Hiccup chuckled. He expected a good answer, and Jack gave him a better one. He let his eyes sweep around the hut as it currently stood. In a few days it would look even more different as they continued their work. The Viking acknowledged that he and his mate built something entirely new on the island than anything they did on Berk. The addition of children, and the loss of one, made it seem as important as anything they achieved in the past. In an entirely novel fashion, Hiccup saw a future that did not center on him or Jack, dragons, their friends, Berk, or the people there. He got a peek at a future that did not include him, except it would not exist if they failed Hasna.

"Hiccup?" Jack queried when the silence lingered.

"Hic-ah," Hasna repeated and did not seem aware she even said it.

"I think I finally really get what my father did when he took that blast from Toothless. It wasn't about him or what he wanted… 'cept I think it was it was. It's all so tied together," Hiccup replied as the complicated enlightenment took hold.

"Big knot of ribbons?"

"Yeah, very big knot!"

Nick's analogy seemed entirely apt at the moment. They looked at each other, and then together they shifted their gaze to the girl who occupied herself with making a mess of the walls. She seemed content for all the hardships she endure for the past few months. The absence of Biva made it feel more poignant for the two men. Hiccup felt a new resolve harden in his mind.

"We can't stay stuck here, Jack. If something happens to us…" he began and did not finish.

"I know," the Guardian rejoined and fear edged through him about what the future could really portend. "We should follow your idea. The one about the boat."

"Gonna take a lot of work. We're not taking about a small craft like the one that brought us here. We're going to need to be able to sail it," Hiccup rejoined and wondered exactly what tipped the scales in Jack's mind.

"And how much time do we have on our hands?"

The Hallan man nodded.

"Besides, you've been sailing your whole life an…"

"Not at much since Toothless came along," Hiccup corrected him, but added: "But I know enough. Gobber and me used to fix and prep the longboats when I was younger, so it's not like I don't know anything."

"The way you were talking about this before it sounded like you thought we should build a good sized vessel," Jack said. He managed to finish his main thought.

"Jack, this could do a lot damage to the jungle."

"It'll recover. Think about how it looks around the well already."

Both saw how the forest in the area the suffered Jack's frost blast already began to make a recovery. Several of the dead palm trees fell as the ground got saturated from the constant rain. Delicate flowers, ferns and other plant life dotted the ruined landscape. It appeared the southern climes recuperated with rapidity, and Jack recalled hearing something about that on a television program long ago.

"And will stick to using amboo since they're flexible and compartmentalized. They'll float. Plus their bark is water-resistant. That'll help," Jack added.

From there they sat under the dripping ceiling, the flooring for the second story, and discussed what the scale and size of the boat to make a cross across the ocean. Replicating the Island Miss seemed completely out of the question, but if they could craft a vessel a third the size it might be able to make a seagoing voyage. An hour into their planning found Hasna standing next to the table grumbling about hunger. Water-streaked ash and soot covered her hands and arms, part of one leg, and a smudged hand print adorned the side of her neck.

"Cook or bath?" Hiccup asked first.

"Bath," Jack gamely took the option. "I could use a dip myself."

"Say hello to Nepta."

"Nepta," Hasna gleefully said the name.

"We're not playing catch," Jack warned her.

"Wanna bet?" Hiccup warned Jack.

The two men snickered at the exchange. While Hiccup went to the storage chest to find some non-soggy or non-waterlogged food, Jack led the girl out of the hut toward the beach. The sky got rippled with a variety of colors. Peach and red dominated the eastern horizon where the sun set, and a velvety indigo reigned on the western side. In between salmon turned to a strange aquamarine before the hue darkened. It looked very pretty, Jack thought, as Hasna tugged on his arm to make him move faster.

In the hut Hiccup heard Jack call out to the sea dragon, and then the gurgling trumpet response. Inside the food chest he found fish he did not trust and set it aside. It looked to be a meal of fruit and vegetables, something they would all eat. Finding half a coconut caught him up sharp. It reminded him Biva and how the child would not eat anything unless completely hidden by a coconut and a fruit juice mash Jack invented. The sight caused a cascade effect in the man. He sat down next to the chest and began to weep. Since deciding to cross midworld, life became treacherous for he and Jack. A happy cruise turned into a nightmare that would not end. The death of Biva, so unfair to both men and unjust to the child, seemed to be the nadir of their existence in the last several months. As the grief and sorrow poured out Hiccup, emotions he kept in check so Jack would not slip further into self-doubt or self-loathing because he thought he failed the boy, the Viking began to make wild plans.

"We're getting off this pocking rock and back home," he grumbled with a hoarse voice as the larder. "I hate this place."

On the beach Jack and Hasna played in the water. They managed to both remove the grime from the girl and entertain the water dragon. Nepta like to swim around them and bump so they landed with a splash in the water. Sometimes they would snake one of his, or hers, dorsal ridges and go for a short ride. Jack marveled at the manner in which Nepta kept the girl from sinking below the surface, even when she fell. It reminded him of a fabled television canine who constantly got called upon to save it's moronic master, a ten-year old boy, from almost certain death on a weekly basis. Jack realized Hasna would never grow to be that stupid. The first dragon rider of the north and a former mythical being would oversee her education. Nepta would also add to her learning.

"Even if we're stuck here, we'll make due," he told Hasna and Nepta. "We'll be okay."