A World Gives and Takes: Chapter 15

When Hiccup dedicated himself with equal ferocity to building both a house and a boat, Jack took it as sign of restlessness. The lack of people other than another man and girl child did not offer a very wide variety, no matter how much they loved one another. The water dragon added to the mix, but only when they spent time as the edge of the ocean. Thus, the dual projects became a focal point for the Hallan and, eventually, the Earthling. The second, smaller Hallan never seemed to run out of interesting ways to keep herself occupied and her guardians in a state of panic.

The house came to completion first. The three stepped back into the sands and eyed their handiwork. The main floor now consisted of four rooms and the second added another two. Each measured roughly twelve by twelve feet. Use for each would likely vary, but the upper two would be used as bedrooms. The lower rooms would serve as dinning and living area, a kitchen and pantry, a workroom, and the forth hid a privy along with the stairs to the second level. Windows with roll-down curtains got cut into walls for each room. Rudimentary doors offered some sense of security and additional privacy. It also looked very sturdy since they worried about the effect of a major storm striking the island. That seemed more a given than a slim possibility.

"Welcome home," Hiccup said with a sense of smug determination.

"Home," Hasna repeated. "Home?"

"A place where we live together as a family," Jack said, and he waited for almost three eight-days to say those very words. "Home. Hasna, Hic-ah, and Ja… home."

She held their hands and stared at the building. Hiccup and Jack saw her mumble the word to herself. It seemed a safe bet she would add it to her growing lexicon by the end of the day, and would begin to use it in sentences.

"We need more furniture," Hiccup mumbled.

"I got that covered. Now that the house is done, I've got enough to work with to make proper beds and dressers," Jack replied.

"And the boat?"

"There's a whole jungle out there."

Hiccup turned and gave the the trees on the other side of the denuded area a fierce glare. The man looked angry about something. Over the past several weeks, Jack noticed an edge crept into his mate. He remained kind and loving to him and Hasna, but he worked as if chased by a skrill. Hiccup did not waste a single minute of daylight, and the fact they got half a day's worth stood as a testament to their proximity to midworld.

"I think we should take a week off, relax, and enjoy what we've accomplished," Jack suggested on the heels of his thoughts.

"Why?" Hiccup questioned in protest. "We're on tear, Jack. We should keep going and just finish the boat. It won't take that long."

"Oh? How long is not that long?"

The Viking shrugged and said: "Maybe a month… little more if we don't catch a break with the weather."

"Another four or five eight-days at this pace is going to kill us, Hiccup. What are you so hell-bent…"

"What?"

"Himmel-focused on building the boat so fast?" Jack finished his question using a Hallan substitute for one phrase.

For the first time in weeks, the two men confronted one another. Hiccup tried to control his reaction, but he feared getting too comfortable on the island. It would lull them into thinking they could make a life there when they barely survived in the first place. Anger that Jack became complacent and lackadaisical shot through his mind even though facts argued against it. The man frowned as he looked at his mate who happened to be frowning as well. Hiccup did not want to make it an argument. He would let their success at building the house speak for him.

"Out with it," Jack ordered. "Something's gotten into your head and I want to know what it is."

Hiccup scowled, kicked at the sand and said: "We already talked about all of it. I just don't know why you're not eager to build this boat. Are you happy here?"

Jack rolled his eyes, thus making Hiccup angrier and said: "So now you want to cross the ocean with a two-year… two and a half-year old… maybe three-year old when we don't have a single chart or know what the weather is going to be like? What has gotten into you, Hiccup?"

"This is not our home!" The Viking burst with ire. "It will never be our home, Jack! It'll be our grave… and her grave. Is that what you want? Do you want to die separated from everyone you know and love on this planet?"

In a soft, almost gentle voice, Jack replied: "I don't want to watch anyone else I love drown at sea. I don't want to hear Aita's voice in the water."

Hasna stood between the men and her head flopped from side to side depending on who spoke. Hiccup and Jack bickered, but they never argued in front of her. She appeared either concerned or cross at the development. Jack felt her squeeze the two fingers onto which she held. Hiccup looked down at precisely the same time.

"No one's mad at you, Hasna," Hiccup said in a calm. "I'm just trying to remind Ja we need to get off this island."

"And I'm not mad at you, either, sweet girl. Hic-ah's is trying to get ahead of himself."

Hiccup jerked his head upward. He hated it when Jack used a patronizing tone, even if he directed it at a child. The Guardian, in the Hallan's estimation, did not appreciate the severity of their situation. They could not let themselves think of the place as home or else they would loose their will to escape the island. However, hearing his mate mention The Breathless One did cool his temper a bit. Jack's sudden transformation into his Guardian form returned his ability to see and hear Death. Hiccup did not envy the man that aspect.

"Hiccup, you're being irrational. I thought that was my territory as a former mythical being?" Jack said and tried to add some levity to leaven the tension.

"Jack, the more we do here to make ourselves comfortable, the harder it will be to leave. We have to do it now while we still remember where our home really is," Hiccup rejoined and ignored the joke.

In the muggy heat of the later afternoon with a thin mist slowly coating them, the two eyed one another in an effort to assess the other. It did not do them any good. Jack could see Hiccup refused to budge from his position, and stubbornness got built into Viking DNA. In the same vein, Jack did not see the sense in rushing through the building process. He thought tactically as the Guardians taught him, although half the time he simply liked to wing it. In this case, lives would be at stake.

"My home, Hiccup Horrendous Fries-Haddock… the third is wherever you are… and now she's part of it. What you're asking me – us – to do is threatening that home. I thought we agreed on that?" Jack calmly tried to explain, except he knew he made a mistake using Hiccup's full name.

"Jackson Overland Jorgenson Haddock-Fries," Hiccup said in a commanding tone and Jack's mouth flopped open.

Jack only said his real mortal Earth name once to the Viking because, regardless of where he lived, power came with his real name. That Hiccup would memorize it both impressed and unnerved him. Fortunately the man mixed in parts of his Hallan name, and it went some ways in mitigating the possible fallout. However, the usage did impart a complete and total sense of seriousness on Hiccup's part.

"We can't stay here. This isn't who we are, and I know who you are in more than one place," the Hallan said with a tense conviction. "We need to find a way back home, Jack. They know by know something happened to. By my calculation, we should've arrive back on Berk weeks ago."

"Do you really think they're going to send out longboats this far looking for us? They'd never make it," Jack countered, still rattled by hearing his name, and then saw a strange glint in Hiccup's eyes. He witnessed that look only in certain circumstance. "If he made it back to Berk, Toothless'll wait there for you for as long as it takes."

Hiccup took his turn at being flabbergasted. Jack did know him, knew how to read him, and proved it in the quick assumption he made. Moreover, Jack hit the mark. The death of the boy reminded the Viking of the transience of life and relationships. He did not disagree with the Earthling that a large sense of home resided between them and the life they forged together, but Hiccup could not so easily dismiss the other elements of his life. A question formed in his mind, and his mouth started moving.

"Don't you care about the others who are worried to death…"

"You don't get to say that!" Jack unexpectedly shouted at him.

Hasna let go of the Earthling's hand and stepped back behind Hiccup. Jack steadied himself. Then he glared at Hiccup.

"You only get to say that when you know Toothless is dead!"

Hiccup growled, but it got wasted. Jack spun on one heel and stomped away from the beach toward the house. The stiff set of his mate's shoulders informed he went one step too far. While they both recoiled and dealt with the loss of Biva, Hiccup never forgot Jack also faced the loss of IceSpike. The Viking no longer doubted the Guardian saw the dragon perish under the surface of the stormy sea. Whatever arguments he could make for building the ship with all due haste would be wasted. Jack would not listen to him as he wrestled with his emotions, primarily anger and grief.

Tears slid down Jack's face as he pounded out his rage through his feet. He never denied Hiccup first formed his lifelong bond with Toothless long before the Guardian fell through the sky onto Halla. In many ways, Jack knew that relationship would always overshadow the one they made. However, to casually throw about the concept of death when he suffered two significant losses seemed cruel and heartless. Sometimes Hiccup could forget about the feelings of others in his zeal to achieve a goal. Anger propelled the man as he wiped watery streaks from him eyes. There would be no more discussion about the boat that day.

Neither did they discuss it the follow day nor the one after that. It took four days before Hiccup broached the subject, and Jack promptly shut him down by suggesting if he wanted to build a boat, then the Viking better get started. The Earthling made no offer to help. Hiccup got torn between guilt and ire: guilt because he got it started and ire because Jack turned bullheaded in the best of Viking traditions. Without Jack's assistance, Hiccup could do little more then collect materials from the forest. Even then he ran the chance of not getting exactly what they needed. The plans for the ship lay unfinished in one of the new rooms. True to his word, the Guardian occupied himself with crafting furniture. Because he found work, Hasna switched her attention Jack.

"Now we need to finish squaring this off, and then we can go find a thin rock to use as the base," Jack explained to the girl. "Once we attach the frame to rock and make a lid, we should have a decent steamer box."

"Team bock," Hasna ritualistically tried to repeat the last two words.

"Want some help looking for as stone. It might take a while to find one that long… that's thin enough," Hiccup offered and suggested.

"If you want. I don't know if this going to work, but a steamer box will come in handy for making chairs and other things for the house."

Hiccup nodded. He tried to hide his frustration, but Jack's blatant refusal to mention anything about the boat stung. It reminded him of the time when he would not assist with the building of the water wheel during their six months of separation before battle with Etuchaand. No matter how hard he and Fishlegs tried, they could not craft the pieces they needed without the skilled hands of Jack. The project languished until after the private ceremony by the Defenders of Berk to honor the memory of Grimtooth Isemaler. Once Jack began helping again, he spotted a number of poorly executed pieces and re-crafted then. Then he and Snotlout went through the process of reinforcing the entire contraption. It worked on the second attempt once Jack got involved. On the island, moreover, Hiccup knew he could not build a boat on his own.

"Do you need any more amboo?" Hiccup further tried to ingratiate himself.

"Not yet. Not for a while," Jack declined. "Still got a lot of scrap left from the house construction. I don't want to needlessly hack apart the jungle."

The Viking breathed heavily through his nose.

"I'm not the one who started this, Hiccup, and I sure as himmel won't take part in it any more," the Guarding in hiding coolly responded to the nose.

"Do you disagree we need to get off this island?" Hiccup rumbled.

"Did you ever hear me say that?"

"No."

"So your accusations on the beach we misplaced, and the way you tried to defend your actions…"

Hiccup squirmed in his chair. In the back room they could hear pieces of amboo clatter around as Hasna tried to sort through them. As soon as the tone of their voices shifted, she removed herself. The girl did not like to listen to them argue, and neither man could fault her. However, it did not ease the fact they verged on another argument.

"How many times do I need to apologize?" Hiccup asked in a tight fashion.

"Once would be nice," Jack said without raising his voice, and he steadfastly refused to be drawn into the debate.

"I…" the Hallan man began to say and halted. Hiccup racked his brain to see if he did apologize, but he could not recall ever getting around to it over the past several days. He sighed and said: "Jack, I'm sorry for what I said about… that. I really am, but do you know why I said it?"

"Fear."

"Fear? Fear of what?"

"Fear you're going to die in a strange place and in a way you never expected. Fear it might happen to me. Fear it might happen to her," the man from Earth intoned as he measured and marked a piece of wood. "More, Hasna!"

The oddly hollow knocking sound, unique to the type of tree they used, echoed from behind. Jack's call effectively stalled Hiccup from responding before he could think through an answer. He leaned against the new table Jack built in a single day. It easily held his weight.

"You're right: I don't want any of us to die here. We still don't know if more of those giant snakes with legs are creeping around. We never searched. Not after… that," the Viking said in a controlled manner.

"I'll ask you again: do you want to trade one danger for another? You know we run a greater risk dying at sea, right?"

Jack heard Hasna approach and held out a hand. First one piece and then another got handed to him. He glanced down and grinned at the girl.

"Thank you," the man properly stated.

"Elcomb," Hasna quipped. "More?"

Jack held up a hand and displayed three fingers. Hasna repeated the gesture. Jack pointed to his index finger.

"One," he said.

"One," Hasna clearly repeated.

"Two."

"Two."

"Three," the Guardian concluded.

"Free," the girl tried to say.

"Close enough for now," Jack told her. "Three more pieces, please."

"Tay," she said, and turned on one foot and trotted back to the storeroom containing the privy and stairs.

"She might be genius," Hiccup remarked with noticeable pride.

"Could be all she went through jump started her brain… or maybe it's genetic. Even on Earth they don't know what causes advanced and accelerated intelligence," his mate said and then looked him squarely in the eye. "Until we come up with a way to make a sea crossing with as much reduced risk as we can calculate, I'm not helping you with a scheme that will get either you or her killed. Do you understand me?"

"I'm not a child, Jack, so ease up," the Viking retorted and showed his hackles got raised. "But I'm not going to sit around and do nothing. I'll start making a plan with or with you and, even if you don't want to help, I'm building a boat to leave this place. Do you understand?"

A knot of anger formed in Jack's gut when Hiccup perfectly imitated the way he said the last line. He nodded. Hiccup held his eye for a moment. Then he went to the storeroom where Hasna tried to wrangle three or more pieces of amboo. She still did not quite grasp the full significance of numbers, but she took to learning them. The Guardian agreed with the Viking's assessment: the girl truly did show genius potential. With that thought he resumed working on the steamer box. A minute later he spied Hiccup slipping out of the house with an axe in his hand. Jack sighed.

"Hic-ah fish?" Hasna asked at his elbow.

"Hic-ah… chop tree," Jack said. Then he imitated the motion with his hand against a piece of wood. He held out his hands, and Hasna deposited four piece of wood. He smiled and told her: "This is four."

She smiled in return. He ruffled her hair, and Hasna tossed a frown at him.

Since she provided him enough material to last him a short while, Jack handed Hasna a drawing stick he contrived. She ran to the place where they made extra mats from the surplus of fronds cut to finish the doors and walls. The men made the girl a number of drawing sheets to spare the newly finished structure her artistic attempts. Jack fumbled with one of the additional charcoal sticks. Hasna lay on the ground on the other end of the main living area and applied herself. Thoughts bubbled in Jack's head. Hiccup, he knew full well, would not relent on the idea of leaving the island. The Earthling worried the Hallan would accidentally kill himself.

When Hiccup returned hours later sweaty and tired from felling the notoriously springy amboo trees, he found his husband and the girl lying side by side on the floor. Hiccup gave up the pretense and thought of Hasna as their daughter, blood ties be damned. He walked over, stopped, looked, and finally goggled at what he saw. Hasna created another swirl pattern on her sheet, but she incorporated a second one and made a mess of the first. She experimented with design, and he liked that. Jack, however, fully surprised him. On his sheet he saw a number of boat drawings varying types. Some clearly came from an off-world source. Two would never world work, but but three appeared viable our of the remaining five.

"Jack?" Hiccup gingerly said.

"It didn't take much to realize you're going to kill yourself if I don't do something to help," Jack replied without looking. "Foolhardy and Viking seems to go together as you've told me thousands of times, and – Wow! – are you ever a Viking."

"It's an occupational hazard," the Viking confessed instead of taking insult because he saw Jack tried to meet him part of the way. "So, ah, what do you have in mind?"

"Stability. I want something stable that will be able to cross midworld and deal with the rough northern seas. Winter is not that far away. Plus, I want something that can withstand a fierce storm if the Ocean Lady and the Thunder Queen go at it again. I also want a back-up plan in case the ship breaks up. I want everything to float… including us, no matter how big the waves get. Basically, I don't want any of us to pocking drown!"

Jack spoke so firmly Hiccup knew he dare not contest or question anything just said. They could work out the details later, but more than anything he needed Jack's wickedly clever mind. Over three centuries of life filled his head with a staggering amount of knowledge. All three of them would need that if they wanted to see the shores of Berk again. Thus, the Viking simply nodded.

"Right now I kind of like the catamaran idea best. The Polynesians used them to cross the Pacific…"

"And you know I don't understand the reference," Hiccup piped up.

"A seafaring group of Earthlings from long ago who crossed the largest ocean on Earth… maybe bigger than what we saw getting here. They navigated using stars and a lot of guts, but they weren't stupid," Jack explained while pointing and staring at his middling drawing of an oddly configured catamaran. "Two pontoons… the long, water-tight hull-like things here and here, are used to cut through the waves and surf. Beams connect the two, and a main cabin is built on the platform is creates."

"This is better than a longboat because…?"

"Because the connecting joists flex, and the pontoons won't become a weak point for water entry if we stuff 'em full of buoyant material. The whole thing can twist and turn as it needs in bad weather… and if it falls apart, we can use the pontoons as flotation devices. Those won't sink."

"You're sure about this?" The Viking queried.

Jack turned his head and lobbed a baleful glare at him.

"Fine, you're sure, but I want to see more drawings and hear you really explain how this works. Looks sort of rickety to me if you ask."

"I didn't," Jack replied.

Hiccup frowned. Jack only just began to turn the corner on the entire concept, the Hallan man admitted to himself. He would need to be careful in how he approached his husband and the idea he presented. It seemed sketchy at best to Hiccup as he studied the drawing on the floor. However, Jack's conviction reassured the Viking. If Guardians knew anything, they knew about safekeeping children. With Hasna involved, Jack would only offer his best ideas. He resigned himself to many frustratingly silent moments with his mate.

"Oh, I think I found a good stone for you steamer box. Don't know how we're going to get it here, but it looks prefect. Might have to chisel it down some 'cause it's long," Hiccup told the man. It felt nice to be handing out good news.

"Where?" Jack instantly took the bait and switched gears.

"North of Wrecking Shoals and just inside the main amboo stand. Part of it is buried, so be prepared to dig in sand."

The Earthling groaned and nearly rolled over onto Hasna.

"Ja!" Hasna complained and left two hand prints on his back. "No!"

"No what?" He prompted her.

"No… Hasna… on…," she struggled with the words. "No on Hasna!"

"Now say get off me, Ja."

She pushed at his back, smearing more charcoal on him, and rumbled: "Geh off me, Ja."

"Fine, fine. I'll get off Hasna," the man hiding a Guardian inside said in mock exasperation while he sat up.

Hiccup snickered and said: "And she just learned another sentence. She understands a lot more than she can say."

"I think that's how it works. That's how it worked for me when I got here."

Hiccup forgot Jack arrived on Halla and could not speak the language. He recalled the stories of the early days when the Guardian told him about his first several weeks on the planet stripped of power because Halla did not possess a belief structure about him. The Viking got a new reminder that Jack faced and defeated far more challenges than any standard mortal could conceive. In many respects, the Earthling got forced into entirely remaking himself, and not just once. Thus, Hiccup thought, Jack could empathize with Hasna to a much finer degree. His mind returned to the present.

"So what's our first order of business?"

"I need the rock… and not just for furniture. If we're going to build that boat, we'll be bending a lot of wood," Jack stated and sounded marginally less antagonistic.

The Viking paused for a moment and regarded his husband. He could not imagine what thought process Jack put himself through to reach a private accord. His eyebrows drew slightly together and he said: "Thank you."

"You damn Vikings know how to get yourselves killed in more ways than I can think to keep you alive. If designing and building a ship is going to stop you from doing anything stupid, then…" and the Guardian let the rest of the sentence unsaid.

Hiccup nodded. He wanted to lob a complaint at Jack about the Guardians, but he could not think of one. On the whole Guardians tended to be rather altruistic, dedicated, and forthright in their efforts to protect children. Hiccup barely understood the risks they faced, but he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt they could get killed in the process. He witnessed it for himself.

"I promise to try to keep myself alive better," Hiccup rejoined in a very solemn manner.

For the first time in days Jack produced a real smile. The man shook his head and returned to his drawing. Hiccup went in search of food. Hasna continued to coat herself in charcoal.

The next morning after a quick meal the trio set out to find the rock Hiccup discovered that they could use as a base for the steamer box. Jack pressed him for details about the stone, but Hiccup proved less observant about geology than dragons. He learned as they walked through the frost-ruined section that the wrong stone might explode when heated, as he intended to do. Between them Hasna skipped along. Every so often one or the other of the men would point to an object and name it. She would try to repeat the name. It took them almost half an hour to reach the location because they needed to backtrack when Hiccup realized they passed the location. When the group found the stone in the morning light, a serious examination began.

"Bet he starts to talk to it," Hiccup said to Hasna who sat in his lap and watched the Guardian. "See the stone?"

"Tone," Hasna repeated.

"S-s-s-s-s… s-s-s-tone," the Viking sounded out the word as he heard Jack do countless times.

"Th-th-tone," she said in a rough imitation.

"S-s-s-tone."

"Th-th-the-tone."

"Hmmm, either you've got a lisp or your people didn't use that sound much."

The girl dressed in shorts and a heavily modified shirt lifted her head up and looked at Hiccup. Hiccup looked at her face, then her eyes, and he felt weepy all of sudden. Hasna gave him a look he saw her give Jack on many occasions, and it sometimes evoked jealousy in him. Before he did start to cry, Hiccup leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.

"Love you," he whispered against her skin.

"Love ooh," Hasna mumbled.

Hiccup started to sniffle as a wave of emotion flooded through him. He wrapped his arms around the child and held her close. Hasna giggled. She reached up and scratched his beard. For the first time he wondered if he crossed over into rashness with his desire to build a boat. True, Hiccup wanted to return to Berk, but not putting Hasna's life in jeopardy seemed paramount. In many ways, he wanted to go back to his home island where he sensed he could better protect the girl and his husband.

"Well, you two look snug," Jack said as he walked up to them.

"And the stone?" Hiccup asked without releasing Hasna, and, surprisingly, she did not squirm.

The Earth man frowned and said: "It's pretty thick, and I'm not sure we can split it without destroying it."

"Could you use pieces?"

"It'd be a bugger making it water tight… especially after heating it up. What I wouldn't give for your forge and a decent amount of gronckle iron right now."

"Should we try with that stone or keep looking?" The Viking further inquired.

"Do you like furniture?" Jack countered.

"I like furniture, but I don't want to waste a bunch of effort on a rock that's not going to work if we try to shape it."

"And it looks like it gets thicker the further in the ground it goes. I don't know if this one is worth the trouble," the deeply tanned man with hair bordering on the color of his husband's from so much sun exposure. "But how far into the interior do we want to go?"

Hiccup managed to get to his feet while holding Hasna, and he tickled her at the same time. She laughed and shrieked with delight while thrashing around. His eyes, however, never left Jack's. An important question hung in the air, and it begged ten more just as serious.

"We'll need weapons just in case we do go into the jungle 'cause I don't think we can count on the other you showing up 'les it gets bad," the Hallan man replied.

A series strained looks passed over Jack's face. Hiccup understood most of them. The sound of the girl laughing when he periodically tickled her accentuated the moment.

"Hic-ah, no!" She gasped the words as she laughed.

"No what?" He asked her while his finger lightly jabbed at the lower portion of her ribs.

"No… no," Hasna begged.

The man stopped tickling, and the girl lay limp and sucking in breath in his arms. Whatever dark thoughts Jack thought a moment before disappeared as he witnessed the very deep and real bond between the two. He knew Hasna loved him as well, her relationship with Hiccup took on a somewhat different quality. Somehow Jack and his husband switched places in life when it came to the girl: the Spirit of Fun in their group wore a horned helmet and flew a night fury. Yet Jack did not feel jealous. The Guardian in him would not let him espouse that emotion. He smiled.

"Hic-ah!" Hasna exhaled with false exasperation.

"Want more?" The man teased and poked a few times.

"Ah! No, no, no, no!"

"You have no idea how adorable you two look right now," Jack quietly commented.

"Um, yeah, I do… and I kind of like," Hiccup answered.

"Oh, you pocking love it, and you know it."

"Language, Jack Horrendous-Fries!"

"Ja, no!" Hasna added for good measure even though both men knew she did not understand the context and simply reacted to Hiccup's tone.

Jack leaned down and blew a raspberry against her neck. She started squealing and kicking her legs. Hiccup wobbled, so Jack stopped. Hasna got lowered to the ground while she continued to snicker.

"Ja, no," she laughed.

She held up her hands, and each man took one. They started walking back toward their encampment. The girl swung herself backward and forward as they walked. She alone wore a shirt while the two men clad themselves in bedraggled shorts that saw better days. Given they currently resided along one of the warmest longitudes, as Jack explain several times, make it perfect attire. Despite both losing weight from the ordeal at sea, the managed to exude a glow of health from what the island provide. Hasna also shone with vitality even though she equally suffered while on the ocean.

"Nepta?" Hasna asked and glanced back and forth between her guardians.

"Sure, we'll go play catch with Nepta. He'll like that," Hiccup agreed.

The child let out a series of excited chirps.

The morning, while not entirely early, felt muggy. It threatened rain later in the day, but sometimes being close to the island greenery could produce the same effect. Since they planned on visiting the dragon they cut through the small strip of jungle that separated them from the shoreline. The Wrecking Shoals fell behind as they walked at an oblique angle. Hiccup felt overjoyed the quarreling between he and his husband came to an end. Somehow they managed to meet somewhere the middle of what each wanted, and the Viking felt satisfied. Good humor fell over Jack because, for the first time since his original mortality, he felt like part of a real family. He granted the roles got reversed, but that did not matter. He loved the Guardians and his Berkian friends, but the intimacy of a husband and a child at his side altered the fabric of reality in his mind.

The girl warbled to herself as she alternately got dragged by and hauled the two men who became her caretakers and protectors. Somewhere amid all the tragedy that befell her, Hasna clearly found a place of happiness for herself. She laughed as they traipsed through fringe of jungle. Just after they exited the fronds of fern and palm, Hasna came to a halt because the two men on either side of her stopped. She pulled on their arms, but they did not move. Even annoyed glances did not get them to continue to the walk to the promised play with the sea dragon. Movement in the distance caused her to look. Hasna pulled the arms of the two men in front of her as if to shield herself.

Hiccup and Jack stared forward at the beach. Neither man spoke. What they saw along the edge of the beach did not seem real.

Off to one side a dragon roared, but not one from the sea. A black shape bounded along the sands toward them. Hiccup released Hasna's hand and pelted toward the shape running toward him. Time after time the dragon bugled and roared. Jack reached down and picked up the girl. Tears edged out of his eyes and trickled down his cheeks. Hasna tightly wrapped her arms around his neck, and it made sense to the man. He started walking forward. An unusual mix of joy and sorrow crashed through him.

Further ahead Hiccup and Toothless all but slammed into one another. The duo fell to the sand. The night fury straddled his rider and licked the now furry face. The winged beast crooned and warbled the entire time. Hiccup sobbed with joy and relief. Memories of his time on Earth sprang to mind, and the two moments paralleled one another. The man hugged the stout, scaly, ebony neck as through he could somehow merge with the creature. Toothless sat on his haunches and wrapped his wings around the man. A keening sound, one that pierced the heart, escaped from Toothless.

As Jack walked toward the reunion of his husband and the dragon, Hasna clung to his neck and whimpered. He held her tight while his vision blurred from his own tears. Voices called in the background, and he saw people running toward him. He turned in their direction since he knew Toothless would not let anyone interfere with his reunion with Hiccup. Much to Jack's pleasure, he recognized the two people aiming for him.

"Shh, that's okay, sweet girl. These are friends," he said to Hasna who trembled in his arms.

"Jack! Jack!" Astrid's voice sliced through the air.

"Jack!" Snotlout bellowed right after the woman.

Ten seconds later his clan brother and one of his husband's closest friends slid to a halt in the sand. The two stared at Jack and, more precisely, Hasna. Both also wept. Jack smiled and it all felt like a dream to him.

"Jack?" Snotlout asked with his name.

"I'm alive. We're alive, and this… this sweet girl is Hasna," Jack told them, and Hasna buried herself further into his side. "It hasn't been easy for her."

His friends slowly closed the gap. The looks on their faces got echoed by Toothless who continued to hog Hiccup all to himself. Jack saw others on the beach, but they stayed at the shoreline near a large rowboat. Gently but firmly Jack disentangled Hasna. He held her eye as he set her down. The girl looked oddly alone and very frightened. Yet Jack needed confirmation of the Berkians reality. He stepped forward, and Astrid's strong arms snagged him into a hug. The Guardian fell into the embrace. A wall broke within his mind, and he cried. He cried hard. Astrid hugged him.

"It's gonna be fine," she said to him in a voice thick with emotion. "We found you… alive."

"Ja?" A small voice peeped at his back.

Regardless of how much he wanted to squeeze Astrid until his arms gave out, he disengaged from her. The he turned, knelt, and swept Hasna into his arms. He held her while her arms locked around his neck.

"We're safe. We're safe. It's alright now," Jack said, but he knew he spoke more to himself than the child. "We're safe."

It surprised him when Hasna released her hold, and pushed against him. Her face hove into view, and she wore an openly concerned expression. A small hand rubbed the side of his cheek.

"Ja?" Hasna asked again.

Jack smiled at her even though a river ran own each cheek. He smiled from the bottom of his heart that at last could release the fear, tension, and worry that gripped him since the Island Miss sank. He set her down. She carefully watched him. Jack stood, turned, and got engulfed by Snotlout. The man cried nearly as hard as the one in his arms.

"I…" Snotlout said, but it proved to be the only word he managed to get out.

"I know, brother," Jack whispered into his friend's ear and got rewarded with a spine-crushing squeeze.

Astrid flung herself on the two men, and the trio wept at their reunion. Hasna studied the three, and she seemed to sense these people meant something to the man she called Ja. To be on the safe side, she hugged his leg.

"Oh, bud," Hiccup sighed against the hide of the night fury. "I was so afraid you…"

He could not say the words. He pushed himself as hard against the dragon as he could, and Toothless easily absorbed the force. One forearm with a talon curled protectively around the man. Once again memories of Earth came back to the human. He squeezed Toothless' neck with every bit of strength he could find. Hiccup need to truly feel the solid reality of his best winged friend. In the back of his mind he could not forget Jack would not get the same reunification. Although he never truly doubted what his husband witnessed as the Island Miss went beneath the waves, the fact only Toothless appeared on the beach provided the final confirmation. IceSpike no longer lived.

"How? How did you find us?" He begged the dragon.

Of course the dragon did not answer, but warbled instead at the sound of his rider's voice. Like the human, Toothless also seemed to need physical confirmation of Hiccup's reality. Their time apart exceeded what they experienced on Earth, and the separation appeared to wear on the flying reptile as much as the human. After what seemed an inordinate amount of time, Toothless unfurled his wings. Hiccup looked out to see a group of people, including Hasna, sitting on the sands staring at them. The Viking wiped at his face.

"We, ah… yeah," he said.

Hiccup stepped out of his dragon's sure embrace. As he did two people with faces he longed to see for what seemed endless weeks stood and trotted to him. Much as what happened with Jack, Astrid and Snotlout held onto Hiccup as though proving to themselves the man existed. Toothless came up form behind and laid his head on the trio of friends who clung tightly to each other, all talking at the same time, and each weeping with relief. Moments later a fourth person joined them. Jack nestled in with the three, and he felt Toothless' warm wing circle around him. He reached out and scratched the thick hide of the beast, and the dragon crooned. Five Defenders of Berk found a piece of home in one another.