A World Gives and Takes: Chapter 17

The sun barely edged above the western horizon when the morning tides started to come in. Hiccup, Jack and Hasna woke both naturally and from the unusual sounds around them. They made their way to the upper deck, and Toothless instantly swarmed Hiccup. The man and the dragon lay on the deck while the beast cooed, rumbled, and warbled. Hasna lay on the deck and watched the two. At one point Toothless reached over and licked the girl from the middle of her arm, up her neck, and across three quarters of her head. Hasna bellowed in protest and got up.

"No!" She berated the dragon. "No, Tootleth."

Hasna spun on one heel and went after Jack. Several members of the crew chuckled at the display. Even Jack could not keep the grin off his face. He suspected Toothless knew just how much one of his licks annoyed people and did it entertain himself.

"Ja! Hep!" Hasna said as she slowly climbed the steps.

The man looked over the edge of the stair landing. A frustrated and wet Hasna wended her way upward. He met her half way down and picked her up. The girl wore a furious expression.

"Ja, Toothleth… dag… dwagon…" she said and found herself quite literally at a loss of words. "Hasna no food!"

"No, sweet girl, you are not food. Toothless just gave you a kiss," Jack told her and then kissed the side of her head.

"No, no! Toothleth… eh," Hasna implored and stuck out her tongue.

"You'll live through it."

Hasna eyed him and looked uncertain as to what he meant, so Jack hugged her. Toothless drool got smeared on the side of his neck while he climbed the stairs. As they approached the aft section of the pilot deck, a familiar set of footfalls came after them. It seemed ages since the Guardian heard that particular Viking sound. Hiccup came to a halt next to them, and Hasna steadfastly refused to look at him. He reached over to ruffle her hair, but pulled it away when his hand got coated.

"Wow, he really got you," Hiccup said to the girl. "Okay, I'm sorry, Hasna, that Toothless licked half your body."

"Toothleth, no," she pouted.

The men looked over the gunwale and saw the raft below floating on the water. They did not see any sign of Nepta. Although the dragon ultimately learned to climb onto the raft, no one could predict if he would do so during the long voyage home. A question rose in Hiccup's mind.

"How long do you think it will take to get back?" He asked his mate.

"Hard to say," Jack said and tried to recall the location of the island Captain Garthgor explained the day before. "At least three eight-days… maybe a month. Nilsborg…"

"Nilsborg," Hiccup whispered.

They never once talked about the fate of the crew of the Island Miss. Jack could not recall saying the traders name once after he woke from the storm until The Chambermaid arrived. A weight he did not like settled on him, and he saw it settled on his husband as well.

"Hic-ah?" Hasna said in the tone she used when she feared she got into trouble.

Hiccup knelt and looked at her. Then he said: "There was a group of people who brought Ja and Hic-ah into this part of the world. They got caught in a storm. We lost… too many good people and a dragon that day."

His voice choked as he stared into the eyes of a girl who could not comprehend his words. Jack knelt and rubbed a hand down her back. Hasna turned her head, and he saw the concerned expressed.

"Hic-ah and Ja are sad for what they lost, but… it also means we found you. All of it by chance, but one part was very good chance. We got to save you for your mother," Jack said and two traces of wetness glistened on his cheeks.

"Ja?" She asked and wiped his face.

Jack pulled the girl into a hug and buried his face in long and wet hair. He could smell Toothless' breath. The man missed IceSpike with a terrible ache, but holding onto Hasna eased it. Although he wished it otherwise, but Jack suddenly gleaned an insight into what Heboo did for Snotlout. It did not take much to realize Hasna and Biva kept him, and quite likely Hiccup, from falling into himself and deep despair. He felt tiny arms around his neck, and they anchored him to reality.

"I love you," Jack whispered to her.

"Love ooh," she whispered in return.

The man stood, but the girl did not let go. He used his arms as a bench for her. Hiccup leaned over and kissed her. As he pulled away, she kissed him on the chin. Hiccup wrapped his arm around his husband and the girl he thought of as his own. Jack leaned into him. The sound of more familiar footfalls echoed from behind. Astrid and Snotlout came and stood next to them.

"I'll say it again: you three look too cute for words," the Viking woman softly stated with no a trace of humor.

"Hasna is really pretty," said Snotlout he gazed at her. He smiled at her, she returned it. "They are going to go crazy for her on Berk."

"I hope so 'cause that's going to be her home," Hiccup answered first.

"What about her people?" Astrid inquired with her usual bluntness.

"Did you forget the part where we found her in a boat in the middle of the ocean with her family dead or dying around her?" He reminded her.

"No, but she's going to figure out pretty quick she isn't from Berk."

"We already talked about that when we decided she stays with us," Jack rejoined. "Over time we'll explain her past to her… and the truth about the fact we don't know where she came from."

"Someone might recognize her features," Snotlout added.

"Who? None of this crew knew for certain what people she came from. They had guesses, but that was it. We don't have a lot of information to go on."

Three heads nodded when Jack finished speaking. When the crew of The Chambermaid saw her, they began to speculate about where her first home might lie, but Garthgor stated she looked like any one of a dozen different people. Even her name sounded like it came from at least ten different regions to which they traveled. Hiccup and Jack long since accepted they would never learn specifics about Hasna. In the end it did not matter. They loved her, and they hoped that would see her through the times when she wanted to know more about herself.

"I'm kind of jealous to be honest," Snotlout intoned while staring at his friends.

"Jealous? Of her?" Astrid queried.

"Think about who she's got as parents now!" He rumbled. "Sure, it sucks what happened to her real family, but… Hiccup? Jack? She'll get to do anything she wants to do with her life. Dragon rider. Blacksmith. Woodworker. Tinkerer. Come on, people, think! Gods, she's got a Guardian for a papa!"

"And she can never know," Jack cautioned his friend. "Only if I ever transform in front of her will she ever find out. She doesn't need that going against her in her life."

"He's right," Hiccup immediately supported his mate. "I know you'll think this is wrong, but I never would've told any of you if it wasn't for Etuchump."

Both Astrid and Snotlout eyed him.

"It changed the way you look at him… how you treat him. Sure, sometimes it's a fun secret, but what good does it do Jack? He's here for a mortal life, not to be reminded of what he is over there."

"It's not that bad, Hiccup," Jack tried to ease the moment.

"No, but he's right," Astrid grudgingly admitted. "In the back of my mind I always know who and what you are, Jack. I don't love you any less for it… I might even love you more 'cause of it, but I always know. And it did change how I look at you."

"Me, too. You know how I feel about you, Jack, and… I've always loved knowing something other people don't. Knowing you makes me a little special, too," Snotlout chimed in.

"Okay, well, then I hope you come to feel that way about Hasna," Jack stated.

"Ja!" Hasna carried out the name game.

"Who wouldn't?" Snotlout said and made a face at the girl. He grinned when she returned with a dragon face.

"I think you're legally obligated to love her, Snotlout, since she is part of the clan now… a clan niece," the Earthling replied with a smirk.

"Wow, it's already happening, isn't it?" Astrid remarked, almost under her breath.

"What's happening?" Hiccup asked and nudged her.

"My brother said when I gave birth to Norna, my whole perspective shifted… and I didn't even realize it. I saw it happen with Groanhilde and Fishlegs… and a lot of others."

"That, ah, told us a bunch of nothing," her one-time beau intoned.

The woman lightly slapped him on the arm and said: "You didn't hear the word perspective?"

"Yeah, but… it only makes sense a person's perspective would change. I mean, come on, another life depends on it."

"Um, I think she means a bit more than that," Jack said before Astrid could smack him again for being dense. "Let me ask you this: why'd you go running for the beach when I changed?"

Hiccup opened his mouth, and so many thoughts tried to come out at once he only made a squeaking sound. Only one thought really mattered: he would die before he let anything happen to Hasna. It sounded similar to how he operated as a Defender of Berk, but it took on extremely personal dimensions. As he ran with the girl in his arms from the awesome and terrible power of Jack Frost, he only thought of keeping Hasna alive. Nothing else mattered, not even Jack, and not even Toothless when it came down to the rock bottom truth. He and Jack already discussed what accepting Hasna into their lives, the joint life, meant. He looked at Jack and saw the death of Biva in a whole new light.

"We… you and me, Jack, we didn't mean anything when that creature attacked," Hiccup stated.

"No. Just them," the Guardian confirmed.

"And that's the perspective, Hiccup. A parent, a real parent, forgets some of the value of their own life in the face of their children. She," and Astrid pointed to Hasna, "becomes the do-all and end-all. It's a higher calling than even dragon riding."

"Don't know if I'd go that far," Hiccup mumbled and his friend knocked him with her shoulder.

"Now I really feel left out," Snotlout said in a mild pout.

"Not if Sassa has her way about it. She got her hooks deep into you… and the same goes the other way around. Everyone knows you love her and she feels the same way, Snotlout. Heck, she was the one who really pushed you to follow Toothless with me. Didn't that tell you something?" Astrid half-chided him.

Hiccup and Jack grinned at one another. They saw it developing well before they departed on the Island Miss. Snotlout seemed more alive when Sassa hove anywhere near him. She watched him whenever she could. Both men noted not the attraction, but the attachment. Astrid simply brought it all out into the open.

Snotlout opened his mouth, and the gurgling warble of a water dragon echoed through the air.

"Nepta! Nepta!" Hasna shrieked, and it became impossible for Jack to hold onto her.

Once on the deck, she ran to the stiles holding up the gunwale. The girl easily pushed her head between the thick rods. She started to bounce on her feet.

"Nepta, bow! Bow, bow, Nepta!" She yelled to the dragon while it roared back.

"Bow?" Snotlout asked.

"Boat. She doesn't do well with the ends of words… yet," Jack explained to his clan brother.

The four adults went and stood with the girl who continued to call out to the dragon. A few minutes later Captain Garthgor and two other sailors climbed up into the pilot deck. Once went to the wheel that controlled the rudder. The captain joined the five at the gunwale.

"Strong tide rolling out, so we'd best use it now," he told them. The captain turned and yelled: "Sails down and weigh anchor. Take the tide."

The rattle of the thick chain holding the anchor reverberated around them. Men and women, sailors all, called out to one another getting ready to put the ship under sail. Captain Garthgor stood to the left of the pilot and serenely gazed at his crew while they scurried to finish preparations. Within ten minutes the main sails got set and tied off. The jib hung loose in the front, but would swell to proportion once outside of the island quay. Toothless and Stormwing took the sky and kept watch on the skies and water for interloping dragons. At the after Nepta send up a call.

"Nepta!" Hasna called.

Hiccup grabbed her before she could reach the gunwale. He picked her up. She looked at him in panic. Then he turned to his mate. Jack wore something close to a sad smile. He brushed a hand along the girl's cheek, after which he spun on one heel and faced the island. Hiccup with Hasna still in his arms did the same. The island looked peaceful.

"I will…" Jack started to say when the ship lurched as it caught the tide and wind. His hand shot out to Hiccup to brace his husband.

"Will what?" The Viking asked as the vessel started to pull away and head for open waters.

"I will always remember this moment. You, Hasna, me… leaving the island… Biva," the Guardian softly said.

"Beev," Hasna said his name.

As they traveled beyond the breakers some twenty-five yards past the shore line, the island appeared tiny to both men. They glanced at one another before returning to stare at shrinking spit of land as they gained more speed. It seemed as if the blue-green water of the midworld oceans slowly swallowed it. They saw birds flying over above the trees, ones they rarely saw on the north side of the island, and Jack wondered if they refused to land in remembrance of the creature he killed. Perhaps more existed than they ever knew.

"And you, me, and Hasna… we'll be together on Berk," Hiccup said without elaborating.

"Home," Jack said and sighed the word.

"Yeah, home," his husband agreed.

"'Ome," Hasna murmured. "'Ome."