Sorry about that hiatus, but I've finished my finals (done with freshman year of college, woot woot!) and should have more time to update now!
This chapter is based on an old one-shot of mine called Hero. You shouldn't need to read it to understand, but this is quite an abridged version. Enjoy!
Entry 94
Today, I opened up to my father for the first time since childhood.
For the past few days, I've been a bit down. It started when a dragon got into the bakery and the baker chased it out with a sword, yelling about how we should never have let those pests stay. That brought back my fears of all this just being temporary, and the dragons being sent away, and everyone hating me again… and I admit, I got a little quiet. I felt weird hearing my father's and the villagers' praise. I didn't want to leave the house anymore, not to keep practicing walking or to take Toothless on a short flight (I finally feel confident enough in my progress to do that). And, yesterday, my dad noticed my change in behavior.
He confronted me about it, and… I left. Straight out the back door and into the woods. I don't really know why, if I'm honest… I think I just wanted to get away from everything. Even the dragons.
I ended up taking a pretty hard fall in the woods, and decided to just stay there… until my dad found me. And finally, I spilled all the fears that had built over the past couple weeks, about how this couldn't be real, and they were just pretending to like the dragons, and how much it hurt to hear him say he was proud of me if he didn't truly mean it. The whole time, my father just listened, eyes filled with sadness. And once I'd exhausted my words, he told me… nothing that's happened has been a trick. It's all as real as real can be, and he… he loves me.
I admit it, I couldn't hold myself back from that one. For the first time since childhood… I found myself in tears. And my dad said not a word, just held a hand on my shoulder, until I managed to get control of myself. Then, we made our way back home, together.
I think we've crossed a threshold in our relationship, in a way we haven't since I was probably eight years old. I feel like… things are finally turning around, for good. It's a lot to take in, for sure, and I know we still have a heck of a long way to go. But… I'm confident now that we WILL get there someday, no matter how different we may be.
Until next time…
-H