A/N: So... I'm glad to see Viggo's entrance has been welcomed :) Thanks for the reviews, enjoy chapter 5!
Chapter 5
Hiccup limped with his arm around Viggo's shoulders for quite a while. Long enough to think about the irony of this whole situation. He remembered the last time he'd had to walk like this: when Astrid had helped after his rescue from the bounty. The bounty that the man now helping him had put on his head.
His heart gave a twinge of pain at the thought of Astrid, but he tried to ignore it. He'd have to explain everything that had happened to Viggo soon enough, but he had a feeling he would be leaving out that bit. He just couldn't imagine himself talking to a former enemy about this hole in his heart so soon after the event.
Former enemy. Hiccup would be lying if he said he hadn't doubted Viggo's intentions at any point since the revelation that he was, in fact, alive. But reason told him that if the Grimborn was out to hurt him, he could have done so several times by now. And in his current injured state, he had to admit he was a bit dependent on him for the moment.
As he felt himself tiring, they approached what appeared to be a log hut in a small clearing of the forest. Hiccup was impressed as Viggo set him down on a rock just outside the door.
"How long did it take you to build this?" he asked, looking up at the size of it. He had imagined Viggo would be living a lowly life with scarce resources and a humble living, isolated from the rest of the archipelago's civilisation. This far exceeded his expectations.
"Several weeks," Viggo replied as he collected chopped logs from a pile right next to the hut's door. "I couldn't have done it this quickly without Stormchaser though." He stopped for a moment to chuckle. "You have no idea how many storms that dragon has flown us into since the last time we met!" Hiccup didn't miss the fondness in the Grimborn's eyes at the mention of his dragon.
"Stormchaser? The Skrill we met that time…" He trailed off but the reference was clear.
"That's the one," Viggo smiled as he placed the collected wood in a pile between where Hiccup was sitting and another rock across from him. "After we'd fought our way off Johann's base and miraculously survived – mostly thanks to Stormchaser's valour in battle – he flew me to the nearest inhabited island, which happened to be home to a tribe I've never seen before and who had no idea who I was. I still don't know if that was Odin's good fortune or Stormchaser's intelligence, but I suppose it doesn't matter. They saw to my injuries and in return, Stormchaser redirected some storms away from their trading boats. But after that, I saw that my welcome was reaching its end and we left. I set up base here and with the ability to fly to markets and traders, I managed to collect the resources I needed. We've lived here for months." He paused at the end of his story to look Hiccup in the eye. "You haven't eaten anything yet today, have you?"
"Good observation," Hiccup replied, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly. Now that they were on the topic, he did feel hungry, but mostly thirsty.
"I could cook us some fish if only I knew where Stormchaser was," Viggo replied. He glanced around at the forest surrounding them. "Stormchaser!" he called out. A roar resounded in reply and sure enough, within a minute a magnificent Skrill flew into the clearing followed by a certain familiar Monstrous Nightmare. "Ah, I see you've made a friend," the Grimborn commented as they landed heavily on the grass. Freedom glanced warily at Viggo, then hurried over to Hiccup. Hiccup could see that the Grimborn had noticed the distrust but didn't comment on it. If he was in any way offended, he didn't let on.
"Freedom, meet Viggo Grimborn. Viggo, meet Freedom," Hiccup said as he gave his dragon a reassuring scratch under the chin. Viggo raised an eyebrow.
"Freedom?"
"Long story,"
"Ah," Viggo gave a look understanding before fetching a large bucket and handing it to Stormchaser, who gripped it in his mouth. "Why don't you get some fresh water from the spring, Stormcatcher? And maybe you could catch some fish with Freedom here?" The dragons growled in agreement and they didn't hesitate to take off again, flying back the way they came. Then Viggo sat down on the rock opposite Hiccup, who realised this was his cue to explain. He took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves at the prospect.
"It all started with the ambush. Toothless and I, we were returning from a supply run that took a bit longer than expected so it was already dark by the time we reached the Edge's waters," he started, hoping that the slight crack in his voice at the mention of his Night Fury wasn't noticeable. "Johann shot us down in the forest on the far side of our-, the, island and tried to capture us but I fought back." He smiled with a mixture of sadness and self-disparagement. "I fought until I could barely stand. I had two arrow wounds on the same shoulder and passed out for… I don't actually know how long.
"I was never moved from the ship they put me on but they – Johann and Krogan – did their best to beat information out of me. At some point, I couldn't remember how long I'd been stuck in that cell and I started to mark the days with scratches on the wall. The worst thing is I don't know exactly how long I was a prisoner," He knew he was leaving out a good chunk of the emotional torment he had been through, but he couldn't bring himself to speak of that yet.
"How long did it take you to break out?" Viggo asked, with an expression on his face that conveyed that he was almost scared for the answer.
"There were forty-nine scratches on the wall when I managed to escape," he replied, now avoiding Viggo's gaze. "I think there must be at least another week before I started marking. So I could have been there for up to two months." Viggo nodded solemnly out of the corner of his eye.
"It took you two months to successfully escape?"
"I did try before but it failed. When I… hit you earlier, I was reliving that failed escape attempt…" Hiccup felt his face heating up as he said those words, but Viggo didn't seem fazed.
"You thought I was recapturing you," he concluded and Hiccup could only nod.
"Sorry again, for that," he managed to croak.
"Apology accepted. Maybe I was naïve to expect immediate trust from you," Viggo paused at this, clearly thinking. "Do you trust me?"
"I'd be lying if I said I never doubted you," Hiccup said slowly, cautious with his words. "But I realised that you could have hurt me if you wanted to, back when you made that fire for me and Freedom." He paused again. "Why were you so cryptic anyway, what with the Maces and Talons piece and the trail of Skrill prints?" Viggo shrugged.
"There was no guarantee that I would be welcome. Even now you're understandably cautious of me – and your dragon even more so – and I wouldn't want to startle you when you were already… not in the best state," he replied, making a good point. Hiccup wasn't sure how he would have reacted if he had woken up to immediately see Viggo's face. He opened his mouth to ask something else, but at that moment their dragons arrived.
"Ah, there you are," The Grimborn got up to receive the bucket from Stormchaser's mouth as Freedom deposited some fresh fish onto the grass. Hiccup almost tried to get up to help them, but he remembered just in time that his stump was bare and swollen. He watched quietly as Viggo poured a mug of water for him, then went on to prepare the fish. Freedom was more than happy to provide for fire and soon Hiccup was staring thoughtfully at the dancing flames.
"You know," he said eventually. "I thought of you a lot when I was in that cell," Viggo looked up quite suddenly at that, an air of surprise about him.
"You did?"
"The things you said the last time we saw each other. About ruthlessness,"
"Hiccup-"
"I gave everything I had in that fight that led to my capture. I fought until I could no longer stand or even hold my head up. I did it because I cared for my friends," Hiccup's voice cracked again and he knew that this time there was not much hope it had gone unnoticed. "Astrid was waiting for me in her hut. Toothless was lying somewhere else in the forest, tied up in a bola. The other Riders were sleeping, oblivious to what was happening. I fought for them." He paused, blinking away tears. He didn't want to cry. "In that cell, I couldn't stop thinking about that fight. Sure, I was outnumbered. But what if I hadn't been ruthless enough? What if that was the reason I got captured, that I couldn't escape for two months? In your last words to me, you said I was more ruthless than I imagined. Maybe I was. But maybe not enough.
"I had all the time in the world in that cell. So I remembered you, how you saw everything as a game of Maces and Talons. I thought over every move I had made in that fight, I found every opportunity I had missed and remade my moves until I was sure that when I next had to fight my way out of a disaster, I would be ready."
"Did you use such… ruthlessness to escape?" Viggo asked, looking a bit stricken at Hiccup's monologue.
"I killed the Flyer that brought me food and almost killed Johann," Hiccup replied curtly.
"Do you regret that?"
"No," he said, a bit too quickly. Viggo hummed as he thought.
"That doesn't sound like the Hiccup I know," he muttered, before bringing his voice back to a normal volume. "Being ruthless isn't the same as having battle experience, you know. While you have many admirable qualities, you are still young. You can't expect yourself to have all the skill of some of the people you're fighting-"
"Don't patronise me, Viggo," Hiccup snapped, his eyes suddenly looking cold. "I'm old enough to have fought in wars and faced the consequences. I defeated you, I've defeated others too. So don't tell me I'm too young to have battle experience." The Grimborn blinked, looking taken aback but said nothing while Hiccup took to scowling at the floor.
They ate their meal in silence, the only sounds being the dragons noisily eating the remaining raw fish and the quiet crackling of the fire. Once the food was finished, Hiccup only stuck around for a minute before mounting Freedom and taking off into the sky. Viggo let him. He understood the need to blow off steam and from the looks of things, Hiccup had some things to work through.
He couldn't shake the mental image of Hiccup glaring at him, though. There had been rage and hurt in his eyes when he had cut him off. He hadn't meant to say that in such a way that he now saw was quite condescending.
He struggled to imagine what two months of torture and imprisonment would do to a person, but he supposed he was seeing it now. There was no denying that Hiccup had changed. This talk of ruthlessness had made him think though. At the time they had seemed like the right words to say. When he had told Hiccup he wasn't ruthless enough, it had all been part of his attempt to get Hiccup to work with him. When he later amended that statement, he had meant it as a compliment.
But the more he thought about it, the more it didn't seem like a compliment anymore. Especially not to Hiccup. Some people got their way through cruelty and lack of remorse. He had led the Dragon Hunter tribe that way for a while. Johann and Krogan took that method of leadership even further. And yet Hiccup and his band of Riders had defeated them all, not by mercilessness but with strategy, knowledge of dragons and their ability to work as a team. A team that cared, not only about dragons but about each other.
How much effect had his words had? How much damage had they done? Had he convinced Hiccup of something that wasn't true? He knew he didn't have much right to criticize the Rider, having been a nemesis longer than he'd been an ally. But if he had robbed Hiccup of such an admirable quality, maybe it was his responsibility to help him get it back.
It took all afternoon for Hiccup to return. By the time he heard the loud thump outside that indicated Freedom's landing, Viggo was already preparing a stew in his hut. When he heard the door open, he peered back over his shoulder at the Rider standing tentatively at the door, using one arm to balance on his dragon's snout. Viggo could see that the flight had done him good. The wind had visibly ruffled his hair and it lay messily on his head. He no longer looked pale like he had when they had met. Instead, his skin looked fresher and his forehead less furrowed. Viggo smiled to himself. He had experienced the peace of mind that flying could provide himself as well.
"Feeling better?" Viggo asked from across the room, catching Hiccup's attention. He had been looking over the interior of the hut, but now he gave a crooked smile.
"Yeah," he said. "It felt good to just… fly. It's been a while," He limped into the room, still using Freedom to stabilise himself. Viggo gave a sad smile. He still found it hard to fathom what two months of being grounded and cooped up must have been like.
"Have a seat!" he said, seeing Hiccup hesitate to move any further into the hut. His living space wasn't much, but it was more than enough room for two people. There was a table, a chair, a flight of stairs that led to the bedroom and an open space with a stool set up next to the fireplace. Viggo watched Hiccup's face as he sat down and looked around at the space. He hoped that a decent wooden hut could make him feel more at home.
"Oh, and Viggo?" Hiccup said once he was seated at the table, facing Viggo's back as he finished up his cooking. "Sorry for snapping at you earlier,"
"No need to apologise, Hiccup," The Grimborn replied as he brought his dish to the table and served it up. He fetched the stool and sat down opposite the Rider. "While I don't think lack of ruthlessness was the cause of your capture, I shouldn't have made that comment. Sometimes I slip back into old habits, one of which is talking down to people, especially young dragon riders who turn out to be… shall we say, stubborn?" He chuckled. "I may have admired you as a worthy adversary, but it was quite a blow to my ego to see someone like you ruin masterplans." Hiccup laughed.
"I think I can say the same thing. You should have seen me after that first game of Maces and Talons…" he said, shrugging nonchalantly. It felt rather odd to be having this conversation with someone he had previously loathed, but it felt good.
"Well," Viggo smiled between mouthfuls. "Feel free to stay here as long as you need. I'd be happy to help you in any way I can." Hiccup gave a crooked, yet slightly sad, smile.
"Thanks," he said, then muttered something under his breath that clearly wasn't meant for his ears, but Viggo could just about hear it anyway. "It's not like I have anywhere else to go."
And if Hiccup hadn't been staring quite so intently at the stew in front of him, he might have spotted Viggo's almost comical look of confusion.