-(*&%-The Misty Isle-%&*)-

Stoick the Vast pretended to lean on the doorframe. In truth, he was supporting his own weight and lowering his center of gravity. He was preparing for a physical duel, not that it would actually come to blows between himself, his ex-wife and his son. It was habitual. When aggravated, Stoick got ready. Which why everybody tried not to aggravate Stoick. Well everybody but, Valhallarama. She smiled at him with a charming guilt and opened her arms out to him as if he was to walk into her embrace. His pulse rate went up and his stomach flipped. Not that Stoick was still in love with his Ex-wife. It was habitual.

" Love, we didn't hear you come in..."

Stoick frowned, "Love?"

Valhallarama fluttered her eyelashes and cooed, "Yes, dear?"

Stoick's frowned worsened, mostly because his stomach had flipped again, but it still had the desired intimidating affect. Hiccup appeared to have stopped breathing, altogether. Stoick tried to stay focused, "No, Val. I mean, since when do you call Me 'love'? You're thinking of the wrong husband."

That finally faltered her charming smile. Stoick saw Hiccup also deflate at this quip and decided to change the subject Now. "So, who's eating dragon shit? Seriously, I'd like to see that." Hiccup went from depressed deflation to guilty pacing. Val spun a web of clever chatter but Stoick tuned it out, to watch his son pace. "Hiccup!"

"Y-yes?!" said hiccup, promptly tripping on his own feet.

"What did you do?" He hollered, straightening to his full height. By doing this he actually pierced the doorframe with his helmet antlers. So, when Stoick stepped into the living room he left his helmet stuck in the doorway. His red hair sticking up in all directions, Val started giggling. Hiccup, like his father, couldn't be distracted from a potential betrayal. Letting out a miserable sigh, Hiccup said, "I may have been… unable to kill someone, face to face."

Stoick lowered his voice, "I understand that. You couldn't even kill a dragon."

"But remember how much we benefitted from that." Val said stepping toward the two of them, putting a hand on his enormous shoulder. "We never would have developed such a closeness to the dragons. Hunting, building, fighting became easier. Now when those dragons haul in their kill they bring it to us first. They love us and we-"

"Which only made our family bigger. Which made us have That Much More To Lose," Stoick growled at Val. Turning towards Hiccup, "Are you saying you've done something that could benefit the village? No, I don't think you are."

Hiccup wanted to shrink and dissapear. He false started a couple times before getting out a single mangled word, "Hostage."

That took a looong moment to sink in, but when it did, "AAUGH, HICCUP!"

Hiccup actually tried to run away but Stoick's enormous hand caught the back of his collar and hoisted him back. Raising his son to his eyelevel, "What on earth, were you thinking, Hiccup?"

"Well- well…"

"He was just following my orders." Val interjected, crossing her arms.

Stoick dropped Hiccup, who landed frogishly on all fours. "I should have known."

"N-no! Dad! Mom didn't order me to kidnap her!"

"But She Did send you to do something she knew you weren't capable of!" He rounded on Val with a roar, "You never think about the welfare of our village!"

"And you never think about the welfare of our son!" She snapped.

"I'm right here"Don't talk about me as if I'm not. ," Huiccup spoke in a soft voice that was as sad as it was angry. Quiet as he was, his parents could not have overlooked him, so intense was his delivery. "And haven't I asked the both of you, to please not argue in front of me? Haven't you both agreed not to?" Glaring at both of them , niether of whom could look away, he began to stamp each word out- like each had personally offended him, "So why are you?...Saying you care more, Does. Not. Prove. It." Stoick made unhappy noises from the back of his throat and Val just looked pained. Val turned her back on Stoick and began to pace while Stoick sat down and took deep breaths. "Hiccup… how about… you just tell me what happened?"

And so Hiccup recapped his morning of impulsive life saving. To his noontime fight on an empty island that ended with him prying the unconscious girl out from under his dragon's belly. Receiving his mother's message to come home, Leaving the girl in a heap of cloth to rush back home, only to be caught up in the "haul in" of the wilder dragons and being forced to make a "deposit" to their "landlord" to continue on his way.

Stoick was about to launch into a lecture when Val blurted, "you mean you just left a poor girl on an abandoned island all by herself? She must be starving by now!"

Stoick made a noise of tired exasperation, "Val, need I remind you that we don't exactly have the food, here, with which to feed her."

"So what are we going to do, Stoick? Let her starve to death?" Val glared at him, contemptuously. "When it was Our Fault she was on that tiny island in the first place?"

Val watched Stoick. Stoick watched the ceiling. Hiccup watched his parents, sighed, and walked back toward the Cliffside window.

He climbed out the window, stood on the ledge, clinging to the gaps between the house bricks, and whistled. The afternoon sun had yet to touch the ocean, which crashed horrifically against the rock a few miles below.

"Where do you think you're going?!" boomed Stoick.

"To stop a girl from starving," said Hiccup.

"Wait, Have you thought of all the options! Consider the consequences!"

Hiccup shrugged. By shrugging, he let go of his grip on the house. He swayed back slowly and was soon sent plummeting downwards. He freefell a fifty meters before being caught on a nightfury's back.

Stoick muttered, "Odin preserve us, He's as impulsive as You are."

"Oh please, he got that from Your side of the family. Blood of the Scots runs hot." Val flashed her toothiest grin, and shrugged in a manner identical to her sons. She turned her back to him and Stoick frowned. Partially because his son was bringing back a bloodthirsty Viking; Mostly because his stomach had flipped from watching his Ex-wife walk away.

Habits die hard.