"…Duhh…"
'Yeah, that about sums it up…' The other rider reached up and pulled off their mask, revealing that "they" was actually a "she".
"Could it be…? After all these years…? How is this possible…?" She said, her eyes wide.
"Should I…Should I know you?" I didn't say anything, as I knew a very small amount of his life and the people he's met.
"No, you were only a babe…" My eyes narrowed in confusion.
'Only a baby? But…didn't-.' Hiccup looked like he wanted to say something, but she said something else I'd never thought I'd hear.
"…But a mother never forgets." My eyes nearly shot out of my skull as Hiccup's brain was trying to process this new information, and he opened his mouth to talk. His mother raised her hand. "Shh shh shh…" She turned slightly, appearing to listen for something. "Come!" She turned and ran. Hiccup and I traded looks and we took off after her. Hiccup entered a small cave system, and Toothless beat me to it, bounding through after his rider.
"Hey! Toothless! Move your fat backside!" I got a tail fin to the face for that one.
'This is Hiccup's mother? How? Wasn't she killed in a raid?'
"H-Hold on! Wait just a minute!" Hiccup was keeping up surprisingly well, considering his "mother" knew these caves and he didn't.
"This way!"
"Come back here!" Three of us were running through a small cave system, leaping over rocks and ducking low ceilings. I tried passing Toothless, but the passageway had gotten too narrow.
"Come!" The woman insisted.
"You can't just say something like that and run off! You're my mother?! I mean what the-?! Do you grasp how insane it sounds?! I have questions! Where have you been all this time?! What have you been doing?! They said you were dead! Everyone thinks you were eaten by…" I was behind Toothless, and couldn't see why Hiccup stopped talking until he moved his black-scaled rear.
When he did, there was a huge open cavern. Dragons, hundreds upon hundreds of dragons were flying around a center spire. Tesla came right up next to me, and we both paused, staring at the biggest group of dragons we could ever dream of! I saw Toothless nudge Hiccup and point with his nose. We looked up to see his mother hanging from the ceiling with the dragon she was riding earlier. "This is where you've been, for twenty years? You've been rescuing them… Unbelievable…"
"You're not upset…?" She asked hesitantly.
'Woman…disappearing for 20 years, making everyone believe you were dead, only to pop that statement just now? No, I'd just be mildly annoyed…' I thought flatly.
"What? No, I don't know. It's a bit much to get my head around to be frank. It's not every day you find out your mother is some kind of crazy, feral, vigilante, dragon lady!" She laughed as the dragon helped her down, her using her staff while the dragon using its wing claws.
"Well, at least I'm not boring, right?"
"Well I supposed there is that, one specific, thing…" A dragon had come up the him and was nudging him with his nose. His mother gained a hopeful look.
"Do you like it?"
"I don't have the words…" Suddenly, there seemed to be dragons everywhere on the ledge we were on. I felt a little crowded, and Tesla felt the same way, growling at any dragons that got too close, wrapping his wings around me. Hiccup's mom started looking over Toothless excitedly. Then she asked how Hiccup found Toothless.
"I uh, found him in the woods. He was shot down and wounded." The look she gave him was funny and scary at the same time. She goes on to explain different wounds on different dragons, then points to the fake tail fin.
"And what of this? Did Drago or one of his trappers do this too?" Hiccup kind of chuckled.
"Oh yeah, heh. Well, crazy thing is…I'm actually the one who, shot him down…Hey it's okay though! He got me back! Right Bud? You couldn't save all of me could you? You just had to make it even, so peg-leg!" Toothless pushed under Hiccup and threw him onto his saddle.
"And what did your father think of your Night Fury friend?" Fun topic…
"He didn't take it, all that well…But then, he changed! They all did…" The look on her face immediately told me she didn't believe him. "Pretty soon, everyone back home had dragons of their own." His mother shook her head.
"If only it were possible."
"No, reall-" She cut off his attempt immediately.
"Believe me. I tried as well. But people are not capable of change Hiccup. Some of us, were just born different." Then she looked over at me.
"And who would you be, might I ask?" I walked forward and held out my hand. She hesitated, (Probably from not doing it for so long) then shook it, and I noticed that while her hands were still smaller and more feminine, there were rough callouses, and a couple of scars.
"My name's Rai, and it's a long story." The corner of her mouth twitched upwards.
"Well, long story or not, it's nice to meet you Rai. My name is Valka." Then she turned her attention to Tesla. Apparently she never truly got to see what species he was, because she gasped in shock.
"You trained a…Skrill…?" I nodded, moving to stand right next to his head, gently scratching his chin.
"Well, more like we became friends, but yeah. He's name is Tesla."
"Can I…? I've never met a Skrill before." She asked, slowly walking towards him. I could see she was nervous, but also really curious.
"As long as he's okay with it." Tesla slightly turned his head away as she approached. "Tesla…" I gave him a warning look, "He's always wary around new people, and he hates crowds. But he really can be gentle." Tesla growled at me, and I whacked him on the nose, pointing a condescending finger at him. "Don't you use that tone with me mister, or it's no storms for a week." He just rolled his eyes. Valka raised an eyebrow at the interaction between us.
"How are you able to ride him…? I thought Skrills drew upon Thor's power itself."
"Well, yeah, they do. But they can store it in their bodies for whenever they need it. Otherwise my hair permanently standing on end would be the least of my issues." She ran her hands along the length of a wing, feeling the texture of the scales.
"And how exactly did you come across such a fine dragon?"
"Well, I think I'd better let Hiccup explain most of it…" She looked over at Hiccup with a raised eyebrow.
"This might take a while, let's get comfortable." We all gathered in a circle and Hiccup began to tell his mom how they had first met the ferocious Skrill, and how they had to trap it in an ice crevice to stop it from hurting anyone. I could tell she wanted to say something about that, but she withheld any comments. Then he switched it on me and made me tell her how I became friends with Tesla. After I finished she took a minute to mull things over in her head. She looked up.
"Now that I've heard your stories, here's mine." She went into her own back story, explaining how her personal opinion wasn't very popular among the village. One night, the village was being raided and she saw a dragon breaking into her house. She ran into the room and grabbed a sword, ready to defend Hiccup, even if it meant hurting the dragon. But the dragon wasn't attacking Hiccup, and what she saw wasn't a mindless killing machine, but a gentle beast who found both of the humans curious.
"How did you survive?" We all stood up and walked over to the edge of the cliff.
"Oh, Cloudjumper never meant to hurt me. He thought I belonged here, in the home of the great Bewilderbeast!" An absolutely massive dragon was laying below us. Huge, white and spiky, the dragon was probably able to flatten the whole village of Berk just by laying on it.
There was a commanding, but surprisingly gentle air around the massive dragon. As we walked closer, Valka explained how the Bewilderbeast was the king of all dragons, and could command them.
The king raised its head up to look at us, and I felt the need to bow, so I dropped to a knee, noticing Valka doing the same. When I looked past my arm, Tesla was bowing as well, shifting his eyes from the ground to the king and back.
'Even the feared Skrill bows to this King…' I stood up and looked into the King's eyes, which were an interesting shade of icy blue. The King looked over us newcomers, and gently blew on us, leaving ice particles everywhere. Hiccup and I brushed them off as Valka exclaimed that he liked us. Then she asked if we were hungry.
"Uh, yeah. I could eat."
"I guess a little food wouldn't hurt." I shrugged.
"Good, it's feeding time!" There was a strange amount of joy in her voice for just a meal. She led us outside of the sanctuary and we all hopped on our dragons, Tesla and I sharing confused looks. We were about to follow Hiccup's mom as she and Cloudjumper flew off, when we heard a bunch of dragon calls and saw the whole entire sanctuary flying towards us. We dove off the cliff so they didn't accidentally hit us and caught up with Hiccup.
"Hey, I thought we were going to eat?" Cloudjumper turned around and hovered.
"Oh we are!" Hiccup's mother held up a hand and we hovered in midair. She looked past Cloudjumper's shoulder and into the water. We followed her gaze to see a white figure deep underwater, surfacing fast. The King shot out of the water, mouth full of fish, and spat it high into the air.
"It's literally raining fish!" I exclaimed in shock. Apparently, our faces were priceless because Valka cracked up laughing. I had to hold my hands above my head to stop any fish from knocking me out. Dragons were everywhere, catching the fish as they fell. Toothless and Tesla looked up at us and we gave them the go-ahead. They dove and grabbed as many fish as they could, Toothless' mouth literally overflowing with the amount he'd caught.
Later, Hiccup had pulled out his map and was showing us the different places he'd found. He looked up and noticed neither of us was watching him. I stood off to the side as Valka finished drawing her own map in the snow, finishing with a "there". I nudged his shoulder, smirking.
"She's got you beat Hiccup, she's gotten everything down by memory!" I laughed at the look on his face. Next thing I knew, I was flat on my back as Toothless' tail swiped my feet out from under me. I sat up to see he had a giant icicle in his mouth, and was drawing in the snow. When he tried to drop it, his tongue was stuck to it. I pointed at him and held my stomach while Tesla and I laughed.
Valka then took us to a place where there were updrafts strong enough to keep even Cloudjumper in the sky. She started running and jumping from dragon to dragon, using her staff as a really long arm. I could almost hear the music. She landed on Tesla's wing and danced over to Toothless, who was right next to us. She hopped up and over Hiccup, and dropped off the wing. Cloudjumper came up with her on his back again.
"Oh, when I'm up here. I don't even feel the cold, I just feel…"
"Free…" Hiccup finished for her, understanding completely.
"This is what it is to be a dragon Hiccup!"
"It's all well and good to call yourself a dragon, but can you fly?!"
'Oh not again…!' He unhooked himself and jumped off of Toothless. Valka gasped, then looked on in shock as her son literally spread his wings and flew. He flipped upside down after a bit and was looking for Valka, but she was gone from his line of sight.
We raced to catch up with him and glided on either side of him. He flipped back over and saw the mountain ahead. Toothless started booking it and grabbed him from the sky, curling around him. Valka and I went around the mountain and landed, her running up to check her son and examine the wing suit. I stayed back to allow for the family bonding moment.
Valka wanted Hiccup to stay with her so she could teach him everything. She rubbed her fingers into a spot on Toothless' neck. His back spines extended and split in two. He shook his body at the weird feeling and looked at his new found ability. He bounded over to Hiccup and the noise he made had me nearly dying of laughter.
"This is so great! Now you and I can go talk to Drago together!" I almost face-palmed.
'Hiccup. You're a moron…'
"What? There's no 'talking to Drago'."
"But we have to-."
"No, we must protect our own."
'Now I know why her and Stoick got married…' I looked in between mother and son, raising an eyebrow.
"Come on, we should be getting back." Hiccup looked crushed, and Toothless was too busy still showing off his split back fins, flapping them a couple of times. We all mounted up and flew back to the sanctuary. Toothless and Tesla were taking a nap when a group of babies bombed them with their bodies. They were stomping all over them and pulling on them, trying to get them to play. Tesla wouldn't have it and zapped one who stepped on his tail, growling the whole time.
"We can't wait around for Drago to attack this place. We've gotta find him first." I interjected at this point.
"Hiccup, haven't you been listening? This is insane! You're going to get your self killed! I have met people like him! Once they have a goal, they will do anything to reach it. Including killing the likes of you."
"No, I have to try!"
"No, you don't!" He stopped and glared at me.
"If I don't try, then what's the point?!"
"The point is you don't get killed!" He stopped and looked at me. "Look, I've met my fair share of people I thought I could talk out of doing something. But in the end, it only made things worse." Out of no where, we were both grabbed from behind, hands over our mouths. I dropped to my knees and spun around, backing away, only to find Gobber standing there. Hiccup pulled away from a cautious Stoick.
"Are you kidding me?! How did you get in here?!"
"The same way we're getting you out."
"All clear!" Gobber grabbed my arm and pulled me into a small tunnel in the wall I hadn't noticed before.
"Hey! Ow! Would you let go of me?!" I protested being dragged along by the older Viking. I could hear Hiccup and Stoick stage whispering behind us.
"Not now Rai, we're getting out of here!" I could hear Hiccup trying to talk to Stoick behind us, but Stoick wasn't having it.
"…you just have to handle it, delicately, so…" Gobber had stopped pulling me when we reached the entrance to another cave. He turned around with a shot-dead look in his eyes.
"Uh…you might want to take care of this one…" If the situation hadn't been so bad, I might have laughed. Stoick drew his sword and started walking to the entrance.
"Oh, uh, dad. Could you, put the sword away, please…?" I heard Stoick gasp and realized why Gobber had turned around. Valka was standing there in all her riding gear, minus the mask.
"…I know what you're going to say, Stoick. …How could I have done this? Stayed away all these years, and why didn't I come back to you? To our son? What sign did I have that you could change, Stoick? That anyone on Berk could? I pleaded so many times to stop the fighting, to find another answer, but did any of you listen?" Gobber whispered to Hiccup and I.
"This is why I never married. This, and one other reason."
"I know I left you to raise Hiccup alone, but I thought he'd be better off without me." My breath hitched, and I notice Hiccup tense up.
'She thought she would make a bad mother because she wasn't like the other vikings…She thought she didn't deserve a family for being different…'
"And I was wrong, I see that now! But-oh, stop being so stoic, Stoick. Go on, shout, scream, say something-!"
"You look just as beautiful as the day I lost you…"
'Welp. There goes my heart.'