Finding Thora became easy when Finn saw her and Ray flying from Gothis house towards the woods.
Finn and Lyrke followed them until Ray landed on a little meadow. Lyrke landed a few meters from them and Finn jumped off Lyrkes back. He took a few uncertain steps towards Thora.
"What do you want, Finn?" Finn stopped in his tracks.
Thora got off Ray and turned to Finn. Her face and eyes were red. Her cheeks were wet as her eyes and her lips were shaking. It looked like she had already broken down and now she was ready to break down again.
"What are you going to say now?" She asked gloomy. "My mother is dead and I don't know what to do!" She yelled and Finn took a small step back from the sudden outburst.
"So please tell me, before I jump from a cliff so I can leave this hell forever!" she bawled and covered her head with her hands. Ray rumbled softly and gently nudged her to comfort. "I don't know… how can I?" she sobbed and Finn didn't hesitate to end the distance between them and walked over to her and hugged her.
"You're not alone, remember that," he gently began and Thora grabbed Finn's brown tunic in her fists, "And it's okay to feel this way after… everything. Remember that there's still people in this world that care about you, especially your father. He needs you more than anything right now and you need him. Don't go and jump off a cliff in the heat of the moment, when your future shines bright right in front you. You may not see it, hell I don't see my future shine bright right now, but right now we are blinded by grief and day by day you will break through the darkness and one day see the light. I don't know when or how but you will, I promise."
Thora sniffed and let out a shaky breath, "That… was the cheesiest speech I ever heard."
Finn let Thora go, he still held her by her arms and felt tears coming for him as well.
Thora wiped her tears away with her hands and took a deep breath before looking up to Finn's face. "Thank you." she whispered before breaking down completely.
Finn took her into his arms and let her soak his tunic with her tears. They both fell down on their knees when Thora gave up standing, bringing Finn with her. He brought her on his lap and started rocking her. She cried loudly and started shaking, but Finn held her tight in an embrace and cried silently with her. Finn kissed her forehead, before bringing her even closer to him and Thora didn't complain.
Ray and Lyrke laid their bodies around the couple, keeping them warm in the chilly evening and tried to give their comfort to the humans.
Behind a bush, not far from the grifing couple and their dragons, sat a father and his dragon who had followed his daughter after she had left. He had seen Finn and Lyrke flying after them and had heard everything Finn and Thora had said. The words from his daughter about jumping off a cliff, made him almost run out to the opening to his her, but Finn had bet him too it. The hug had been more than a comfort hug in the father's eyes, it had been security for his daughter and now when he knew Thora was in safe hands, Snotlout felt himself smiling a bit as he gestured to Hookfang that it was time to leave.
After Magnhild had excused herself and walked out of the house to give her sister and father privacy to talk, Magnhild and Temple had flown to the cove and now he laid curled around her while Magnhild leaned back to his warm scales.
"You think they will be okay after we leave?" She wondered.
Temple squawked and nodded his head for an answer.
Magnhild gave him a slow smile and stroked his scales. "I hope you're right. I mean when mum wakes up dad will be better, right? I don't know if we can leave if she… doesn't." She didn't want to think about how her father would be if mum never woke up.
She shook her head to get the thought of her mother never waking up out of her head. "Just you and me exploring the world, so we can get off this island." she said quietly.
Magnhild had always hated being around sad people or even being in an environment that is filled with sadness.
The feeling of running away from the sadness, from the reality of someone being dead was at its worst when someone close to her died.
Magnhild first felt this feeling of running away when one of Stormfly's babies died when she was 8. The sadness from her mother, Stormfly and basically the whole family was enough for Magnhild to run into the woods to get away from the crying people.
It got worse when her grandma died. After Valka's funeral Magnhild flew to the Berserker island and didn't really know why she chose the Berserker island, she just wanted to get away from the gloomy people around her.
Then Gobber died a year later and once again Magnhild was away from the island, but this time Mala's words rang in her head; "Fly back to Berk and be with your family. They are in pain right now and I think you as their daughter would ease their pain." Magnhild and Temple flew to Vylma and told her the news, maybe not the best thing for Magnhild when she hated being around sad people, but Vylma was family and she needed a shoulder to lean on when the news of the death of Gobber would reach her. Magnhild had stayed for hours until she went back to Berk to the rest of the family.
Now Stoick is gone. Brant was gone and Ingrid. Two of her friends and her brother were dead and gods did it hurt.
She couldn't be in the forge without expecting Brant and Stoick being there. Waiting for Ingrid to come by and watching her and Stoick and those two being all lovey dovey with each other. Magnhild wanted to hear Brant complain about seeing those two kiss and flirt with each other. Magnhild wanted to laugh at Brant's awful jokes and watch Ingrid sass logic back at him.
The forge wasn't the only place Stoick, Brant and Ingrid haunted, the whole island was a big memory of her brother and friends. The great hall wasn't filled with laughter and cheerful Berkians anymore, it was filled with injured and sad Berkians and it would probably sit in the walls for months.
The Haddock house was the worst. Stoick was supposed to be there, even after the war. He was supposed to survive and help Berk to come back to its feet! Finn wasn't supposed to lose his twin! The Haddock's weren't supposed to lose a son or a brother! Stoick was going to live and marry Ingrid for gods sake!
Magnhild slammed her fist into the earth ground and felt tears running down her cheeks. She let out a shaky breath and closed her eyes. She felt Temple move and purred softly.
"I'm okay," she opened her eyes, "It's going to be okay." she tried to tell herself, but she knew nothing was going to be the same after this. Not her parents, siblings, Berk or herself. Either someone had lost a friend or a family member in this war and the death number was rising.
Magnhild started to shake and she covered her mouth with her hand as she cried out the tears she didn't want to cry out. Now she couldn't hold back any longer and felt guilt building up in her and wished she could go back in time and had destroyed the dragon eye as soon as Ingrid had showed it to her.
Vylma was nowhere in sight when Magnhild walked into the house. The room was just like she left it, except no sister and now her father sat by the table reading something.
"Have Vylma left?" Magnhild asked and walked up to Hiccup.
Hiccup looked up and cleared his throat. "Yeah, you didn't see them taking off?"
She shook her head. "No. Me and Temple were in the cove."
Magnhild sat down beside her father and looked at the paper in his hands. When she read the first line, her breath got caught in her lungs and she looked away.
She had read that letter so many times she could hear it by heart. She didn't mean to memorize it, but she had to read it so many times to let everything sink in. The guilt Ingrid had felt made sense but at that level that she sacrificed herself, was unbelievable. The thought of Ingrid talking to Grimmel was also unbelievable. Stupid but brave after everything he had done to her. And that she had done it behind everyones back was something Magnhild didn't think she could pull off if she was honest. Ingrid had always been the sweet and honest person Magnhild knew and the secrets Ingrid held was reasonable to be held as a secret, like the dragon eye. The dragon eye that had started this whole thing.
Magnhild had never and will never blame Ingrid to have taken the dragon eye to Berk (it wasn't even Ingrid who alone took it here, Frida knew about it too) because they all agreed to keep it and keep it a secret so it was Magnhild's fault as much as Ingrid's and the rest of the gang.
Yes it was foolish for Ingrid to have taken the dragon eye with her when she went out and explored alone with Kyria, but Magnhild didn't blame her for that either.
No one knows what the future holds and if everyone lives scared of what can happen, the future will stand still with nothing but the same boring life because people are too afraid of taking a step to the side of the boring line.
"Did you... figure everything out? Is it good between you and Vylma now?" Magnhild asked.
Hiccup sighed. "No and yes. She can't forgive me and I understand that..."
"Yeah, she can't easily forgive people as you can." Magnhild snorted.
Hiccup rolled the paper and laid it down on the table. "But she doesn't hate me and she has taken back the whole... disowned thing."
"Well you're on the right path anyway." She mumbled.
"Yeah," he said and ran a hand through his hair, "But I will forever blame myself for making it..."
"Weird between you two." she said and looked away from her father. Her eyes landed on the bowl she had placed on the table before walking up to her mother.
She grabbed it and walked to the bucket filled with water and dumped the bowl, making the water being filled with porridge that she should have scoped out before dumping it into the water.
Magnhild sighed and pressed her lips together, thinking about telling him that she was planning to leave when her mother woke up. The problem was; is it the right time to tell him? Should she just bring it up now or wait for a good opportunity to tell him?
"...if Toothless wants to go, then I'm letting him go." Magnhild snapped her head out of her thoughts and turned to him with a frown.
"You want to let him go?" She hadn't heard the first words in the sentence, but the last part got her attention.
"No, well yes if he wants too. He hasn't been the same after he met the light fury and when I talked with him about... letting him go so the war could be prevented, he seemed okay with it. Even happy." The last two words were mumbled, but Magnhild heard him and she had noticed a change in Toothless as well, now when she thinks about it.
Magnhild nodded, "And now? How is he now?"
"Tired and worried." Hiccup said and rubbed his forehead with his hand, "He has been taking care of the dragons and keeping them in check after a few dragons have lost riders or friends. This whole island is becoming a sad piece of... rock floating on water."
"But it's still Berk and we need to keep it afloat." She added and crossed her arms over her chest.
"I need to keep it afloat. You need to rest."
"And you don't?" Magnhild shot back and raised an eyebrow.
Hiccup sighed and leaned back into the chair. "Don't you start too." he mumbled and closed his eyes.
Even in the poor light from the fireplace, Magnhild could see her father's fast aged face. She had gotten used to everyone looking sad and grey in the past days, but her father had taken the hardest hit. Not only had he lost a son and had his wife in an unpredictable situation between life and death, he had lost a few of his own people. He almost lost everyone and Berk itself. In a war that made him and his daughter fall apart. Hiccup and Vylma may have talked about it and someday it hopefully will be prepared, but it has left a scar that would probably never fade away.
Magnhild decided that the time to tell her father about her plans for leaving was not right, right now. He didn't need to think about having another child away from Berk. Away from his side. Magnhild starts to have doubts about leaving her family this broken and when Astrid wakes up and gets the news about Stoick, Magnhild doesn't know how everything will look like then, maybe better or worse.
Magnhild blinked to prevent tears coming out of her eyes and started walking to the stairs. "I'll go and get that rest." she murmured.
She stopped before she took the first step on the staircase and clenched her jaw, thinking that maybe she should tell him now. Would tomorrow be any better? Who knew? Maybe tomorrow will be worse than today.
"What is it?" Hiccup wondered and looked at Magnhild with worry.
Magnhild opened her mouth to say something but couldn't get anything out.
Hiccup stood up and walked to her. "Magnhild, please. I can feel you want to say something but somehow can't."
Magnhild turned around to him and looked at everything but him. She pressed her lips together and took a deep breath from her nose and looked at him. "I'm planning on leaving. Not right now, but when mum wakes up, me and Temple are leaving. I don't know for how long but just until my head is clear and-and I don't need to be on Berk anymore. Don't get me wrong I love this place, it will forever be my home, but I keep expecting Stoick to be here and he isn't and it's just a grey and sad atmosphere and I hate it…"
Hiccup hugged her and stopped her rambling. "Then go. I know you hate being around sad people and right now, this whole island is a sad floating rock."
Magnhild smiled a little for that and hugged him back while letting the tears come.
"I love you and I want you to be happy and if your happiness isn't here and it's out there, then I'm not gonna stop you." Hiccup let her go, but still held her by the shoulders. "Leave whenever you want to, just tell me beforehand so I can say goodbye to you until we meet again."
"So you wont be mad at… not having another child by your side." Magnhild questioned.
"I know where Stoick and Vylma are," Hiccup smiled a little and Magnhild lowered her eyes. "And I may not know where you are, if you don't have a plan to stay at one place-"she shook her head, "And that's okay. Just t-mail me once and a while so I know you're alive."
Magnhild smiled. A smile she hadn't smiled for a long time and gods do it feel good to tell her father about her plans and feel her face lit up. She hugged him again and Hiccup didn't waste time to hug her back. "Thank you." she said into his shoulder.
"You're welcome, sweetheart." he said and stroked her hair. "But maybe you should leave after Vylma has gotten married."
Magnhild leaned back from him and frowned. "What?"