I loved the response to last chapter so much! Hugely appreciate y'all.
Warning for very brief mention of choking.
-HTTYD-
"Where are we going Rona... or whatever your name is? We're getting pretty far out here."
He wasn't wrong.
"Just... here."
Cloudjumper wasn't there, but Valka recognised his tracks and assumed he'd gone to find some dinner or something - she'd probably been gone longer than he expected. She'd lost track of time a little with Eret.
"You wanted to show me trees?"
"No, not trees. This."
Valka whistled, on the off chance her dragon was close by, before she knelt down and moved some dirt and leaves to reveal her hidden armour. She stood with her helmet in her hands, and turned to face Eret. He paled quite rapidly, emotions flitting across his face at speed before settling on a mix of shock and horror.
"You're the vigilante?"
"Well, I don't call myself that."
It was a rather minor point, really. And Eret didn't seem to appreciate her pointing it out all that much. He looked to be considering either attacking her or running back to his crew, but didn't get far in either decision before several tonnes of Stormcutter landed heavily next to them.
Whether he recognised Eret or read the situation, Cloudjumper quickly grabbed a hold of Eret and rumbled at Valka. She scrambled into her armour and leapt up on his back, Eret still in his claws as they took off. He cursed quite colourfully in several languages as they went, though Valka expected the altitude would knock him out before long as they flew through the air, since he wasn't used to the thin air. He was probably usually fine with the cold, but he was underdressed for it after Valka dragged him along so quickly.
It was lunacy, she knew, but when the swearing and shouting died down she was quite sure he'd passed out. Sure enough, he was out cold when they landed at the nest, and the dragons there were all very confused about the newcomer. Valka took off her armour and made sure there weren't any sharp objects Eret could easily grab a hold of, leaving Cloudjumper to watch him and no doubt judge Valka for what he felt was a bad decision. She checked on their sick and injured and newly arrived, satisfied everything was in order enough for her to go back to Eret.
She felt very aware of how young he was when she looked over his unconscious form - he was only a few years older than her son. And not that much younger than his father had been when she took his life. Valka hoped he was young enough to listen. Although any future with Eret involved seemed rather improbable; he wasn't likely to forgive her for killing his father, whether he came around to dragons or not. She really hadn't thought it through at all, driven by her jumbled emotions and a fit of desperation because he was the first human to make her feel something that wasn't pain and anger in so long.
And now he was in the nest, and Valka wasn't really sure what to do other than wait for him to wake up, and hope she figured something else out then. Cloudjumper was still looking at her like she was quite mad. He probably wasn't wrong.
Eret jerked awake quite suddenly, looking around with wide eyes, chest heaving with his ragged breaths.
"Where am I?"
"Safe."
His brow creased, and then Eret seemed to feel the warm breath of a dragon behind him and let out a quite high-pitched yelp, scuttling away as best he could on the ground.
"Dragon!"
"His name is Cloudjumper, and he won't hurt you. Well, he won't hurt you first."
Valka couldn't claim Cloudjumper wouldn't defend himself, but she was certain he'd never attack first.
"That's not very reassuring. How are you... why did you... we..."
Eret seemed to struggle to string a coherent thought together, obviously still stunned that his random bedmate of the evening had been the vigilante he'd gone up against in battle before.
"Actually, I'd blown up your crews fort on the next island over just before I came to the tavern. Going to bed with you was not part of my original plan, I do admit."
"You blew up... why the Hel have you brought me back here? What am I? A dragon snack?"
"Don't be ridiculous. Dragons very rarely eat humans. Most of them wouldn't even be able to swallow you."
"Oh, I am totally reassured now."
His heavily sarcastic tone was combined with an exaggerated eye roll, which surprised Valka slightly since he was clearly still quite concerned about being eaten. He was physically unarmed, and mentally appeared quite disarmed by the shift in situation and location, leaving her debating whether to leave him to wander about the nest alone - the dragons could defend themselves - or toss him off a high point and be done with it.
After going to the effort of getting him there, Valka opted to give him a little time before she tossed him off a cliff. Cloudjumper looked like he'd happily have done it for her.
A few more minutes of tense silence as Eret looked around them in his hyper-aware state passed, before he seemed to catch his breath as he hadn't been attacked. He turned to Valka, eyes still darting back to the dragons every few seconds.
"Why did you bring me here?"
He got to his feet and immediately backed up to a rocky wall, so he didn't have to look behind himself so much while Valka tried to formulate an answer. In the end, she went with honesty.
"I don't know. It was a spur of the moment decision, and now I can't take you back."
"You had better take me back!"
Valka shook her head.
"No. You know too much now. I can't have you telling Drago Bludvist what I look like."
Eret flinched briefly at the name, but otherwise showed little response beyond anger.
"Because you kidnapped me with that big dumb beast!"
Cloudjumper growled, but Valka held out a hand. Angry dragons weren't exactly going to help the situation.
"His name is Cloudjumper, and he's actually very intelligent. And very gentle."
"Oh yeah, he seems so gentle when he's setting fire to our ships and forts."
"You put his kin in cages. What would you do to free your family?"
Eret scowled and looked away, saying nothing. Valka knew it was because he had little to refute her with, which she found rather satisfying. Patting Cloudjumper to soothe him, she waited for Eret to finish his sulking. After a minute of silence broken only by the usual sounds of dragons walking and grumbling nearby, he looked back.
"Is there a bathroom around here?"
"Oh, yes. This way."
Cloudjumper stuck to her side as they headed through to her room, where she pointed him to the spot she relieved herself in. He went in silence, peering over his shoulder as though checking he wasn't going to be ambushed on his way to answer nature's call.
He was gone for quite a few minutes, though Valka supposed he was probably trying to get his head straight more than anything. It was the only spot he was guaranteed any sort of privacy. She turned back to Cloudjumper, who was still not happy with her, making low grumbling sounds until she scratched under his chin.
"Relax. He has no advantage here."
Her dragon companion huffed, but didn't pull away from where she was scratching his scales. He really was a gentle giant, all soft and sweet and loving when he wanted to be. She smiled as he finally relaxed a little, not liking when her dearest friend was so tense - especially due to something Valka had done.
When he finally came back, he was looking at Valka oddly.
"What?"
"Out of interest, do you make a habit out of spending nights in tavern rooms with dragon hunters? Or was I something special?"
Valka chewed her lip; she wasn't about to admit to the multiple murders she had under her belt. Although she felt guilt for none of them, she didn't think Eret needed to know. On the other hand, she didn't want to say he was special, because he seemed the sort that it was going to go to his head.
"Neither. I don't make a habit, but you were convenient, not special."
"So you didn't kidnap me to keep me here as some kind of sex slave?"
She recoiled slightly; that was an awful thing to suspect her of!
"What? No! That's abhorrent!"
Weirdly, Eret didn't look like he agreed. He gave her a sort of interested up-and-down look, then tipped her the same sort of smirk she'd seen back in the tavern when he thought they were merely strangers spending the night together.
"Shame. That might have at least been fun."
His attitude shift had Valka a little on edge - he'd been angry and combative only moments ago. Unless he'd taken a dose of something in the bathroom, she wasn't sure what had caused the change.
"Funny, I would have thought finding out who I really am would put you off."
Eret shrugged.
"Hey, it looks like this is where I'm gonna die, so why not see if I could have a good time first? Besides, a good lay is a good lay. Don't tell me you didn't have fun. I know how to show a woman a good time."
His cockiness was awfully familiar, the same old swagger he'd shown her earlier that evening. Before the impromptu kidnap. And he was sort of right... Valka wasn't going to be letting him go. So either he came around on dragons, or he spent time in the nest until the inevitable happened.
It didn't help that he still had that same disarming effect on her, the response of her body completely separate from rational thought at the look he gave her.
Well, she reasoned to herself, sex might mellow him out and make him more inclined to listen.
It was thin, somewhat desperate logic, and Valka was quite sure she was only trying to justify to herself those stolen moments of pleasure and the brief time where she'd felt something earlier, and to excuse her desire to repeat them now it seemed Eret was offering.
The raw ache of emotions she'd felt earlier was somewhat faded, or at least pushed aside by the madness of her decisions and then dealing with the bewilderment of Eret's presence. She did her best to keep them at bay, taking Eret in and debating whether or not to trust his words. There was a rather obvious sign he at least wasn't lying about a physical interest, his britches tenting over the growing swell between his thighs.
"You're serious?"
Eret nodded, though he gestured to Cloudjumper.
"I'm not always against an audience, but he's not watching."
Sensing that he was being dismissed, Cloudjumper growled. Valka deliberated, before turning to her dragon.
"Give us a little privacy Cloudjumper?"
If there was any chance she could get through to Eret, Valka was going to try. And it wasn't as though she hadn't used her body against men before... even if part of her wasn't almost shamefully keen to experience the intensity with Eret again. Cloudjumper gave her the most incredulous look, throwing growls and grumbles of warning in Eret's direction before he turned and stalked off, tail flicking up to let her know just how annoyed he was about it. She'd have to give him extra salmon later to make it up to him.
They couldn't escape dragons entirely, as one of the 'walls' of Valka's rooms was missing, giving view to a high point in the heart of the nest, and dragons flitted past it quite frequently. Still, that didn't seem to bother Eret all that much, eyes flicking toward her bed before he approached her. He seemed much more confident when they were on his terms; perhaps the simplicity of sex amongst all the madness around him appealed.
His kisses were a little more hesitant, which Valka put down to the environment rather than her - she could still feel him hard against her hip, knew he was still interested. He backed her slowly toward her bed, following her all the way with his hands at her waist and his mouth against hers. They parted so she could climb up on it, Eret following her. He placed his knees between her spread legs, braced a hand on the bed near her head while the other cupped her jaw, surprisingly tender as he rubbed a thumb along her cheek.
"Do you remember what you asked me earlier?"
Head a little hazy - she hadn't really expected conversation - Valka frowned.
"I'm sure I asked you a few things."
"True" Eret conceded, voice calm and even "I'll jog your memory then. You asked what I would do to protect my family."
"Oh?"
Valka wasn't sure why he was bringing it up at that moment.
Not until his hand moved, closing around her throat in an instant and squeezing. His face darkened, weight bearing down to try and stop her instinctive attempts to throw him off. His hand was big and her neck was small, his fingers almost meeting all the way around as his palm pressed down hard enough to stop her drawing breath.
"Maybe I die here, but I can stop you first."
Oh, that bastard! Valka thrashed ineffectively, no air meaning she couldn't cry out for the attention of dragons. His grip was tight, and she knew she'd pass out before long if she couldn't get his hand off her. The last flickers of coherent thought reminded her of what she was still wearing, and Valka's shaking hands scrabbled at her belt. The way Eret was leaning over her to choke her meant he didn't have a hand free to stop her, not until he recoiled in pained shock as Valka jammed her blade up into his stomach.
"Ah!"
He yelped, grip finally gone from her throat. Valka sucked in great gasps of air, vision dancing with spots as she fought to catch her breath. Eret was clutching his bleeding stomach, but it was no debilitating injury, and with her head still spinning Valka was at something of a disadvantage.
Still, she had plenty of practice against long odds, and just as much experience in fighting men twice her size with bigger weapons. Eret was unarmed, and it wouldn't take much for her to call any number of dragons who would have happily finished the job for her.
She didn't want that though; Valka wanted to finish him herself. He'd dared to wriggle under her skin and make her feel, and then he'd used that as a wedge to drive in under her defences just long enough to try and kill her. And to think, she'd felt guilty for taking his father away. She surged forward, her weight and the surprise of her movement as she jammed her shoulder into Eret's chest combining to knock him to the ground. She pinned him with her knees on his ribs, stopping him from breathing as she pressed the bloodied blade to his throat.
"Tell me something. Do you know how your father died, Eret?"
Obviously debating whether or not trying to throw her off would get his throat cut, he coughed as he tried to draw in breath with her weight in the way.
"He..." Eret trailed off, thinking, mind obviously making the connection "y-you!"
She smirked, nodding.
"I recognised you right away, you look just like him. Just as I recognised the mark on your father's hip. It was self defence, he attacked me first. How fitting of you to follow in his footsteps, all the way to your death."
Valka moved just enough to kill him as she had done his father, driving her blade into his chest. She'd had a lot of practice by then, knew the best spot to avoid hitting bone instead of the soft, breakable inside parts his ribs protected. His body spasmed, his next cough bloody. She didn't move, not until she saw that final slump and stillness she'd seen dozens of times before.
When she looked up, she saw she had a few dragons as audience, Cloudjumper at the forefront looking outraged. She stood, hands bloody as she yanked her blade out, sighing as she realised what a mess she'd have to clean up. There were a few brief, tiny flickers of sadness that things couldn't have gone better, but they vanished when Valka regained enough sense to feel the throbbing pain around her neck.
She'd been right from the start; humans were not capable of change.
-HTTYD-
#Valkaneedsacuddle. Maybe after she's washed her hands though.
