Hello, everyone! Thank you for your patience these days. And thank you to those you are new to the story, especially to those who have joined in by reading the story in one sitting and taking the extra time to review! It means a lot to me.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Loudmouth

She was too weak. Another week – another day – of this, and she'd be dead, she knew it. She was staring at her arm, her nose wrinkled and her eyes too dry to cry. Yellowed flesh translucent around the edges oozed a pinkish pus that made her swallow. Some days, the sight of the wound made her hungry, others it made her wonder how she had stayed alive this long. Dagur had kept some of his word in letting her find the plants to help ease the infection, but she was restricted to using the plants they grew underground, and those were next to useless.

Ruffnut groaned and clenched her fingers. Her fingertips were numbing and her whole arm felt three times too heavy. And there were no clean bandages, so the wrappings Astrid had given her weeks before had to be reused over and over again. She'd be lucky to wash them, and her luck ran out the moment Dagur dragged her to his chambers for the first time.

She shuddered as another wave of cold shot through her, and she gulped painfully. She wanted death to come, she felt it should have long ago. But not yet, for some awful reason.

Taking the wrap in her good hand, and putting the other end between her teeth, she wrapped her arm once more. She did so as tight as she possibly could, to feel whole once again. As she tied them, a thought came crawling into her mind, seeping like sludge squished in a fist. She could take the wraps… she could take the wraps from her arm… and maybe wrap them around her neck.

She paused and thought about it. No more nights of Dagur. No more days of her arm rotting away. No more wondering whether or not she'd ever make it out. She could, right now, escape. Permanently. But that meant no more Tuffnut, and no chance to ever see him again. She couldn't do that to him. But maybe he'd understand if she did. She didn't know. She never knew. Stupid, stupid Ruffnut, she thought to herself. Slowly rotting away in a hell hole of a place.

The door opened suddenly, making her jump and gulp. Dagur's bodyguard, Stench, lumbered in as Ruffnut struggled to her feet.

"Come with me," he demanded. Regardless, he grabbed her arm and pulled her out of her cell. She hissed as he dug his fingers into her bandages. She choked back a curse and a cry and let him drag her. If she fought back, she'd get a fist in the gut. But never the face, Dagur would always say. He'd want to keep that pretty.

Stench's job was always to bring Ruffnut from her cell in the western hall to Dagur, who stayed in a western chamber, tucked away in a dark corner. And they began to make their way towards his chambers, and Ruffnut groaned and felt bile rise in her throat. She didn't notice herself slump against Stench's frame until he elbowed her away roughly. She grunted and tried to right herself, but instead found herself hurling against the wall.

"Oh, for Odin's sake," Stench growled as Ruffnut wretched. She spat the remaining vomit from her mouth and wiped her mouth with a shaking hand. "It's a wonder you haven't died yet."

He wrapped a heavy hand around her waist and straightened her.

"Don't be doing that in front of Alvin, miss. He wouldn't fancy that."

"Alvin?" Ruffnut rasped.

She limped onward, Stench's hand moving to the back of her neck to keep her somewhat on her feet. They didn't make the final turn to Dagur's chamber after all, but turned down the main hall towards the conference room. Another cold feeling seeping up her chest, and Ruffnut wrapped her arms around herself. Stench opened the door and gave her a small shove into the room. She stumbled forward and almost lost her footing, but managed to steady herself as she looked up at Alvin.

Alvin glared at her from his throne made of hardened Sun Sap, his hands balled into fists and his face red. Dagur stood behind him, his eyes full of rage and on the floor, his lips pursed so hard, Ruffnut thought they would shatter. The situation looked far from good.

Next to her in the centre of the room was the woman that had sorted them when Astrid and Ruffnut last saw each other.

"Birdsong," Alvin growled. "Where is the other dragon rider? I explicitly requested that both be brought before me."

Ruffnut peered over at Birdsong, wondering.

Birdsong looked exhausted. Her hands were wrapped in bandages from the Hatch, her eyes and cheeks were sunken, and her hair hung behind her head in multiple braids down to her hips. She bowed her head to Alvin.

"She was hit by one of Stargazer's darts a moon ago," she replied, "and she has not awoken yet, however we are confident she will be awake and working within the next week or so."

Alvin gawked at her. "What?"

"She is not able to come to your meeting so I come in her place as the leader of her faction," Birdsong stated again. Her tone was so clear, so monotonous, that Alvin was torn on whether to scream at her, or move on with the matter. He went with the latter.

"Well… I suppose we may as well start," Alvin grumbled. Birdsong nodded and glance over to Ruffnut, noticing the seeping bandages and the infection-riddled body before her with a wrinkled nose. "I'm glad you're here Birdsong –"

"I bet," Dagur spat under his breath.

" – because this matter may as well involve you either way. And Dagur, hold your tongue!"

"Whatever, get on with it."

Alvin growled again. "I'll deal with you later."

There was a tense moment of silence before Alvin returned his attention to Ruffnut.

"You. You are going to tell me the truth."

Ruffnut didn't move, she didn't even blink. She was at a loss for what to do.

"There was a wedding," Alvin grunted. "A big one, one between Hiccup and another dragon rider. And you see, in this long moon of building and fortifying and digging, I realized something. There are only two female dragon riders… and I happen to have both of them."

Ruffnut shifted uncomfortably.

Birdsong cleared her throat. "You think one of the dragon riders we captured is the widow to Hiccup?"

"I know it," Alvin replied. "Our source at the event told us there was a ceremony, and the Night Fury and her own dragon were at the head of that ceremony. Now, I don't know about you, but it makes too much sense to me to let it slide."

"And if it is true?" Birdsong asked.

Alvin glared at Ruffnut again. "I can't have another rebellion on my hands. If the widow to Hiccup is under my roof and people find out, they will flock to her. And if Stoick is killed any time soon, assuming he hasn't been already, then we have the heir to Berk among their own people."

"Why does that matter?" she retorted. "If you indeed have the heir to Berk, isn't that an advantage? We'd have leverage against Berk, against Stoick if he survived the attack."

He slammed his fist against his throne. A crack squealed through the arm of his Sun Sap throne underneath his large and grizzled fist. Birdsong jumped and sucked a breath into her body, the air catching in a pocket in her throat. Ruffnut shrank back with nowhere to go. "Damn your leverage! I will not house, feed, and care for the daughter-in-law of my enemy!"

Birdsong shut her mouth and bowed her head. "I apologize, sir, I only wanted to understand."

"If you had kept your mouth shut, you would have understood regardless," Alvin spat. "We can't afford an uprising. It got too close on Outcast Island, no thanks to that traitorous bitch you felt so inclined to put to the task."

Birdsong clenched her jaw. "I had no inclination that Rose would betray our intentions upon her return – "

"Because you're a blind fool," Dagur seethed. Birdsong's lips parted in shock at Dagur's disrespect.

"Do you think I would willingly put our people in danger by promoting a rebellion?" she dared to ask.

"You're the one who decided to put a dragon rider in the Hatchery," Dagur yelled. He slinked from behind Alvin and descended the stairs. He snarled at Birdsong, almost hateful at her refusal to feel the fright he so desperately tried to instill within her stone-like heart. "Seems like you're setting up an advantage already."

Birdsong snorted and looked to Alvin. "I didn't know your little boy was all grown up, daring to insult his equal in front of his leader."

Alvin grunted, a smile tickling the corner of his chapped lips. Dagur gasped and his eyes flickered.

"Watch your mouth, Dagur. Your tongue belies your incomparable wit," Alvin butted in sarcastically. "If our people were to find out that you have been fraternizing with the heiress, there won't need to be a rebellion. It'll be a down right uprising, an outrage!"

"Why do you care who I sleep with?"

"Are you fucking deaf?" Alvin asked with an unamused look behind his eyes. The room buzzed as Dagur scowled between the two of them. "Either the Hatchery matron or your whore are the reason why we can't hope of having peace in the Underground. If the people rebel, it puts them in harm's way. Now, I know most of 'our people' are… hostages, as some would like to say, but they are our people now. That means we are responsible for their safety."

Birdsong nodded in agreement. "If word were to escape… it's too much of a risk."

"Which is why it is necessary to find her, hide her, deal with her, and destroy the evidence."

Dagur thrust his finger at Ruffnut, who flinched violently. "And what if it isn't her?! You're blindly relaying our concerns and plans in front of another Berkian?"

"I doubt she'll last the day, let alone another visit to your chamber," Birdsong replied. "Look at her, wallowing away slowly, wishing she were dead rather than lay eyes on your body one more time."

The words sank into Ruffnut's flesh slowly, working their way into her body one by one. Birdsong was right. She would rather die and be free than let Dagur touch her ever again. And Tuffnut would rather that, too. It was honourable. She could save herself, save Astrid. She knew that Astrid would be able to escape eventually. But either way, Ruffnut was dying today.

She stumbled forward slowly and let herself fall to a knee in front of Alvin, the weight of her pathetic life crushing her into the floor. Dagur and Birdsong stepped away from each other to watch, Dagur flicking his rage-filled eyes back to Birdsong.

"Please…" Ruffnut begged. "No more of this. I give up."

Saying the words out loud drew a sense of finality within her gut. The feeling of this being the end, of never turning back… Silence echoed through the room as all eyes rested upon her shaking and frail frame. Her eyelids gently fluttered over her dry eyes, her head hanging heavily over the carved stone floor. It was as if she were already exposing her neck for the final chop. And she awaited with an open heart, hoping the blow would be swift.

"You're the wife of Hiccup?" Birdsong asked carefully.

"Widow," Ruffnut corrected, "and yes, I am. Surprised?"

"A little," Birdsong admitted. Alvin and Dagur shared a look between each other, eyebrows furrowed and raised all at once. "You're… not the most spectacular person I've laid eyes on."

"I thought it would be the other girl," Alvin noted suspiciously. "She was always there, I remember her, but you… not so much."

"He initially wanted her," Ruffnut said, thinking through her words very, very carefully. "But… she was attacked long ago. Not long after the Red Death. Stoick refused to marry the pair because of the extent of the damage. You can see the scars if you want to take a look."

"Already have," Birdsong agreed. "She's telling the truth. The other girl is scarred beyond Berk's rules garnering marriage purity."

Dagur squinted at her. "Ah. But I attacked you. So that would be equally disqualifying."

"Luckily for me, you didn't give me any scars," Ruffnut responded with a daring shrug of the shoulder. "Wasn't a big deal."

"So you married Hiccup?" Birdsong asked again. "Because Stoick refused to marry him to the damaged Berkian?"

"After a month, yes. It's tradition on Berk to –"

Alvin waved a hand. "I know what your traditions are."

Ruffnut licked her lips and nodded. "Well, I suppose this worked out for the best."

Alvin raised an eyebrow and scoffed loudly. "Oh?"

Ruffnut glared. She couldn't help but grin. "Oh, yeah. You see, when you dragged me onto this pathetic excuse of a village, I somehow ended up locked in a cell in the darkest corners of the Underground, where this equally-pathetic excuse of a man raped me until I couldn't see straight. So no one saw me, no one knows whether or not I'm still alive, and those who wonder are few and far between: the other Berkian dragon rider and those in this room when you separated me from them. So I think you got off pretty lucky. Somehow."

Alvin cleared his throat, holding a hand up to Dagur to shut him up from another one of his retorts.

"Those are all very pretty excuses… but it tells me nothing of whether or not you're telling the truth. So what can you tell me to make me believe that you actually married Hiccup?"

Ruffnut twisted her mouth, only taking a single second to think of her answer.

"Well… Dagur has nothing on Hiccup, let me tell you."

She raised her hands and gestured crudely, eluding to the size of a very specific body part. Alvin gawked and Birdsong paled as Dagur's cheeks became a deep crimson. Ruffnut let her hands fall and she sighed.

"Like I said, no scars were left over from that day, but on my wedding night? Women were not built for that sort of thing. I'm surprised I didn't get pregnant from holding his hand, too!"

Birdsong blinked rapidly and averted her gaze to Alvin, who tried desperately to contain himself as Dagur lunged for Ruffnut. Birdsong stepped in the way and shoved him back as Alvin broke into fits of guttural laughter.

"You dare insult me?!" Dagur shrieked, his voice cracking. His jet black hair fell over his hooked nose and it quivered like a shaking leaf.

"I have nothing to lose when I do," Ruffnut spat at him. "I'll die either way and you'll lose me knowing how small of a man you really are!"

"Stop it, enough, all of you!" He looked to Ruffnut and contained himself, taking a deep breath as he looked upon her for a few moments. Dagur stared daggers into her soul and stepped away. "That… still doesn't tell me much."

"I just told you Berk's Best Kept Secret," Ruffnut argued loudly. "What more do you want? I'm the widow, I watched him die on my fucking bedroom floor because of you bastards!" She screamed for dramatic effect, and tears suddenly came rushing out of her eyes, angry and hateful. Flashes of Dagur slicing through Tuffnut slammed into her mind over and over, and she spat spittle with every lash of her tongue. "I watched him die! And I watched him burn! So go ahead, kill me! I want nothing more after what you murderers have done."

"Oh? You seem pretty eager to die," Alvin murmured, humoured by her temper-tantrum.

"Dying won't change anything. Anyone left on Berk will still come back. Dragons, men, women, and they will light this shithole on fire and watch the flesh fall off your bones as you beg for mercy like I have. And like you, we won't be dishing any out."

Anger rose in Alvin's chest, and Dagur laughed at what he thought was a ridiculous idea. "Birdsong, retrieve one of my men to deal with this whore."

Ruffnut jumped to her feet and Birdsong grabbed her sore arm, making her scream again. But she wouldn't shut her mouth. She never did, and never will, until the bitter end. "You may have killed Hiccup!" she shrieked. "But you never killed his Night Fury, and he will come and tear you apart until even the walls of Valhalla are painted in your blood!"

"Get her out of my sight!" Alvin demanded, standing from his throne. Ruffnut barely felt Birdsong wrap her lean arms around her famished waist. Her feet left the ground and she let Birdsong carry her out as she kept screaming.

"I'll be waiting for you, Dagur! I'll be waiting, and I'll watch the gods punish you for all eternity for what you've done to me! I'll be waiting!"

Dagur, framed in the doorway, blew Ruffnut a kiss. "I can't wait," he hissed. He slammed the door shut as Birdsong dragged her away into the darkness.

The moment the echo of the door's slam faded, Ruffnut's energy gave way. She stumbled to the ground, her hands searching for something to catch her. She coughed and hacked and tinted phlegm drooled onto the floor. She held her stomach and Birdsong grabbed her yet again.

"On your feet," Birdsong growled. Somehow, she planted Ruffnut back on her sore feet and marched her onward. The path they took was one that Ruffnut had never been on – but Ruffnut had not been down many in the Underground – and this hallway was quiet… so quiet that Ruffnut could hear Birdsong breathe through her nose over the sound of her own ragged breaths. She didn't say anything to her executioner as they moved onward until it was almost impossible to see. They stopped for one moment.

"Stay still," Birdsong said gruffly. Ruffnut took the opportunity to slide down the wall onto her backside.

"It's not like I can run away, don't worry," Ruffnut said through a violent shiver.

She heard Birdsong fumble in the dark, and a flame was lit over a torch pulled from a bracket in the wall. Firelight stung her eyes for a moment. Birdsong placed the torch back in the bracket and dropped the flint tool back into her satchel. She sighed and cracked her neck, groaned, and opened her eyes to Ruffnut, who kept her head rested on the stone. She didn't look at Birdsong, but she looked at the roof, and noticed water dripping down the walls, not unlike the first cell she had been in with Astrid. She touched the wall over her shoulder weakly and felt the water dribble over her fingertips. Somehow, it made the idea of her impending murder a little softer.

"So… how are we doing this?" Ruffnut asked as Birdsong cracked her knuckles. "Are you gonna strangle me? Stab me? Throw me into a pile of diseased men?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Birdsong replied, only giving a single glance to Ruffnut. Ruffnut squinted at her as Birdsong crouched in front of her, peering into Ruffnut's face with an odd curiosity.

Ruffnut watched Birdsong's grey eyes search over her face. She lingered on her fair eyebrows, her cheekbones. She reached up and touched Ruffnut's jaw, running a finger down her neck slowly, and taking up a matted braid in her hand, Birdsong's searching gaze turned into a scrutinizing glare.

"You lied."

A cold rush of nausea spewed within Ruffnut's ribcage. "What?"

"You're not Hiccup's widow."

"Yes I am," Ruffnut rumbled hoarsely. "I told you –"

"You said Stoick refused to marry the other Berkian to Hiccup," she murmured very quietly. "That's not what I wrote on the scroll."

Ruffnut furrowed her brow. "…Excuse me?"

"I said he could choose," Birdsong continued, "and it could be whoever he loved. And I am dead certain that even Stoick the Vast wouldn't go against my words. Not even he would be so foolish."