XXIV.

The Vigilante was gone when Hiccup woke up, but on the ground a pile of fresh-caught fish, which Toothless was already downing, proved her earlier presence on the cliff side. Thankfully none of the fish had been cooked; Hiccup would prefer doing that himself rather than consuming another half-charred meal from the Vigilante. His mother.

"She might not be incredibly tactful in many ways," Hiccup remarked, watching Toothless bury his head in the middle of the fish pile, "and a bit passionate beyond the point of reasoning. Not all too differently like Dad, I suppose. And… I guess… she does care. In some ways." Still a lot to get used to, but maybe I can work with this. Hiccup turned to Toothless and murmured, "So what do you think of her, bud?"

Toothless, with a low contented hum, sucked up some of the fish at his feet. What had once been an enormous pile of sea life now dwindled to a tiny hill.

"Oh, I get it," Hiccup scoffed. "Someone who feeds you automatically is your friend. Some great judge of character you are."

Toothless raised his eyes, pitiful, pupils dilated wide as he pouted up at Hiccup. His wings drooped down at either side. Probably intentionally, the dragon's body language mirrored the moment of their first bonding, back when Hiccup himself had offered the Night Fury a fish back in the cove five years ago.

"Fine then," Hiccup said, scooping up the last two fish on the ground and stepping away from the dragon. Now was as good time as any for a stress reliever. "If you want these fish, you're going to have to come get them."

The dragon's eyes narrowed to half-open judgmental squints, and Hiccup could almost imagine Toothless muttering, "You've got to be kidding me," through the intonation of his low rumbles. He stared at the fish dubiously, judging whether or not Hiccup actually were serious in holding them out away from him, as well as gauging how he would be able to retrieve his meal while expending the least amount of effort.

"Lazy dragon," Hiccup scoffed, striding even further away from the dragon, past the ashes of last night's fire and toward the center of the cliff, foot and metal leg gently squishing down the moss carpeting this area. "You used to have to hunt for these entirely on your own, after all. Now we feed you. And now you can't even move your scaly rear end a few meters to retrieve a pair of sturgeons?"

With one powerful surge of his wings, Toothless pounced straight at Hiccup, knocking the one-legged Viking over completely. Hiccup, as he was flung backward, let go of both fish. They cartwheeled backward.

"You still don't have them!" Hiccup screeched. He half-laughed, half-gasped that jubilant proclamation. As one, he and Toothless pulled themselves onto their feet to scramble after the fish. A flurry of rocks and feet and hands and wings skidded over green-cloaked ground. Movement more than vision led them to their targets. Hiccup managed to dive on both of them and tucked them underneath his chest an instant before Toothless arrived, but the dragon, not dissuaded, reached for Hiccup's armor collar with his teeth, pulled the Viking up, and shook him. Hiccup's grip only tightened on the fish this time, though.

"You're not getting them!"

Resorting to more dramatic measures, Toothless began to flap his wings and hover off the ground, slowly moving upward, causing Hiccup's legs to swing precariously. He hung above the ledge, somewhat near a waterfall, so that the spray of the water splashed Hiccup's face. He coughed.

"I have a flight suit, Toothless. That's not going to work. Do you really think I could be afraid of heights when I don't hesitate to nose dive off your back?"

Toothless pulled his tail up, and with it, whacked Hiccup's arms, producing a loud snap that echoed across the fortress. Again, the fish slipped from his hands, sturgeons plummeting back toward the ground. A happy screech escaped Toothless' jaws. Promptly, the dragon deposited Hiccup on a small, steep tower a little distance away, then flew down to retrieve his meal. He slurped down the two fish enthusiastically.

"Alright, alright, you win!" Hiccup exclaimed. "Now can you get me down from here?"

The dragon glanced up only briefly at Hiccup before settling himself down on the ground.

Huffing, the Viking proclaimed, "Fine. I can fly, too, you know." Stretching the wings of his flight suit, then glancing down to gauge his distance downward, he prepared to jump. Hiccup's present location was little more than a spire with a diameter as wide as Hiccup was tall, but vertically inclined at a near ninety-degree steepness from the ground. Hiccup could not properly gauge his height above the ground, yet it well could have rivaled the towering Sea Stacks back on Berk's coastline.

Toothless, startled, hurled upward to offer a ride before Hiccup could jump.

Just as planned. Hiccup, satisfied, settled himself in Toothless' saddle.

The two of them settled down onto the cliff together. Both, needing a breather, stirred up no more trouble, at least for the time being.

And then, suddenly, Hiccup was jerked backwards. Something blocked mouth. An arm from behind. Unable to scream. Toothless whirled and growled. And then an instruction, "Easy now."

Hiccup stumbled around and away from his sudden ambusher, adrenaline rushing through his body at even greater levels than when Toothless had lifted him up off the ground. He recognized the voice of the man who roughly clasped a hand over his mouth. Turning around to face him, Hiccup exclaimed out frustratedly, "Dad! How did you get in here?"

"Same way I'm getting you out," he warned Hiccup. "Come on, while your captor's gone. We don't have much time. Come." And with that, he grabbed Hiccup's left arm and yanked him toward the nearest cave opening in the side of the sheer cliff walls which surrounded them. Both of them plunged into lower light, Stoick determinedly, Hiccup scrambling along unwillingly. Toothless followed along behind, eyes wide, but not helping Hiccup break free.

"Okay, uh, Dad there's – there's – uh – something you need to know," Hiccup stuttered as he and his father climbed over a rise in the cavern floor.

"Yeah, yeah, tell me on the way." Stoick's voice, for whatever reason, sounded a bit anxious.

"This isn't an 'on the way' kind of update, actually!" he protested.

"I've heard enough, Hiccup."

"More of the earth-shattering development variety…"

"Yeah, just add it to the pile."

"Wait, uh, uh, um… Dad… unlike most surprises I spring on you, this one you'll like. I think? Maybe? You just have to handle it… delicately… Dad, Dad, are you listening to me?"

Stoick turned around and hushed Hiccup. His eyes shifted back and forth in the cave, which was increasingly becoming narrower and darker, and murmured, "It's not safe here. Keep your voice low. The woman who's been holding you prisoner is dangerous."

"See, that's the thing," Hiccup protested, waving his one free hand exasperatedly. "I don't know if she is. I think she means well, I don't know! She… she's been fighting the trappers but… it's – it's all so complicated, it's hard to straighten out, but she's actually –"

Stoick glared at Hiccup. "First, keep your voice down. Second…" he shifted his weight uncomfortably. "What has she been telling you?"

"Oh, only that she's my mother."

Stoick sighed. He seemed resigned by the news brought in Hiccup's biting response, not upset, shocked, or surprised. "I had hoped she would have never noticed who you were and never told you. This makes things more complicated." The chief again turned to continue down the tunnel, but Hiccup, yanking backward, balked and exclaimed, incredulous, "Wait!"

Pause.

"You knew?"

"Yes." A reluctant one-word reply.

"So – so – so wait a minute. Wait… You're saying all these years, you told me my mother was – was dead – you knew she was alive, but you had me believe that she –"

"I thought it would be better that way."

"It was better to lie to me?" Hiccup shook his head, shocked. "About my own mother? I could have handled the news, Dad. Telling me she was off fighting for dragons isn't any worse than telling me she was dead. In fact, I –"

"I told you she was dangerous," Stoick snapped back. "More than once. And yet you ran off and got yourself captured. Of all irresponsible –"

"How – how is this irresponsible? Look, I'm trying to stop a war here. But what about you? You knew it was her all along attacking the trappers. So why didn't you do something about it? You're letting a war go on. If anyone is irresponsible, it's –"

"Hiccup! You do not know what you're talking about!" Stoick shouted. All attempts to be quiet and stealthy appeared to have vanished in the midst of the argument. He grumbled beneath his beard before checking his temper. "It's not just that she's fought for dragons, it's because…"

And his voice cut off.

Once again, the Vigilante noticed someone had been trying to escape, and stood further along inside the cave – behind her, several lines of dragons, all of whom had probably detected Hiccup's absence from the center of the mountain. Her presence had choked off Stoick's voice.

His grip on Hiccup's arm immediately loosened. He dropped his heavy arm to his side and trod, slowly, slowly, as though in a stupor, toward the woman he had married.