XXVII.

Hiccup's heart dropped.

I wanted them to be together, he realized in a sudden moment of clarity. While the rest of his mind struggled to fathom what was occurring, this thought towered unwaveringly above an otherwise muddled storm.

Even if… even if Mom and I did get off to a bad start, I wanted…

I wanted my family to be whole.

Valka, however, stood stiff apart from Stoick, her response definite, not to be retracted. "Stop," she had said, when Stoick began to sing. "It can't be."

Now Stoick's face smarted as though hit by a block of ice. In a way, he had, for Valka's words were just as sharply cold as the ice backdrop behind her. The creases under her husband's eyes sagged, and his irises shifted downward while his left hand dropped away from Valka's face. "Then you're continuing the war?"

"I must." Resolute voice, straight back.

"There's no possible way…"

"No. I stand with the dragons. And even now…" she summoned a haggard breath into her lungs "…I must prepare for a battle."

The dragons in the cavern seemed to shift at that last word, almost as though they knew the semantics behind it.

Stoick, contrastingly, seemed puzzled by Valka's latest expression. "Battle?" he reiterated, the inflection of his voice slightly raised in bafflement. Hiccup, still behind the two of them, frowned as well. What has she been up to while Toothless and I were resting?

"This morning I saw," she said tersely, "an armada of ships. I recognized the vessels. They're Drago's – the dragon trappers! In a day they'll be here to attack me. I must prepare to defend myself and the dragons."

"Valka, no. Sit this one out. We can reason it through –"

"An armada of ships, Stoick, heading straight at me? This has gone beyond the point of reasoning."

"They're here because of me."

And Stoick, in the following stiff silence, restated, "They're here because of me. Some of my men are amongst those ships. We came to –"

She cut him off before he could explain any of his motivations and reasons. Her rigid back tightened even more, arching almost like an angry cat's. Though Hiccup should have realized the change in his mother's demeanor sooner, he realized all at once she was not merely uncomfortable around Stoick in this conversation, but defensive, and increasingly, increasingly agitated, feeling as though she were being pressed. Or betrayed. "I should have seen this coming." Hurt crept over her features, metamorphosing her face from its earlier affectionate and sympathetic tenderness to an eerily frightening visage. "You brought guests? How… rude…" And her voice dropped off as she mulled over the news, a frown wrinkling her eyes into a pair of angry, hardened emeralds.

Stoick held up his hands cautiously. His words sought to calm his increasingly unsettled wife. "Slow down, Val. It's not what you think. They're here to rescue Hiccup, sent just as a precaution… Val. Valka… they have nothing to do with trapping dragons."

"He's right, Mom," Hiccup said, stepping forward at last, rushing up a slope of ice quickly enough he almost stumbled. Although Hiccup knew nothing of this rescue attempt prior to Stoick's statement, he knew his father well enough to make that claim nevertheless. He reached his parents, and, standing between them, said, "Dad wouldn't do anything of that sort. Don't get angry. Please. Believe me."

Her voice somehow sounded both heated and cold. Drawing out her words, heavy and regretful, but also with underlying ire, she proclaimed, "I've done far too much… of that… already. You're all very clever, aren't you?"

"Val –"

"And – and I fell right into your trap." Anxiousness contorted her words, increased their rate of delivery. "Distracted with heartstrings and false promises while your allies –" she spat out the word, clearly referring to Chief Drago and his men "– have crept in to destroy me."

"Oh, don't be so dramatic," Stoick protested. "You were the one who needlessly killed an entire company of chieftains that last time we saw each other. What was I to do except prepare for the worst? Look, don't you see? I first came alone for Hiccup. In peace. Don't start a war you don't have to."

"Everyone was in this all along," she said, clearly done reasoning with her husband, whirled her gaze toward her son. "And you –" she pointed at him with an angrily-thrown arm.

"Mom!" Hiccup tried to speak up, stating, "I know what you think. But – you're wrong. I wasn't distracting you so the armada could attack. Or – or – and – I – I wasn't setting you up. Look, you kidnapped me!"

She appeared not to hear him. "My own child! How could you."

"You're getting this all wrong." Hiccup reached out to touch her, to finally connect with her, his mother. She turned her back. Stepped away. He left his hand dangling and reaching out into empty space.

Valka continued backing toward the ensemble of dragons. Only when she had left both father and son far behind her did she turn around to glare. "Then help me kill them off, the trappers."

Hiccup could only stammer.

She pulled her head down before Hiccup could read the full pain in her eyes. She recognized the final rejection of her offer, her offer for the two of them to fly, fighting for the dragons' freedom together. And with great reluctance she determined, "You're just one of them.

"Unchangeable, unwilling to take a true stand and do what needs to be done. Just like everyone else."

And she turned and left the cave empty, taking every one of her dragons with her, leaving Hiccup, Stoick, and Toothless shocked and alone in the passage.