Dragon Friend (sequel to the dragon boy) Chapter 14 - Life Savers
frostcup fanfic

Authors note: yep plot twist^^ so, answers then- here you go!^^ I hope you enjoy it! Please leave a review and I will see you tommorow with the beginning of epicness!

"Thank you, for saving my life." Valka told the Sky Dragon. Jack snorted, gently, blowing a breath of cold wind across her face. He remembered now, from all those years ago.

Hiccup looked at the two of them, confused.
"Hold on. What do you mean "save" her? Do you know each other?" He asked.
"Not really." Valka explained. "But your friend is the reason I tried to make peace with the dragons, rather than fighting them." She smiled. "If it weren't for him, I'd have just been another axe wielding dragon killer."

Hiccup could feel Jack marvelling at how much his mother had changed, and how big an impression he'd had on her, but he was no closer to knowing what in Odin's name they were going on about. The white dragon reached out into Hiccup's mind, to show him a memory.

Hiccup was no stranger to sharing memories with the Sky Dragon. They'd done it several times before, but it wasn't quite how he was used to it, this time. Things were, ever so slightly, blurred, and he couldn't see the edges of the scene.

He made out a frost covered, snow laden cove- no, not just any cove, Hiccup realised, THE cove. The same one he'd befriended Toothless in all those years ago. But it was different to how he knew it, not quite so old, and weathered.

He saw things as Jack had back then, looking across at a small, brown haired, human girl. They were both stood on a frozen lake. The background of the memory was blurred and vague, but Hiccup could see the girl's face with incredible clarity. Her eyes were round in terror, as she stared at the white dragon. Hiccup wasn't surprised.

As a kid he himself had been terrified of dragons. On Berk kids were taught to fear them, so there was no wonder she looked so scared. Why was Jack still there, then, if he was scaring her so? Then Hiccup realised, that wasn't the only reason she was scared.

She wore a pair of ice skates, that were cutting into the ice beneath her. It splintered and cracked, alarmingly.

It was just like what had happened with Freya, Hiccup thought, recalling how Jack had ended up plunging into the icy waters of the lake, after he'd saved her from this exact same predicament. In fact, he remembered, afterwards he said the same thing had happened before. Was this it? Was this that other time?

The girl was petrified. She couldn't have been more than ten, and- on top of the fact that she could fall through the ice at any moment- she was now confronted with one of her worst fears.. a dragon.

Hiccup heard Jack's thoughts from back then. Again, they were indistinct, like he was hearing them underwater. He realised the memory must have been an old one. Some of the details, like the background, had been forgotten, hence why they were so blurred. But the girl was crystal clear. He could remember her in great detail, right down to how she was trembling in her skates.

Jack's thoughts went something like:
"She's terrified... Can't let her fall in.. have to save her.. but I can't get anywhere near her... how can I calm her down." He lowered his head right down to the ice, trying to look as unthreatening as possible. He pulled in his wings, and crooned gently, hoping the sound would relax her.

She looked slightly confused at this display (shouldn't the beast be trying to kill her?) But, as she heard the humming, she did look like she was settling a little. Their eyes met. Jack tried to make sure his gaze was as soft and as reassuring as possible. Taking in this look of calm and concern, the girl seemed to realise: the dragon wasn't a savage beast there to kill her, it was there to help her.

As she realised this, a look of amazement and wonder appeared there in those hazelnut brown eyes. Why was that so familiar, to Hiccup? That wonder struck look, in those chestnut brown eyes... and then it hit him. He was looking at the ten year old Valka. His mother, terrified and nearing death, on the frozen lake he himself had nearly drowned in, whilst rescuing Jack.

In the memory, the white dragon took a step forwards, and little Valka gasped, snapped out of her reverie and on the verge of panic. She still didn't trust him, not quite. Jack paused, and started repeating calm, reassuring thoughts in his head.
'It's okay... everything's going to be alright... you're going to be fine... you're not going to fall in... you're going to be okay.' He repeated over and over again, willing her to get the message. He didn't know if it was having any affect, but she didn't seem to be shaking as much as earlier.

He tried to step forwards again, and, this time, she didn't panic. He leaned forwards onto the ice, as he pulled his hind legs forwards. The ice cracked beneath him. He froze, and the girl gasped again, this time fearful for the noble creature that was trying to save her.

Two more steps.

The ice creaked like a door with rusty hinges, and cracked in certain places.

Jack held his breath.

'Come on, a little closer... just a little closer.' Hiccup heard him thinking. Eventually, Jack close enough for her to reach him and him to carry her to safety. The web of cracks under the girls skates was an alarmingly numerous and intricate mess. Jack willed it to stay put for just a few more moments.

It split, and tilted nearly viscously to one side.

Obviously, it wasn't going to hold- he'd have to do the ice thing.

It didn't always work, and sometimes it went wrong- he'd caused numerous blizzards by accident, due to tumultuous feelings over the years, and he was certainly panicked now- but he had to try. Steadying and calming his thoughts as quickly as he could, he breathed onto the ice.

He felt it thickening beneath him, healing the split, and mending the cracks beneath the little girl.

She took an experimental step. Nothing happened.

And another. Still nothing.

Without wasting another second, she ran towards the bank of the lake, and didn't look back. But the ice hadn't thickened a great creaked, and occasionally shuddered, in a heartstopping way as she ran across it... but she made it.

Hiccup sighed with relief. Jack really had saved his mother. He saw her turn to him, smiling in thanks. Jack grinned in relief, and reared up, roaring at the sky in celebration.

But the ice wasn't that much thicker, and it couldn't cope with the extra weight placed on the two rear legs.

It snapped.

Jack ended the memory, before the water enveloped him.

He waited to see what Hiccup had to say about it.
'You said that happened only a few years ago!' Hiccup realised. Jack explained.
'Would you have believed me if I said it happened a couple of decades ago?' He asked, sceptically. At the time, Hiccup hadn't known about Jack's dragon side. No, he wouldn't have believed that a seventeen year old kid almost drowned over forty years ago.
'... and you said you were rescued?' Hiccup queried.
'I was.' Jack replied, showing him a quick image of a silhouetted stick. 'She broke the ice, and gave me a branch to haul myself up on. I could have never got out otherwise.' He admitted. Then something huge occurred to Hiccup.

'So, wait, if not for you... I would've never been born.' He realised. Jack was stunned silent- that had only just occurred to him too. He'd been stunned silent- now that was a rare occasion. He knew the feeling. If not for Jack he'd never have existed. If not for Hiccup, Jack, the last of the Sky Dragons, would've died in the snow... and from then on they'd continuously saved each others lives... They couldn't survive without the other it seemed. Fate had entwined them so closely it was near impossible to imagine one without the other. Alright that was both their minds, just, blown.

Valka stepped away from the Sky Dragon, still amazed to see him standing right in front of her.
"I always dreamed I'd see you again." She marvelled. "Although, I must admit, I never thought it would be like this." She said, gesturing the dragon, who turned into a white haired kid again.

Valka turned to Hiccup.
"I suppose I owe you an explanation..." She offered.
"It's okay. Jack's already shown me." He told her. Her eyes narrowed in confusion.
"But... how...?" She wondered.
"We're... sort of... I guess you could say, mentally linked... We can hear each others thoughts and stuff... He showed me the memory of what happened." Hiccup explained, realising how ridiculous it sounded, and how hard it must be to believe. But, then again, was it any weirder than the fact her son's best friend was a dragon who could turn into a human, and who appeared to be seventeen, even though that same dragon rescued her nearly fifty years ago?

As she took that in, Hiccup noticed Cloudjumper nodding, solemnly, at the Sky Dragon. "Thank you for saving my rider" Hiccup thought he was saying. Jack grinned, and nodded back.

"This... All of this is just so much to take in." Valka said. "My son, and a Sky Dragon, all in one day." She summarised. Was that all it had been? 'One day?' Hiccup thought, it felt like it had been forever.

"Not to mention the fact that your son has wings." Jack added, he still hadn't got over the awesomeness of that.
"Oh, I already knew about that." Valka told him. He turned astounded, and indignant, to her.
"What?!" He half shouted, demanding an explanation.

Valka chuckled.
"In the game of tag, earlier. He used it to fly away from Toothless, just before he got you." She informed him.
"You little cheat!" Jack turned to him in mock anger.
"Oh really, not like you've never done anything like it before." Hiccup accused, playfully.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Jack denied, grinning.
"Well, you only do it once- or twice- a day- all winter- for at least the last five years." Hiccup pointed out. The three of them laughed.

Even Toothless joined in after a bit, but then he suddenly straightened. Ears sticking up off his head. At the same time Cloudjumper turned his head in the same direction, eyes narrowed, nostrils flaring.

Hiccup spotted the dragon's strange behaviour first, and his confused look drew the others attention to it.

Jack's smile dropped, and he looked, with furrowed brows, in the same direction as the dragons.
"Something's wrong." He muttered, taking flight as the white dragon.

Hiccup and Valka climbed onto Toothless and Cloudjumper, and followed, concerned- the dragons seemed tense and nervous.

Suddenly, Hiccup noticed the land looked familiar.
'Hold on... this is back at the sanctuary.' He realised. He heard Jack speak in his mind.
'Of course it is, I steered us here after the fishing.' He explained. Hiccup relayed the message to Valka, who was looking ahead with a kind of grim determination. Whatever had the dragons on edge, had to be here at the nest- and that was definately not good.

Barely a minute later, Jack stopped and back winged in midair. Shock and horror radiating from him, in waves... and Hiccup soon saw why.

There, assembled in front of them, was an army. Thousands of men, and dozens of captive dragons.

Their catapults were all trained at the Alpha's nest.