The Dragon Boy - Part 26 - When Winter Breathes Its Last...
Frostcup fanfic
Hiccup knelt at the ground. The cermony had been a short, honourable one.
Nobody knew Jack well enough to say that much about him, except Hiccup. He had told them about Jack- his three hundred years of solitude, broken by friendship, only to have his friends, and all his kind, killed.
He tried not to make it too sad. The kids were there. They were strong kids, and they'd known Jack just as well as anyone, so no one doubted their place to be there.
They'd decided against a traditional Viking funeral, even if he was a hero, burning him on a boat just wouldn't be right, and Hiccup thought it would be far more fitting to bury him, as an ice elemental should be buried, amongst the ice and snow.
They'd lowered the glittering ice casket down into the hole, and covered it with snow, it would harden overnight into ice. Which left the need for a marker. Hiccup had made something, a tribute to the last of the sky dragons. With Gobber's help he'd made an iron cast in the shape of a dragon. His dragon. They'd left it filled with water the night before the ceremony and when they'd finished filling the hole they placed the ice sculpture on top. Marking the passing of the dragon boy that had saved Berk.
Hiccup had stayed as the others had left, and now he was alone, he dropped the strong pretences he'd put up in front of the others. He spoke and acted freely without worry of appearing weak or childish.
"I promised. I promised everything would be alright. I promised you wouldn't ever be alone again... and perhaps you're not- perhaps you're sitting, somewhere, in Valhalla, with Tooth, and North, and all the rest of your friends. Maybe you aren't alone... but I am. I miss you, Jack... I miss you, and I'm not afraid to say it. You were like a brother to me, and- I just, I can't believe you're gone... How can fate be this cruel? How can the gods have treated you so badly? All you ever did was good, and yet... you lived while your first family died, and when you finally get a new one, you die to keep us safe. How- why? You didn't do anything- anything- to deserve that."
Hiccup paused for a while, tearless sobs wracking his body. Some Viking, he thought miserably.
As he sobbed, he realised something, Jack must have gone through this exact same pain, the pain of loss and sorrow, only infinitely worse. "How did you cope? How did you stand it? How did you suffer through this- this emptiness? How did you go through all that, it's..." Hiccup bowed his head, unable to continue.
He stared at the little white flower Freya had placed at the feet of the icy statue. A snowdrop, the flower of winter.
He continued gazing at it until, slowly, a memory- a fragment of a quote, a belief- presented itself to him in his mind. The words gave him a little comfort, but more than that- they gave him purpose. They gave him a reason to continue.
He looked again at the flower, such a small, simple thing- fragile, but beautiful. It wasn't a marker of death, to Hiccup, anymore, but a symbol of hope- of a brighter future- that things would be alright in the end.
He reached into his jacket pocket, and drew out a snow white, flat object, frost still stubbornly clinging to its outer edge, despite being wrapped inside a warm woollen jacket. Hiccup gazed fondly at the glistening scale, before placing it, beside the snowdrop, at the feet of the dragon guardian.
It was time to let go of the past. Jack would not be forgotten, he would make sure of it, but he would go forwards, into the future, using Jack's memory to guide him.
He muttered the words of that ancient belief.
"Though the lakes will crack, and the sky will weep, when winter breathes its last,
only from the fires of the sky, and the tears of the earth, do flowers come to bloom.
It is the way things are, winter falls so that spring may come again,
and the fiercer the flames, the more heartfelt the teardrops, the greater the flower that blooms." Hiccup knew he couldn't hope to be as bright or as brillant a flower as Jack had been. But he was determined to be the best he could possibly be. If Jack had fallen for him to rise, it was not going to have been for nothing.
Hiccup was a better person now, stronger in both spirit and mind, thanks to him. Jack had made him a stronger person, he was sure of it, and he was going to put that strength to good use, by honouring his memory, and making the future brighter for everyone on Berk.
For his family, and for Jack's family.
Hiccup turned, and walked away from the burial site.
"Toothless." He said, his voice no longer quivering, but steady and strong.
The black dragon slid down to join him, he'd watched the whole thing, but had known better than to interrupt.
He rubbed his head affectionately against his friend, understanding his loss. The boy placed a steady hand on his dragon's head.
"Let's go home, bud." He requested. The dragon rumbled in agreement, and stepped forwards to let him climb onto his back.
Hiccup slid his foot into the tail mechanism he'd invented oh so long ago.
He would carry on. For him.