Authors Note: I liiiiivvvveeee! :D Sorry guys! These last few days have been crazy! Finding time to breathe has been a struggle. :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Chapter 8: Heritage

(Heather POV)

Darkness. Cold. Wet.

Limbs tired, head aches, breathing hurts. Something under fingers. Cold. Shivering. Nothing.

Cold, lungs ache. Voices, muffled.

Cold.

Lungs ache.

"Whoa! There's a person right there!"

"I can see that you muttonhead."

"Can you?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah!?"

"Yeah!"

I cough slightly and everything regains feeling as I slip from half consciousness. There's no rain. Where am I?

I cough again this time water slips from the edges of my mouth, "Take it easy." A nasally voice commands.

I jump at the sound and snap my eyes open blinking at the sudden light. Shadowed sand lays around me on a beach water is lapping against my feet. The air is thick with the smell of smoke and sea water.

I sit up nearly collapsing backwards on my elbows again before a hand catches my shoulder. No! I couldn't have washed ashore the very island I was trying to leave! Right?

I rip away from the grasp and look. Two people stand in front of me. Identical twins I'd guess, fraternal, but identical. I cough a few more times and wipe water away from the edges of my mouth and the two watch me like I'm some sort of interesting bird; If they get to close, I'll flee.

"Wh-where am I?" I croak my voice come out as scratchy and hurts my throat as I speak. The two share a look before the one on the left speaks: "Berk."

Berk...Berk..Berk... I try to connect the name to an island, any island some sort of trading post but come up with nothing.

"Who are you?" The one on the right asks staring at me.

I bite my lip for a moment. I don't think I can trust them. Berk doesn't even sound like a real place.

"RUFFNUT, TUFFNUT!" A female voice roars and I turn my head in her direction as a young female teen and two boys run down the beach towards the two...Ruffnut and Tuffnut. "WE HAVE TO-" The female voice stops dead and several pairs of feet stop. My ears are ringing and it's almost painful.

It's cold.

"Who is that?" The same voice demands and I turn my head tirely to the person. A young blonde teenager stands in front of me, her bangs cover her left eye and her shirt is blue with a spiked skirt. Her head is wrapped in several bandages but the head injury doesn't seem to bother her. Next to her is the two boys, one of them is blonde, large and looks confused and concerned. The second is staring at me his eyes wide, his black hair is longer than the others but not as long as the blonds.

"Dunno." The first one answers and they all turn to look back at me.

"Who are you?" The girl asks and I bite my lip heavily for several long moments before releasing a breath.

"Heather."

"Heather?" The girl repeats.

"What happened?" The large boy asks. I look around myself for a moment at the wooden planks hanging around the beach spread out in no pattern. Most of the boat isn't even visible. My axe is still strung to my back but my hair is loose and still wet and hanging at my waist. I'm soaking and so is my horn and anything else from waist down.

"I crashed." I answer in the best motto tone I can.

"You're by yourself?" The boy asks again and I snort softly. I've always been by myself. I'm destined to be alone.

"I am." I say and get to my feet shakily. When I place pressure on my right foot my eyes squeeze shut in pain and I nearly fall forward on my face before a hand grabs my shoulders.

"Whoa. Looks like you didn't come out unscatched." The girl notes staring at me for a moment. "Come on," She commands and swings my hand over her shoulder and starts to drag me forward. My head is spinning to much for me to protest.

"Where are we going?" I croak.

"The village." The girl answers and after a moment she gives me a half glance, "Astrid." She says and I look up at her.

"What?"

"I'm Astrid. That's the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, then Fishlegs and Snotlout." She says jerking her head in their general direction as she calls out their names. Oh. Right. I shake my head slightly to clear my spinning vision and limb in sync with Astrid's brisk pace.

The two siblings move up on Astrid's other side. "So what was so important?" Ruffnut? Asks.

Astrid shakes her head, "Nothing. It was nothing. Heather, what island are you from?" Astrid asks turning her divided attention towards me. I hiss through my teeth softly as I press against my right leg a stab of pain running through my entire right calf.

"Tijina." I answer through gritted teeth.

"Tijina?" Fishlegs echoes, "That's pretty far from here."

"You don't say." I mutter visions of the water surging around me running through my head. I close my eyes and let out a long breath to calm myself. Note to self: learn how to swim before you make a break for it from this island. I don't have any plans to stay. If I do, Tijina might track me down. I have high doubts they'll actually come after me, but I'm paranoid.

I'm leaving as soon as humanly possible.

"So you crashed a ship into the beach?" Snotlout asks jumping next to me. I raise an eyebrow. It's that not obvious. I'm not in a talkative mood. I really wish everyone would just leave me alone.

"Unless it flew there itself." I grumble. Maybe this is all just a hallucination from when I got my head whacked against that log. I'm still in the ocean, drowning. But this feels so real, the pain racing through my chest and leg tell me that they strongly disagree with my theory. Gee, thanks.

"So later, I can give you a tour of the island. You and me. You know my uncle's the chief." He adds puffing out his chest as if trying to be impressive. Astrid rolls her eyes and I bristle slightly. I've had enough with chieftan children, related to the chief at all.

I take another glance around the teens, "So you're the heir?" I ask. No one pops out ot me as a heir or heiress. Nigra made sure everyone knew her position in the tribe. Snotlout rolls his eyes.

"No. My cousin, Hiccup is. But he isn't exactly around to…" Snotlout trails off a look of slightly panic racing across his face but it's quickly buried by a smug smile. Hic-cup? Hiccup. Sounds impressive. Wait. Is he dead?

"Where is he?" I ask and they all go silent, Astrid's face passing over with an expression of anger, hurt, and worry before it's quickly buried behind nothing short of emotionless. The silence is so thick if I dropped a pin, it would have hurt my ears.

"Not here." Astrid finally says through gritted teeth. The walk towards the village is painful and quiet. I think I've struck a cord unintentionally. Apparently Hiccup's fate isn't something they wish to discuss openly.

I wonder what happened to him.

We enter the village and I blink several times in shock. Half the buildings are burned or smoking and people are rushing through the town carrying long logs and tools repairing the ones that aren't on fire anymore. Arrows stick onto several pieces of wood, smoke feels the air and it makes my lungs ache worse.

This village recently underwent an attack. That much is clear.

"Astrid!" A voice shouts and a younger girl still topping me by age by at least five years shoves through two burly Vikings long bright red hair sticking up in all angles. "You're not supposed to be moving around. You're head injury isn't something to be taken lightly." The girl says and glares at Astrid.

The girl returns it with equal force, "There are more important things going on right now." She hisses and I almost want to pull away from her from how cold she sounds.

"Astrid." The woman argues, "I want you to lay down at least for today than you can proceed with your stunts." She says and Astrid's upper lip curls in annoyance but she doesn't protest. The girl turns and takes a step back in shock as she sees me.

"Wha-I-Whose this?" She demands gesturing towards me.

"Heather." Snotlout answers before anyone else can.

"We found her on the beach." Tuffnut -maybe Tuffnut- answers before the woman can open her mouth to speak. "Shipwreck."

"Oh," The woman mouths and stares at me with an almost pity. "Since my patient is gone-" She casts a hard glare at Astrid as she says this before returning her gaze towards me. "-I can take her. Come on."

The woman weaves through the streets with a commanding stride and Astrid has to practically drag me to keep up with her pace. My thoughts are a blurry mess and I can't fully process any before they run away again.

In all honesty it isn't making my headache any better.

I daze off slightly. My hand brushes over my horn and my thoughts turn to my parents. My birth parents. I'd never really considered my step parents to be them, more like a pair of guardians that didn't like me.

I don't have any memories of my parents beyond a few blurry memories. A pair of electric green eyes, red hair leaning over me. Booming laughter, a gentle voice and the horn. According to my guardians, it was given to me by my birth mother before she abandoned me. Leaving me on their island without so much as a note.

Even with that knowledge, it comforts me sometimes. But she she gave me up because she didn't want me. Nigra is starting to sound right. 'But I can see why. Who would want an abnormal freak for a daughter?' She's right though. My own birth parents didn't want me.

"Hey! Earth to sea girl!" The voice snaps me from my thoughts and I shake my head slightly looking up. The scenery is completely different. I'm in some sort of giant hall with tapestries hanging down ever fifteen feet or so. Several of the embodied signs match the one on my horn. Weird. To my left is the teens, on my right is a row of cots most of them empty but a few have sleeping maybe unconscious men and woman.

I snap my gaze forward towards the woman who yelled at Astrid as she stares at me for a long moment, "Snotlout, Fishlegs go grab the chief. I think he should know about her." The woman commands and the two scamper off leaving the twins, Astrid me and the woman.

"Tye." The woman says after a moment and holds out her hand for me to shake. I stare at it like it's grown another set of fingers. Tye, spotting the glance shakes her head slightly before pulling her hand back. "Right."

"H-Heather." I manage to gasp from my suddenly tight throat.

Tye stares at me for another long moment before she looks down and grabs a roll of bandages at my feet. My limbs feel suddenly frozen and I watch in an almost trance as Tye rips of my boot and rolls up the pant leg revealing a long bleeding and scabbed over scrape down the back of my calf.

I grimace and look down at my lap. My raven hair falls in front of my face and after a moment I let out a breath and gather the long strands pulling it over my left shoulder and begin to braid it.

"On the plus side, the salt water prevented infection. How long were you in the water?" Tye asks. She mutters the first part staring at my leg before looking up at me.

I shrug, "I'm not sure. I wasn't conscious for most of it." I admit.

Tye's eyes linger on me momentarily before she returns to wrapping my leg. I purse my lips and try to keep my focus off of the injury. I'm not sure how I'll get out of here. I can't swim and most of the island's fleet was destroyed, unless I plan on making a raft I'm as stuck here as the residents.

Tye finshes wrapping the gauze then turns to Astrid, checks her head cises the girl for wandering off and then walks off to tend to another patient.

The Great Hall's doors are thrown open and Fishlegs and Snotlout walked in followed by a large figure. He's seven feet tall in the least and is a standard Viking with bright red hair and a crazy beard with braids wound through the hairs. Snotlout and Fishlegs lead him towards me and as they walk forward I feel myself silently cowering under the man.

He's enormous, a single fist could probably snap all of my ribs.

Just try to stay on his good side.

"Heather, right?" He asks. His tone is gruff but there's a softer tone to it. As if he's trying his best to be patient with me. My words fall me and If I open my mouth the most I'll do is let it hang like a gaping fish. Instead, I nod.

"Stoick Haddock, chief of Berk." Stoick says and gives a brisk nod at his statement. "You'll probably be staying here awhile lass, our fleet isn't exactly in the best condition to take you home." He says and I shake my head a sudden fear grasping at my insides.

"I don't want to go back." I say quietly. My voice sounds ghostly.

Stoick stares at me for a little, this time it feels as if his deep green eyes will bore through my very insides. His gaze rests on my horn and his eyes widen for a long moment as he stares at it, I'm sure if he'd been holding anything it would have slipped from his fingers.

"Where did you get that?" He demands pointing towards said object. I look down at it anyway, pulling it off my belt and look up at him, "Did you steal it?" He questions his gaze serious and almost threatening.

"N-no."

"Where did you get it?" He repeats. What is with your sudden interest in my horn!? It is just a horn no a magical weapon.

"My mother." I answer trying to keep my voice steady but failing, "She gave it to me before setting my adrift at sea."

Stoick stares at me for a long moment, "Can I see it." He asks hesitantly. My fingers curl around the edges of the wood. What if he doesn't give it back. Then you'll make him give it back. I slowly give him the object and he flips it staring at the symbol engraven on the wood before looking up at me.

"I knew your mother." He says quietly and stares down at the wood not meeting my eyes.

I brush my hair back from my face, "You did?" I ask in surprise. I do have ties to Berk? How have I never even heard of the island then? Stoick nods and a small pressure begins to build up in my chest, similar to before I let the ocean grasp me however long it was ago.

I ignore it.

This is more important.

"Yes." Stoick says and then hands me back the horn his fingers brushing over mine for a moment. He holds my gaze so many emotions rushing through his gaze I can't place it down to just one, excited and hopeful would be my best guess. "She was my wife."

My thoughts skid to horrific halt. The pressure in my lungs fades to the background.

My ears ring, my heart skips a beat.

Wife.

My mother was his wife.

Stoick the Vast is my father!?

How do I know he's not lying!? What if this is some sort of joke!? But it's not...because the seal on my horn is on the tapestries around me. Berk. I have a family, a father...I'm not alone. I have a family.

I meet his gaze sucking in a breath releasing it shakily unsteadily and at that moment the pressure in my lungs becomes unbearable. I meet Stoick's gaze staring at him with shock as he gives me a soft smile.

"Welcome home." He says silently. The Great Hall is dead silent and I give a choking gasp my lungs starting to feel crushed, pressured and like a red hot iron bar is being pressed against them.

"I can't breathe." I gasp and my breaths come out as shaky and unfilling.

"It's alright, it's a lot to take in." Stoick says gently and I shake my head and the pain intensifies until I can't suck in air. I'm choking. I can't breathe. I'm going to die. Help! Someone help! My voice fails me and I hitch air for several moments before finally managing to gasp.

"I can't breathe!"

Authors Note: *Talks in a very official sounding voice* After a near drowing experience and you've 'got all the water out', you can still drown up to twenty four hours after because your body can still have some water left, stored in your lungs. :) Heather has learned this the hard way. Ah, science. Its amazing. :)

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