Chapter Twenty: Taking Responsibilities
Kyra froze in midair as she saw the basin fill. She'd barely reached it when it did – she hadn't even been able to catch a glimpse of Hiccup and Astrid before the sea closed in on itself. The boat had been pulled over by the force of the water and came to a rest just beneath her. Slowly and far from steadily, Kyra came back down to the deck where she burst into tears in her father's arms. The Defenders of Berk came down to the deck with their dragons and stared in solemn silence at the area where the battle had taken place.
"They did it..." Heather gulped, tears flowing from her pale green eyes. "They did it..."
"They saved us," Fishlegs added. "The entire Archipelago."
The twins and Snotlout remained silent, knowing that they couldn't think of anything suitable to say in this situation. Artair also stayed quiet. He'd barely known Hiccup and Astrid, yet that didn't make the pain of losing them any less. Gobber removed his helmet and bowed his head in sorrow, as did Stoick and the others wearing helmets. Even the dragons lowered their heads in sadness and respect, none more so than Stormfly and Toothless, both distraught at losing their riders and closest human friends.
Kyra glanced up at her father and nodded.
"We should go home," she murmured. "They need to know."
Stoick inclined his head and gave the order for the ship to turn back to Berk. The sun was setting over the horizon, dying the sky all shades of red, pink and orange as the starlit night sky began to cast its silken darkness over the world but whereas the stars would usually bring comfort to the Hairy Hooligan tribe, or any traveller wandering the seas at this time of the year, this time they only seemed to stare coldly from their posts in the heavens as the team slowly sailed back to their home island.
Docking the boat and heading back up to the village, it only took the sheer silence and the absence of the leading members of the Defenders of Berk to tell the rest of the Hooligans and the Meatheads what had happened. There were times when silence spoke louder than words, and this was one of those times. Kyra held back from the rest of the group, standing on the top of the path that led down to the docks gazing out to the ocean as the sun dipped below the horizon. Artair stood next to her, placing a comforting hand around her shoulder – Kyra couldn't keep it in and buried her face in his chest, sobbing quietly as he tried to comfort her.
"It's okay..." Artair whispered, although he knew it was anything but okay. "Let it out."
Kyra, however, had already cried so much that she could no longer weep except in tiny streams that trickled down her oval-shaped face. She froze for a split second as she felt something warm come into contact with her head – Artair had just kissed her. Instead of recoiling, however, she hugged him closer until the sound of water spilling off a large body of something caught her attention. Her normal eye still bloodshot from crying, Kyra broke away from Artair and turned to face the bay, where a dragon resembling the High Diving Darkwing stood.
There was something different about this dragon, though. For one, it was smaller – maybe half the size of the Red Death Kyra guessed. Second, it's scales were a beautiful emerald-green dotted with silver that shone in the moonlight like diamonds in a torch-lit cavern. Its eyes matched the hue of its hide and were filled with wisdom, sympathy and even a hint of regret.
It was Ivor.
"Where did you go?" Kyra asked telepathically, still amazed she had any tears left in her. "Why did you go?"
"Their battle was not mine to fight," Ivor replied gently, resting on the cliff side and lowering his majestic head so that he was eye to eye with the Dragon Shifter. "But they fought bravely. You should remember that."
"I know they fought bravely!" Kyra protested angrily. "I might be human but I could still hear them. The fight was hardly fair on them from the start! The fire barriers stopped us from getting any closer and we couldn't fly fast enough to get them out of there when it was..."
"Maybe," Ivor admitted sadly. "There are things that even dragons cannot do. Reaching the speeds required to reach your brother and his beloved are impossible for a dragon...and therefore, regrettably you as well, Little Sister..." Kyra blinked in surprise at that. "...to achieve."
"Little Sister?" Kyra whispered aloud despite herself.
"Yes. As you said to me before, Lohikäärme lives within you and every Dragon Shifter before you. I believe it is only right to recognise that you are a little sister to me."
"That doesn't change anything," Kyra sniffed. "My brother and best friend are gone." Ivor chuckled. "What's so funny?" Kyra snapped out loud this time, too irritated with the God of Spirit to bother with telepathic communication anymore.
"I said the speeds required to reach them weren't possible for you and ordinary dragons to achieve," Ivor smiled slightly. "I never mentioned my own abilities." Kyra's eyes widened to the size of saucers and the pupil of her dragon eye dilated so much you could barely see the bright green iris that surrounded it.
"You...you mean...?" she stammered. "You actually...?" Artair caught her change in tone and his face lit up as well, as did the rest of the Vikings' especially the Defenders of Berk. Ivor slowly opened his mouth and out tumbled two figures, dripping wet from both seawater and dragon saliva and with expressions of relief, exhaustion and exaltation plastered onto their faces. One was a young woman, her blonde plait darkened to the colour of wet sand and her storm blue eyes clouded with weariness but at the same time sparkling with joy. Being supported by her was a young man, his messy hair darkened to a deep brown and stuck to his oval face which was scrunched up in a mixture of pain and happiness whilst his forest green eyes glinted in the starlight.
"It's them!" Heather cried out in joy.
"They're okay!" someone else cried out.
"How'd they survive that?"
"Who cares?"
"The dragon brought them back alive!"
Kyra couldn't contain herself and ran over, taking both her brother and Astrid in her arms. The two teens hugged the eighteen year old back as much as they could, most of their energy spent. Kyra's tears turned into tears of joy and both Astrid and Hiccup began crying themselves in a mixture of relief and happiness. Stoick also ran over and took all three teens into a giant bear hug ("Dad! Can't breathe!" Hiccup mumbled) as the village cheered so loudly you could have heard the celebrations from the Rookery. The dragons howled and roared in triumph and Toothless and Stormfly darted over to their riders, licking their faces until Hiccup and Astrid burst out laughing despite themselves.
They'd made it.
Kyra broke away from the bear hug to look at Ivor who'd taken on his human form once again(upon noticing the village bowed before him, as did the dragons having regained their respect for their one remaining god. Ivor asked them to rise almost immediately though). This time, her face had lit up so much you could have probably been able to find your way in the dark without a torch. Her smile stretched from ear to ear and both eyes – human and dragon – were shining in her delight.
"You brought them back," she gulped happily, her words barely making it out of her mouth. "Thank you so much."
"It was the least I could do after causing them so much grief," Ivor replied mournfully. Hiccup and Astrid broke away from Stoick and turned to face their saviour. If it hadn't been for Ivor's actions, they would have made their final resting place in the same place as Wavewing – miles beneath the ocean.
"Can't we put that in the past?" Hiccup croaked, wincing as his wound twinged again. Astrid was focused on keeping the bleeding (though minor compared to before) to a minimum. "Seriously – let bygones be bygones, you know?" Ivor let out a sad laugh.
"I wish it were that easy, Hiccup," he sighed. "Whilst humans live with their mistakes until their dying day, I have no such luxury." He paused. "I must live with everything I've done...forever." Astrid rolled her eyes weakly – her eyelashes were still heavy with salt.
"But that's just part of life, isn't it?" she pointed out, her voice raspy from all of the shouting she did earlier. "I mean, living with our mistakes if the only way we can learn from them – that way we can make amends." Ivor sighed.
"If I hadn't been so blinded before I might have been able to appreciate humans such as yourself, young woman," he remarked gently. "No doubt your Goddess, Freya may select you as a Valkyrie one day." Astrid couldn't help but flush with pride. "But there are amends that I cannot make...mistakes that I cannot rectify..."
"But that was before," Kyra argued. "Humans make mistakes that they can't fix too – you only need to look at what was going on in the world I was stuck in before for examples," she shuddered, remembering learning about terrible things humans had done in the past during History, one of the few subjects she could actually understand. "But that doesn't mean you can't start to mend what's broken. At any rate...she would have wanted you to try."
Ivor turned away for a moment and thought about things. It was true, what the teens had said. He couldn't run from his mistakes in the past, nor could he undo the damage they had done. His anger had destroyed his sister's life and his curse had taken three years of Hiccup's life that he could never have back. But he was still the God of Spirit and he couldn't shirk the responsibilities that now rested on his shoulders.
"It's ironic," he remarked. "Very often it is the beings of the mortal realms that turn to their gods, whether they be of Asgard or otherwise, to help. Yet here I am – a fallen god being helped by the very people whose lives he almost destroyed."
"Sometimes we need to look in places least expected for help," Astrid noted, darting a glance at Hiccup. "More often than not we just need to keep quiet and listen for a while." Ivor smiled despite himself and remained silent before walking towards the cliff edge.
"What will you do?" Hiccup asked hoarsely. Ivor turned back to face the young man whose appearance so closely resembled his own.
"Whether I feel ready or not, the dragons need me to take my sister's place," he replied sadly. "It may not be what I want anymore...but it is what I must do. Sometimes we have to face things that we don't want in life, but very often it is taking on the responsibilities we are given that help us make up for our past mistakes," he added. Kyra froze – her father had said exactly the same thing to her merely the night before. She could have sworn that sentence was aimed at her "Besides – I believe that the link between the worlds is in capable hands down here," Ivor finished, smiling kindly at Kyra.
"Why do I get the feeling you aimed that last statement at me? You know Dad said the exact same thing to me," Kyra huffed telepathically. Ivor chuckled.
"Sometimes one has to take an elder's advice into consideration."
"He's hardly your elder."
"I wasn't talking about me," Ivor replied plainly. He glanced at Artair who bowed in respect quickly. "It's alright, young man," the god assured. "I hardly deserve it anyway." Artair still avoided eye contact. Ivor turned back to face Kyra. "It may be your responsibility as the chief's daughter, but just consider if it is something more than that." Kyra flushed bright red despite herself, grateful for the cover the dark night provided. With that, Ivor leapt off the edge of the cliff, transformed into a Night Fury and vanished into the heavens.
Artair walked over to Kyra as the tribes and the dragons watch the restored God of Spirit return to his realm. He held her hand gently but remained quiet until Kyra spoke up.
"I'm sorry about before," she mumbled. Artair squeezed her hand in reply until grunts came from behind them. Turning around, Kyra snorted when she saw Hiccup being hoisted to his feet, battered, bruised, his prosthetic leg completely out of shape and his stab wound on the verge of causing him even more damage. Astrid was also being pulled along by the wrist by Gothi towards the Infirmary. Kyra jogged over and spotted some scribbles in the sand – everyone glanced over at Gobber.
"She said: Get out of my way – those kids need treatment."
"There's more than that," Snotlout pointed out. Gobber squinted and asked for a light which Kyra dutifully gave.
"She also says: Anyone who disturbs me for the next twenty-four hours is going to milk the yaks...no! Hold up – that means...uh: Clean the Infirmary and receive a blunt object to the head."
Knowing how surprisingly efficient the Elder was with her staff everyone made a mental note to keep away from the Infirmary.
Gobber still thought the last bit looked like someone milking a yak.
/\
"OW! Ow...ouch, ouch, ouch...YEOW!" Hiccup yelped as Gothi treated his leg. "That hurt..." Gothi scribbled something on the floor. Gobber stood by for translations.
"She said: If you'd stop squirming it wouldn't hurt as much," he remarked. "Also that you're more trouble than you're worth." Hiccup and Gothi gave him a look. "Okay, I made that last part up."
"Well, sorry for not being unconscious this time around," Hiccup replied dryly, wincing as Gothi's special ointment was smothered onto the stump that had once been his left leg. The stump itself had gone bright red and was one the verge of swelling so after replacing Hiccup's bandages around his chest, it had become Gothi's first priority. Nearby, Astrid was nursing a heavily bruised head, a broken arm, a dislocated shoulder and a broken ankle. It was the worst that Hiccup had ever seen Astrid come out of a fight.
"Look on the bright side," she mumbled through gritted teeth. "You're not on the brink of death anymore." Hiccup yelped again as Gothi began wrapping bandages tightly around his leg to stop it from swelling.
"That's the bright side?" he grimaced. Astrid would have shrugged if her shoulder hadn't been so painful. "Gods...can't someone at least knock me out or something?" Gothi clonked him on the head and scribbled some more dust patterns.
"She says that you're damaged enough as it is," Gobber translated. Hiccup and Astrid rolled their eyes – well, that was obvious but since when was Hiccup not spending his afternoons in the Infirmary, which at the moment was little more than a shack after the Weedsnake had burnt the old one to the ground before.
"Just think about it, though," Astrid winced as her head throbbed painfully and her ankle twinged. "At least we're off Stable Duties for an indefinite amount of time." Hiccup could only assume that was the one good thing about their conditions. "Maybe a Spring Wedding won't be too ideal," Astrid added. Hiccup made a face – he didn't mind if the wedding didn't take place in Spring. He just didn't want to make Astrid wait any longer than she already had. Wow...it felt like only yesterday that he'd let his feelings slip.
"Ah, don't you two worry your pretty little heads about it," Gobber chuckled. Hiccup and Astrid glared at him. "Kyra's getting everything sorted – also, if Gothi's skills are anything to go by, I'd say you should be fine by the time Devastating Winter is up."
Hiccup and Astrid didn't know whether to clap for joy or groan in frustration at Kyra's insistence one getting things done when people first said they wanted them done by.