Heather Together Chapter 3

The entire town turned out to watch their new champion slay his first dragon. The crowds were gathering long before he entered the ring. They were in for extra doses of blood and fear, and they couldn't wait!

Hiccup couldn't decide whether he wanted to wait longer, or just get it over with. He had to cool his heels in the ring entrance ramp until the appointed time, and just that amount of waiting was killing him. He had to stand and listen while Gobber gave a little speech about the importance of dragon training, and describe how well each teen had done, for their parents' benefit. Then he had to endure the humiliation of hearing his father tell of his surprise that his son had succeeded at something, and hearing everyone else in his village laugh in agreement.

He heard something behind him. He was so keyed up, he jumped at the sound. It was only Heather. She looked worried.

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"Put an end to this," he said nervously. "I have to try." He took a breath. "Heather, if something goes wrong, just make sure they don't find Toothless."

He completely trusts me, she thought. I'm on the verge of selling him to the Outcasts, and he trusts me! It's a good thing I don't own a mirror; I'll never be able to look at myself again.

"I will," she said earnestly. "Just try not to let anything go wrong." He nodded. Then Gobber led him into the ring, turned back, and slid the portcullis down. She noticed that it slid easily, as though it was counterweighted; someone smaller than a full-sized Viking could probably work it if they had to.

She watched through the wooden bars as he donned the helmet that looked wrong on him, and selected a shield and a tiny dagger. He indicated his readiness, the great iron doors opened, and a large, flaming Nightmare Junior shot into the ring.

Its first thought was escape; it circled half the ring and jumped onto the ceiling chains before it even noticed the tiny-looking Viking standing forlornly in the center of the ring. It dropped to the floor and advanced on him, utterly unafraid. "Go on, Hiccup! Give it to him!" someone shouted.

Instead, he dropped his weapon and shield. The dragon looked at him, puzzled. He reached his open hands toward the dragon's nose. When it glared at his helmet, he cast that aside as well. His father shouted something, and Hiccup shouted back at him – she'd lived in his home for days, and she'd never heard him so much as raise his voice to his father before! What was it with this boy and dragons?

In a moment, it no longer mattered. Stoick slammed his hammer onto the safety bars, the noise startled the dragon, and it instantly turned on Hiccup.

Something came over Heather; she could never say quite what it was. The portcullis was heavier than she expected, but she was suddenly working on an overdose of adrenaline. She heaved upward, and the gate slid up, just far enough for her to wriggle under it. She got into the ring just as the dragon was preparing another fire shot at Hiccup. "Hey! Dragon! Shoot me!" she shouted. The dragon spun its head toward her, and did exactly what she asked. This wasn't your best idea ever, she thought as she dropped to the stone floor. The fire passed just over her – she could feel the heat – and coated the wall behind her with flames. The Nightmare saw that it had missed, and turned to chase her.

"Over here!" called a powerful voice. She ran without looking back, and just made it into the exit that Stoick had opened, before another squirt of dragon-fire blocked the way against Hiccup. He turned back... and the dragon pounced on him. She closed her eyes, covered her ears, and turned away in dread.

The muted sounds that reached her ears now were not the sounds of human agony. They were the sounds of two dragons fighting. She dared to take a look. Toothless! How did he get here? He was protecting Hiccup, fighting against the much larger Nightmare... and winning? She held her breath as the huge animal tried twice to get around Toothless to get to Hiccup, and twice, the black dragon fought it back. After those two attempts, the Nightmare gave up trying.

That was the Vikings' cue to swarm the ring. Toothless sent three of them flying, and nearly killed Stoick before Hiccup called him off. A moment later, the horde of Vikings had pinned Toothless' head to the floor and immobilized him.

Now, instead of a raging dragon, the rage was all in the eyes of the chief as he glared at his son.

When he dragged Hiccup away, she followed at a distance. She couldn't hear what they said inside the Mead Hall, except it was loud and angry. Then, suddenly, the doors burst open and the chief strode out, bellowing, "Ready the ships!" He blew past her without even noticing her existence.

She stared, fascinated, as the village emptied itself and all its weaponry into its fleet of ships and sailed off beyond the horizon. It only took a few hours; it was as though they'd practiced it before. It wasn't until the last of the ships was almost out of sight that she realized – Hiccup hadn't come out of the Hall yet.

Inside the Hall, she found him lying on the floor, nearly in a state of shock. She knelt beside him to help him sit up. "Hiccup, what happened?"

He looked at her in the semi-darkness, his eyes two pools of pain. "I've been disowned," he half-sobbed. "I've been kicked out of the tribe, and they took Toothless."

This is it, Heather. This is your big chance. Don't blow it.

"You mean you have no place to go?"

"Nowhere," he sighed.

"That's not right!" she exclaimed. "Someone like you ought to be recognized and honored, not punished!"

"Yeah, that's what I thought once," he said sadly. "Now there's nobody who's ever going to think anything good about me."

"What if there was somebody?" she asked, resting a hand on his shoulder. "What if there were people who wanted what you have to offer?"

He stared at her, incredulous. "Like who?"

"I could take you to them," she said with a reassuring smile. "In six days, a boat is going to come. We could sail away and take you to a new life."

"A new life with who? The Berserkers?"

"No, not them. There's a Viking named Alvin, and he –"

"Alvin?" Hiccup burst out. "You want me to join the Outcasts? I'm no Outcast!"

"Actually, you are," she said, as soothingly as she could. "Your own tribe has rejected you. Your own father has rejected you! You don't owe them anything anymore. Alvin can make you somebody! He can offer you honor, recognition, power, whatever you want!"

He looked at her; she could not read his expression. For a moment, she thought he was thinking it over. Could it be that easy? But then he shook his head slowly. "I can't do that," he said. "They're still my friends and my family, no matter what they say about it. I can't just turn my back on them because they've turned on me – that would make me just like them! Besides, if I turn on Berk, I know I'll never see Toothless again."

"Then don't turn on Berk!" she exclaimed. "With Toothless, you could depose Alvin and become the dragon-riding chief of the Outcasts! Imagine – a whole tribe, doing what you say! Think of the good you could do!"

He laughed bitterly. "Yeah, sure. Me, the chief of the Outcasts. I can see it now. 'All hail Hiccup, our thin, muscle-free, accident-prone Chief!' I wouldn't last a day with that bunch."

Then his expression hardened. "What's your angle here? Are you working for the Outcasts?"

Play it smooth, Heather, or you'll lose it all, she thought.

He trusted me and I've betrayed him, she thought back.

Make up a clever story and maybe he'll give you another chance.

She looked in those green eyes again, and her resolve faltered, then failed completely. Her game and her plans had failed as well. All that was left was simple honesty, and that never worked. It was over.

She turned away from him. "Hiccup... I'm sorry. I've been keeping the truth from you. There were no pirates. It was the Outcasts who captured my family. They're holding my parents prisoner until I give them something that will help them take over this island. The only thing I could offer them was you." She was trying not to cry.

"Me? Why me?"

"Can you imagine the Outcasts storming ashore, with you and Toothless flying overhead, flaming everything and everyone in sight? You could have made Alvin's dreams of conquest come true! He would have rewarded you for that – money, power, honor, whatever you wanted... if only you'd fallen for my story."

She turned back and forced herself to look him in the eyes. "I was ready to deceive you, to sell you, to use you, to do whatever it took to get my parents back! But... you're just too good! You're too honest, you're too trusting. No one ever trusted me like that before." One stray tear rolled down her cheek. "I can't do it! Doing that to you would be too high a price to pay, even for my family. I would have done it to Snotlout or any of the others without hesitating... but I can't do it to you."

She turned away again in utter despair. "So now you know what a liar I am. You'll probably never talk to me or trust me again, and I wouldn't blame you. I've failed, thanks to what little conscience I have left. Go find your destiny, wherever it is, and I hope it's a good one. I'll try to think of something else, before I run out of time."

She heard him stir. After a few seconds, he laid his hand on her shoulder.

"The first thing we'll have to do is get Toothless back."

"We?" That stunned her into silence for several seconds. At last she found her voice again. "You make it sound like I'm part of your plan."

"I need you to help me, Heather. You're smart, you're brave, you think fast... I can't do this alone."

"I also lie, manipulate, and deceive!" she exclaimed, turning to face him again. "How can you possibly trust me? How could you want to?"

"I'm just that kind of a guy, I guess," he shrugged. "I get this feeling you're done playing games, and I'm about to meet the real Heather. I think I'll like her. I hope she sticks around for a while so I can get to know her."

She revised her opinion about how simple honesty never worked. His simple honesty was working great on her! Her strong façade crumbled; she flung her arms around him, unable to hold the tears back. "After everything I meant to do to you, how could you...?" she sobbed.

"If you knew how many times I've messed things up, you wouldn't feel so bad," he said. He held her, somewhat awkwardly, until she got herself back under control.

"You said we need to get Toothless back?"

He nodded. "He's a Night Fury. I can't think of anything else that could save my tribe, and he also might be able to help save your parents."

She gaped at him in dumbstruck silence for several seconds. Finally, she managed to ask, "How are we going to do that? Your ex-tribe is sailing away with him right now!"

He shrugged. "Eh, there must be something stupid I haven't tried yet."

"No offense, Hiccup, but I think you used up your quota of 'stupid' back in the training ring."

"The training ring..." he murmured to himself. A glimmer of light shone in those green eyes. "In that case, I'll try something crazy." He left at a run.

You may need more help than just me, she thought. We've all seen how much help I can be. You'll need some real friends. She left to find the other teens.