Watch the epithet …

Berkian Eddur - 2

Winter in Líf's Holt

Chapter 7 - Thundering Crash

When a tree falls it resounds with a thundering crash; and yet a whole forest grows in silence.

― Jocelyn Murray

Thuggory was stretching, chatting amicably with the best friend who he'd missed terribly in the last months. They'd only met a few times in their childhoods, always on the Things when their parents brought their whole families along. When Hiccup's mother had gone, Stoick had stopped bringing the boy with him after a while as there was no one to watch him during the talks, and so their relationship had been cut short. That is to say, Hiccup had been with him, one last time; but then Cami had had one of her crazy ideas, buildings had gone up in flames, beards had been seared off, and Hiccup had sighed and stepped forward to take the blame for all of them, cringing from his father's eyes the whole time. Thuggory had never known he could admire someone as he did the skinny twelve-year-old that day. Then, when he'd discovered who 'Cattongue' really was, he'd been overjoyed to have his friend back, and since he was a smashing smith, he had no problem convincing everyone to let him stay on Freezing for months at a time. It had been glorious - though he did wish he could have managed to make him get drunk more than that one time - but it had spoiled him. Now he was pining for Hiccup time, and Heather even got jealous sometimes.

What can you do? A bro was a bro. Hiccup was his battle brother, nothing in the world could change that.

They'd been exchanging quiet words - Hiccup was listening to news of Heather's pregnancy, and although Thuggory was embellishing the little that had happened to date as much as he could, and Hiccup probably knew it, the smile on his face wasn't any less wide.

"WHAT?!"

Hiccup and Thuggory stopped short, just at the door of the great hall. What they saw in front of them was not very encouraging for the start of the official talks. Cami was standing in the middle of the room, hair a-tangle despite the hours that had elapsed since their wild ride to the skies which should have been used to change into their formal clothes - which everyone else had. The Bog heir's posture was rigid as a steel pole, her fists clenched at her sides and her eyes blazing even wilder than her blonde mop.

"What do you mean," she hissed, "Tuffnut's intended?"

The barmaid swallowed hard, cringing away, but she stood up straighter and hugged the wine jug to herself as if it could protect her from the furious Bog woman.

"I mean exactly what I said. Tuffnut's intended bride," she said back angrily, her cheeks going slightly red to match her hair. Thuggory winced as Cami's hands went to her sword hilts and she started breathing heavily, her chin jutting out in an almost murderous angle.

"Oh boy," Hiccup said beside him in an anxious voice that heralded disaster. With a bitten lip, Hiccup signalled first to Snotlout, then to Astrid.

"Lauga!" Snotlout said, taking the red-haired barmaid by the shoulders and turning her away bodily with very little effort - she was honestly a petite little thing, bird-like and short. Snotlout looked like a giant next to her, so carting her off was no problem.

Cami, on the other hand…

"I'll kill her," she hissed. "I'll open her gut while she breathes and make her wear her entrails as a bridal crown!"

"Cami, not here," Hiccup hissed back, obviously trying not to wince as her elbow dug into his belly. Astrid did not appreciate her man's rough treatment, apparently, and grabbed her by the arm, twisting it and frog-marching her out. "Our hall," he called after her. Hiccup looked back at Stoick, who nodded, and the shot out after them. Thuggory was about to follow when Dogsbreath walked up to him.

"It seems like a crises has happened," he said in a low voice. "Does Hiccup need any help?"

"No," Thuggory said at once, a frown slamming down on his face before he could stop it. "Certainly not from blabber-mouths."

Dogsbreath's normally blank faced twitched. "Look…"

"No, there's nothing to look at," Thuggory replied, his attention switching between the fellow heir in front of him the the door to the Hall. "Hiccup trusted you, like he trusted us, and you went and told your dad at the first chance you got?" He shook his head, his anger suddenly rooting him to the spot despite the urgency he felt to follow his battle brother and sister. "And I introduced you two! No offense, Dogsbreath, but I'm really glad I haven't told you anything important. Ever. And by Forseti, that's a promise."

"But," Thuggory felt momentarily guilty at Dogsbreath's genuinely confused and hurt expression; for someone who was usually so careful and reserved in putting his features about his face blankly, there was something to be said about the impact of a twisted mouth and eyebrow. "We are heirs … doesn't our first duty come to our chief and our people?"

"Within reason, Dogsbreath," he replied, folding his arms. "If one of your allies - your friends - confides a secret with you in an unofficial manner, that remains a secret. If a friend's in need, you help out. Unless your tribe or your chief are in danger of being smoked out of house, home or life, you don't just go blab. We're not chiefs yet, we can afford some cordiality between us and - Hel! - I'm sure there's more than enough informal agreements between the chiefs. You'll make a fine mess of it, if you bring every single tiny thing in front of a room full of people all with their own agendas!"

Dogsbreath bit his lip, still looking promisingly and openly confused.

"I have to go," he nodded towards the door, already turning to leave. "Family business."

He didn't look back to see how that particular punch landed, but he sure hoped it landed somewhere tender and painful.

He'd obviously lost them by the time he rushed through the Hall doors, and it took more than a little asking in order to be pointed towards the forest by an endearingly smiling man with a bucket on his head. Obviously, Hiccup's hall had possibly been in danger of being destroyed, so that plan had changed. It was encouraging that they had not taken the dragons.

By the time he arrived - following their voices among the trees - Cami's face was botched red, and her eyes were redder. Thuggory didn't dare think what could have reduced the normally indomitable woman to this point, but he wasn't going to just stand by.

"We'll look into it, Cami, I promise," Hiccup was saying, holding the Bog Woman by the shoulders. The look she had in her eyes was wild - wilder than usual - and Thuggory almost hesitated to step forward, but he simply couldn't not.

"What can I do?" he said as he broke the line of trees. Cami turned her wild eyes on him, too, and for a second he thought she would either attack him or burst out into … whatever had made her eyes so red again. Then Astrid's hand landed on the other woman's shoulder, and Cami snapped to her.

"Let's go kill trees," Astrid said with resolute severity - not as warning or restraint, but almost as if to say that the Berk woman was on her side. Thuggory's heart twisted - of course they were on her side. What on earth was happening?

"Thuggory," Hiccup said, just as seriously as he carefully let go of Cami's shoulders and let Astrid take over, tucking the shorter girl into her side as she brought a beautiful new axe out and clanged the head against Cami's double swords. A moment of silent communication passed between Hiccup and Astrid before the Hooligan heir ripped his eyes to Thuggory again. "I need your help."

"Don't you go tell him!" Cami suddenly snapped, turning and trying to twist out of Astrid's grip. The taller blonde held on.

"Why not?" he asked, hurt and offended. "If I can help, I will."

"You will," Hiccup said, "but story time is going to have to come later. Cami can tell you herself when she's not that upset. Enough to say for now that she has good reason to be." Hiccup looked at Cami again "And we'll help her." Thuggory nodded emphatically. He'd be damned to wash Hel's rotting teeth for eternity before he left them in a moment of obvious need.

"What do you need me to do?"

"The ships from Hopeless are here, and the ones from TrollGuts tribe have been spotted on the horizon. They planned on starting the talks this morning, but I need you to go in there and make a fuss about how your wife is not here, and it is not fair that all the other heirs have their… spouses or future spouses there…" for some reason, Hiccup lowered his voice at the last bit, throwing a worried look towards the women. Cami was glaring daggers at him, and Astrid's grip on her had gone white-knuckled. "Say that in the name of fairness, the other ships from Freezing before the official talks can begin. Try to delay as much as possible, and if they ask where we are … say that you saw us go down to the docks, to greet TrollGuts ships."

"If they follow down there, and there's no one?"

"I'll be down there in a moment." He gave Astrid a fleeting look, almost begging. She gave a sullen nod and Hiccup looked relieved. "Cami can have the privacy of the woods with Astrid. I'll just say that … that… Cami went up to give Astrid a hand with the preparations. Because it's not fair for great warrior women like her to suffer on her own with horridly boring domestic chores."

Thuggory didn't know how he did, but Hiccup surprised him every time. Astrid gave him a look Thuggory was familiar with - fond and exasperated - while Cami actually snorted wetly and consented with a reluctant nod.

"The things are done," Astrid said, her voice reflecting her eyes. "So that's us covered. Go; you're intruding on 'great warrior woman time' here."

"Yeah," Cami said, none of her usual fire in her tone. "Go 'way."

Thuggory grimaced, looking at Hiccup, who slapped his arm.

"Go the the Hall, Thug. Make some diversion, please. Stall. I'm going to the docks right away." One last look at Astrid. "We need to keep this quiet as long as we can. I'm going through the books."

"You'll tell me, right?" he asked the clearing in general and Cami in particular even as he was moving away.

"Yeah, just not now," she replied, rubbing her eye with the heel of her hand, tapping her sword in the other one. She leaned, subtly, into Astrid, and the taller girl gave her a worried look. "I've got trees to kill with my sister here, right now."

They nodded and turned. "Oh, and Hiccup?" They both turned again to find Astrid looking at Hiccup meaningfully. "Send Ruff up. And my mum, if you can find her." Cami made to protest. "Trust me."

Hiccup nodded. "Always," he replied, though Thuggory was sure he knew the last request wasn't aimed at him. He turned away before he could see Astrid's eyes lingering on him.

"Is it bad?" he asked the moment they were out of earshot. He knew from Hiccup's frown that it was - and it was utterly terrifying to see Cami's eyes look like that - but a part of him simply couldn't rest. He wished his dear sharp-minded wife was there. Then again …

"It can be. It doesn't have to be." Hiccup said, and Thuggory nodded.

Then again, Hiccup was obviously already thinking about it, if his steady eyes and churning jaw said anything. Thuggory couldn't help but feel slightly odd; here was a man who was younger than him, admittedly still slightly scrawny by Viking standards, though he was tall. And yet he was handling this situation like a chief already, while Thuggory was feeling way out of his dept. He wouldn't have been able to handle Cami like that, whatever was wrong with her, and he knew it.

It made Thuggory very, very glad to have backup like Hiccup. And he'd be damned before he let down his battle brother.

"I'll keep them as much as I can. Initiate a full-blown fight if I have to," Thuggory assured him as they broke the trees into the village grounds.

"No wars, you hear?" Hiccup said, only half joking, eyes already flitting about and looking for the two women Astrid had requested.

"It will be an epic battle of well-aimed chicken legs," Thuggory said, receiving a pat on the shoulder as they went their separate ways.

He only hoped that, whatever this was, it wasn't as bad as to start anything with well-aimed spears.

=0=

Fishlegs was more than a little perplexed at Hiccup's request earlier, but he couldn't say that he minded. With the construction of the temporary halls for the visitors over, their work had lulled, and while he did enjoy time at home, Ruffnut sometimes couldn't resist the urge to hog-tie him to a post to keep him from getting in her way while she violently beat the domestic chores into their rightful place.

The room of records was at the back of the hall, and Hiccup had begged his father permission to let him look for something there. Hiccup had vouched for his trustworthiness ("Dad, he's not 'the wise' for nothing") and it made Fishlegs feel on top of the world. It wasn't like he could hear much of what was going on in the hall from the back room anyway, even with some of the preliminary talks going on again - which everyone had been tacitly informed to keep their pie-hole shut about when the other tribes arrived. Fishlegs was happy that Mildew kept away from the main village when a Thing or Snoggletog or any other happy celebration took place, because he sure as heck wouldn't have kept his mouth shut, and there would have been a war. He'd been there only a few days ago, bartering for supplies, growling at everyone.

Because Fishlegs was far from stupid, and he knew that the chiefs weren't tiptoeing because they were worried about the other tribes' feelings.

But right now, the booming, indistinct words from the Hall were secondary in his attention to the clear-cut, black-on-white words in front of him. Hiccup had instructed him to look into the Viking law of the allied clans, and he'd surprised him when he told him to look for certain article numbers off the top of his head, and then Fishlegs had found them to be relevant to one another. Hiccup never stopped surprising him.

Still, he thought as he turned the pages of the fifth tome, taking notes on some scrap parchment, the subject of these searches were worrying, and didn't bode well at all for Hiccup and Astrid's happiness. There were just too many worrying signs already that their relationship was strained, but this just proved it; if Hiccup was looking into these things, then there was a serious case of worry-worthy events set on the verge of taking place.

Fishlegs continued taking down notes, copying entire sentences when they were relevant, and frowning at the parchment. All of this tended towards the same thing, the same general subject, and each one of the articles Hiccup had pointed out (with request to look out for any other that he may have missed) dealt with the same subject.

He was going to have to talk to Ruffnut, ASAP. His first instinct was also to talk to Snotlout - he'd taken a really good guarding role in Hiccup's life recently, and it had done him well. But Snotlout also had a big mouth, and there was danger in that. That Hiccup had asked him to do this during meetings, so no one could interrupt him and see what he was doing, made this particular search private - and maybe dangerous. Well, it was certainly dangerous to a certain blonde friend of theirs if it was uncovered. Everything about her status in the village would put in question, and she could be left with nothing but the clothes on her back and her shield on the wall.

And what was Hiccup thinking anyway, Fishlegs huffed, taking his pipe and the smoking weed out of his pocket and holding it to his candle. He was pretty serious when he asked Fishlegs yesterday, though, after he literally dragged Ruff away to tell her to go to talk to Astrid in the woods. It was odd but not worrying at the time - Hiccup had said something about Astrid needing help to de-forest all of Berk with the Bog heir - but now that took on a new light.

Why was Hiccup sending women up to deal with Astrid killing trees, and asking Fishlegs to look into all … all this material unless they'd fought? Astrid hadn't looked upset this morning, but then Astrid was a warrior - she could put her fighter face on and deal with it. Hiccup had looked upset. In fact…

Fishlegs stood, stifling a moan as he realised how stiff he'd become, and moved towards the curtain separating the small records' room from the main area of the Great Hall. He moved the leather curtain slightly and spotted Hiccup right away. His brown hair had gone considerably lighter since he'd returned, hues of red and blond traversing the now-hazel strands as the light from the fire shone on it. He was sitting up straight, back tense and upright, eyes narrowed as he listened attentively, and left leg jiggling nervously under the table. Astrid, on his other side, was conspicuously absent.

Fishlegs was about to turn away when someone banged on the table, making him jump and almost swallow his pipe. He smoked some of the new weed they'd brought from across the waters. A lot of the men had started smoking the dragon-nip long grass after Hiccup had revealed it's properties and effects on dragons, and it had a nice, mellowing effect on men too. But this new black stuff tasted better.

He tried to distract himself with the weed - he honestly did - but even the echo-y acoustic of the room could not stop him from cringing at the loud booming voice of Stoick the Vast sounding angrier than he'd been in many, many years.

"You take that accusation back," he said in a dangerous hiss. "Or the treaty between our people is null and void!"

Fishlegs had to cover his mouth with his fist, then fumble to stop his lit pipe from clattering to the ground. That was not a threat Stoick would do just … just like that!

And this was the first day that the talks had officially started.

"It's true!" a man Fishlegs didn't recognise said, crossing his arms. By his armour colour and the type of fur he wore, he was from the UglyThug tribe. "It really is a chokehold that Berk will have if all the dragon training happens here."

"What say you to this accusation, Wolftooth? Your General is speaking out of turn, and you are letting him proceed. Am I to understand that you are behind him?"

"Slightly, but not completely," A man to the left said, and Fishlegs tried to angle himself to see, but could not. The tone of the man was placid, however, and betrayed nothing to neither the room nor Fishlegs' ears. This seemed to irritate about 80% of the people present, and Stoick went a shade of puce that he'd never seen before, even when the twins had set a portion of the forest alight to celebrate and protest Ruff's engagement to him. Fishlegs winced as he looked back at the documents he was researching - Hiccup was not going to protest that overtly, it would seem.

"Then you're a cowardly dog, Wolftooth," the chief of the Bogs said in a voice that was none-too-gentle. "The arrangement that is being offered will be beneficial to all the tribes. I thought this discussion was concluded the moment the proposal was made, because it was ideal."

Fishlegs felt a shiver go down his back as he felt the atmosphere in the room suddenly become cutthroat. His eyes meandered over to Hiccup, who was sitting there silently and stony faced. The only sign of nervousness he was showing was his jiggling leg, and that was invisible to anyone in the room who wasn't at the angle Fishlegs was. Still, his friend looked remarkably in control, and from his eyes he could see that he was thinking very hard - he sort of looked like he did during the battle of the Red Death.

"You did not let me finish," the chief of the UglyThugs said, still in his jarringly calm voice.

"Then finish and hurry up about it," another man said, also invisible to Fishlegs' eyes; but he knew that it was Thuggory's father from the slight slur. "We're with Stoick on this one, and I'm beginning to lose my patience."

"Very well. All I meant is - and I'm sure my General meant the same - is that it will be a strain upon Berk's resources. We should help there."

Ah, Fishlegs felt the room almost breathe a sigh of relief. Obviously, the only ones who weren't happy about this were the UglyThugs. Because one of their generals had said something rather stupid, they were going to have divide their resources to make up for it.

"I expect an apology from your General," Stoick said, still standing.

"Of course. Go on, Sockpaste. Please address the meeting now, with an apology."

"I do apologise. I was only voicing a concern." Fishlegs still couldn't see the man, but he sounded sheepish. Stoick seemed to relax, rolling his shoulder and sitting with a wave of his hand; again, the room breathed easier.

"You're young. You'll learn," Stoick said as a way of accepting his apology. Fishlegs sighed silently - my, he wasn't going to enjoy this when his father passed the seat on to him. He'd almost had three heart attacks!

"Does anyone else wish to vote against this solution?" Stoick said. "Bile, Footsore; do you find it satisfactory?"

"Well, I don't see why not," a man with a forked, braided beard said, stroking one braid with each hand. "Son?" He turned to a man beside him, who looked just like him twenty years younger, down to the shorter, blacker braids swinging from his chin.

"Eh," he replied with a shrug. "It'll benefit us. Help against Outcast attacks too. Those bastards have been getting bold since the dragon raids stopped."

"Aye, and it's good to know we owe it to you," his father replied, raising a keg.

"Thank you, Footsore." Stoick replied after he gave Hiccup a look, and Hiccup shook his head subtly. Why hadn't he answered?

"We may have a bit of a problem with that," the other man answer. Fishlegs moved slightly, angling himself to see. This other chief - obvious Bile, of the Hopeless tribe, was tall and somewhat thinner than the other men, but the two maces hanging from his back seemed to say he wasn't one you screwed around with, "I do not see a disadvantage with the dragons - We got a first-hand demonstration on how good they can be on your side." A nod towards Hiccup, who answered with a normal, bashful smile that pulled up a corner of Fishlegs' own face. "But Hopeless is tiny. We barely make enough to feed ourselves. We'd hardly be able to help Berk with supplies."

"Ah, that is true," Bertha said. "We know about your situation, Bile. As we put different numbers on the entries to Dragon Academy, we'll put different quantities on the help Berk gets. Hopeless only got two places - the help should reflect that."

"Fair's fair," Wolftooth said. "We're not really helping Berk, just feeding our own folk while they're here getting the free dragon lessons."

"Oh, Spit eats about as much as a bird anyway," Bile sighed, and he pulled a little boy out from behind him. The child, brown haired and blue eyed with a slightly scared look, barely made it up to the table. "Go on, introduce yourself," Bile ordered gruffly.

"H-Hi," the boy said. "I'm Spit, son of Bile, heir to the Slugsnot tribe of Hopeless." His voice was small and piping, and Fishlegs could only see him because the door to the record room was behind him. Had there been the table in the way, Fishlegs doubted he would have seen anything; the others around the table were probably only seeing his helmet.

Stoick gave a booming laugh. "Reminds me of my Hiccup, eh? But how old is your boy?"

"Eight," Bile replied, somewhat ruffling his feather.

"Ah, good; Hiccup's put that age limit on the dragon training. Don't want children too young about them - they're still fire breathing beasts, and they need to be old enough to take orders."

Bile relaxed. Fishlegs looked around the room again, and couldn't help but notice that Berta was sitting at the table alone, while Hiccup was there. Fishlegs had also seen Thuggory and Dogsbreath go in, so it was strange that the bog heir and Astrid were not in attendance, especially since the two Trollguts men both had a woman beside them - presumably, their wives. It made him think of Ruff's hurry to go out this morning; perhaps the women were hatching something. Perhaps he could run for the hills.

The meeting began to turn towards the individual dragon breeds that could be found on the various islands, and questions began to be asked to Hiccup directly, who always answered through his father, and Fishlegs suddenly realised why - if Cami was absent, it would put the Bogs at a disadvantage. Heirs had already spoken in the meeting, so they were already allowed to speak, but Hiccup was showing respect and solidarity in blaring fire-signs to the entire meeting and making the Bog Burglars an even stronger ally with the Hooligans. Smart.

Fishlegs peeled himself away from the leather curtain, sitting his behind back down onto the stool to keep going over the legal books. If Hiccup was looking as impatient as his jiggling foot suggested, he might want these right after the meeting, and Fishlegs really didn't want to let him down. Hiccup's plans, apparently, had become a lot more strategic, and Fishlegs hoped that what he was looking at wasn't something Hiccup would regret later.

=0=

Pieces of the puzzle…