"Are you crazy child?"
The question came from Caverna's father as they all stood in the village square around a bonfire, Eridor, Eleanor, Stoick, Helena, Astrid, Hiccup, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout were there too.
"I don't see why you care." Caverna told him as she held a wet rag to a cut in her lip; she had long since taken her dragon to the healers and then left her under the watchful eye of Toothless.
"Because, you're our daughter!" Brock suddenly thundered.
"And yet for the past few years you haven't paid attention to me." Caverna told him, she had remained the vision of calm right now. "All my achievements were given to Eridor, even though he does nothing but sit in his little throne in the Great Hall and watch."
"Do not say such lies of your older brother, Caverna; he does more for this village than any of you." Helena told her daughter, her voice becoming angry at how her son was being treated by his twin.
"Oh go and choke the pair of you, the two of you and your perfect son can go to hell." She told them, walking off, though she still looked quite calm. She soon made it up to her room, and she took off her leather top and lay it on her bed, with the knives set out on her chest of drawers, before she took off her shirt, and lay that on her bed so she was only in her leather pants and her breast restraints and she looked in her mirror at her scars that she had sustained over the years as well as the fresh cuts that she had received that night.
As she set about cleaning them, with a bowl of water that she found in her room and a rag, she heard a knock on her bedroom door.
"Yes?" She turned around to find Fishlegs stood in the doorway, his large frame took up the entire doorway and they both froze.
Caverna wasn't normally self conscious when it came to being caught in just her breast binds, but this time she dashed to her shirt and pulled it on.
"Fishlegs, sorry, I thought you were someone else..." She told him.
"Like who, Tuffnut, or Snotlout?"
"Please don't make me vomit, but no I thought you were Astrid." She told him, wincing as the shirt got stuck to the latest cuts.
"It's okay, you can keep your shirt off, and I'll help you clean them." He told her, he offered, and when she nodded and peeled her shirt off again, he moved to stand in front of her, and he used the rag that she had been using to clean the wounds.
"Thank you for this Fishlegs."
He looked at her. "You're welcome Caverna." He gave her a soft smile which she returned. They stayed like that, with Fishlegs cleaning her wounds in silence, and then he helped her to dress them in fresh bandages, before slid her shirt on over herself.
"You know, beside those scars, and your inability to have children, any man would be lucky to have you." Fishlegs told her.
"Thank you Fishlegs." She told him kissing his cheek, however, deciding to be brave, he turned around at the moment that she went in for the kiss and their lips ended up connecting.
At feeling the spark which came from the connection of their lips, neither one decided to break the kiss and they fell into it, Caverna sliding her arms around Fishlegs' neck to pull her closer as his hands settled on her waist.
They pulled out of the kiss pretty quickly as they felt someone watching them and they looked at the doorway, noticing Astrid standing there.
"Astrid." Fishlegs breathed, moving away from Caverna.
"Oh please, don't stop on my account, I just came to see how you were feeling Caverna."
"I'm feeling alright Astrid, Fishlegs helped me by cleaning the wounds." Caverna told her.
"I bet he helped." She told them playfully, causing Fishlegs to go beetroot, and for Caverna to gain a soft blush to her cheeks. "Anyway, I'll see you both for dinner?"
"You'll see Fishlegs, I'm going to go and spend some time with Snowcap." Caverna told them.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive." Caverna nodded, and the group headed outside, as there was a cry from near the food storage. "What's going on?" Caverna asked, before she took off running towards where the cry had come from, and what she found, made her freeze, just as it did for the rest of the village and Hiccup, Stoick and their friends.
Inside the food storage, lounging on an empty sack was Snotlout, there were discarded bones on the floor which had once been full of meat, and empty sacks of what had been fruit and grains, even the fruit baskets and the bottles of yak's milk and the bottles of mead were lying empty and discarded on the floor.
"Oh, hey guys." Snotlout shouted upon seeing his friends and he was obviously drunk.
"Snotlout, have you eaten everything?" Astrid asked.
"Yep." He smiled proudly and drunkenly. "But don't worry, they have more food."
"No we don't." Caverna told him. "This was our ration stock Snotlout, there isn't any more food left on the island."
"The boy had allowed us to starve!" Came a cry, and it was from the man that Caverna had spoken to earlier – Garforth.
At his voice, the whole village became a panic, everyone running around fretting about what they will do now since the winter was nearly here and now they had nothing.
"Everyone, please, just calm down." Caverna told them. "We still have the chickens and the yaks, they can just provide us with more eggs and milk, and we will survive the winter. I promise you."
"How, you so called saviours have eaten all of our food!" A woman shouted.
"They never meant to help us in the first place!" A man shouted, as the villagers surrounded Caverna, who had been forced to stand upon a block in order to stop people being too close for her comfort. From her new vantage point, Caverna noticed her brother who was stood leaning against a post, Lightning stood beside him, and he looked like he was just going to stay there, he didn't offer any assistance to his little sister, even though he could see that she needed it.
"Look, we can send all of them away now, the rest are going to help us, and they will, but Snotlout and his dragon can be sent home." Caverna told them. "He will be sent home tomorrow, when he has sobered up."
This seemed to please the crowd, who all left to go back to their homes, despite being starving and in need of food and Caverna sighed, her village was in big trouble and right now she was on her own, she was deep in thought as she looked out upon her village, so when she heard Astrid's voice, she jumped out of her skin.
"Caverna, you should go and rest." Astrid told her. "You have a fight to win tomorrow."
"I know." She sighed. "I'm just going to check on my dragon first, then I'll go to bed, you guys go and get some sleep though."
She then walked away, towards the healer's stable where Snowcap was lying on a stone which was raised off of the ground by logs and she looked fragile and weak as she slept with bandages wrapped around her wounds to try and stem the bleeding that remained through her stitches. Toothless was lying on his own raised bed, which the healers had kindly set up for him and he was watching Snowcap sleep, nuzzling her when he noticed any signs of discomfort. When he heard her enter, Toothless started to growl in warning, but was soon silenced as he recognised the scent.
"Easy Toothless." Caverna told him, stroking him as she looked at her sleeping dragon. "How is she?"
Toothless gave her a small quiet whine to show that Snowcap was in a bad way, and he heard the sigh that Caverna made.
"Will you keep watch over her tonight?" She asked him, and as he nodded, she kissed him on the top of his head and then walked away towards her home. She hated to leave her dragon, but she recognised that she would be safe in Toothless' claws. When she was about to leave the stable, she found Stormfly walking towards the stable, and the two bowed their heads to each other.
"Look after each other for me." She whispered to the female Nadder as she stroked her cheek. "You're a pretty girl Stormfly." She told her, before she walked away; she walked through the whole village, checking everyone and everything.
This failed to go unnoticed by Astrid, who, whilst waiting for Caverna to come back, was sitting outside of her house with Hiccup.
"You're worried about her, aren't you?" Hiccup asked his girlfriend as he moved to sit beside her.
"Yeah, she doesn't eat, she certainly doesn't sleep much and she looks ill, Hiccup she is working herself into an early grave and no one but us two are able to see it." Astrid sighed.
"I know, but all we can do is try and make things easier for her, so that she is able to deal with everything." Hiccup told her, sliding his arm around Astrid and pulling her closer, so her head rested on his shoulder.
"Hiccup, do you think that Stoick will allow for Caverna to come and stay on Berk?" She suddenly asked.
Hiccup looked at her. "Astrid..."
"Let me finish." She told him. "I was just thinking of asking him, because she and Fishlegs have struck up a wonderful friendship, and Toothless and Snowcap are mates now, and we all know that dragons mate for life."
"Astrid, I was going to say that that is a wonderful idea, though let's keep it a secret from Caverna, at least until she wins the fight tomorrow."
"Yeah, if she wins." Astrid told him, before she sighed. "What am I saying; of course she is going to win." She stood up. "Come on, let's go to bed." She told him, and the couple stood and walked inside, kissing each other goodnight, before they went into separate rooms. Astrid was excited about her planned surprise for Caverna, she now only hoped that her friend would win her fight tomorrow and then her fate would be hers.