Weeks went by and Caverna and Fishlegs were kept up to date on Iris' recovery and it seemed that she was recovering rather well. In those weeks, Hiccup had seen his sister become more and more attached to baby Thorin, but he didn't want to say something and cause her to take it negatively so he left it to Fishlegs. Thorin was thriving whilst in the care of Fishlegs and Caverna, and somehow the boy grew each week, even Gothi was surprised. But Caverna was occasionally taking him to see his real mother, hoping that this would stop people from thinking too bad of her, and so far, it did, so everyone was happy. This day started off as one of those days.
"Caverna, is he ready to go?" Fishlegs asked, coming down the stairs from Caverna's room where he had been staying.
"Yes Fishlegs, he's ready to go." Caverna smiled, walking to him holding the bundle that held Thorin who was playing with her hair.
"Great, let's go." He smiled and the pair walked outside to where they found Meatlug and Snowcap watching the Night Fury eggs which hatched a few days ago.
"Snowcap." Caverna spoke. "Are you okay to take us?"
Snowcap looked at them and she noticed the baby in her rider's arms, so she nodded, before looking at Meatlug. "Will you be okay to watch them?" She nodded to her babies.
"Of course." Meatlug told her, before she watched as her rider and his mate and the baby got onto Snowcap's back, and they suddenly flew off, heading for the healer's hut.
Meatlug wasn't left on her own for long, before Snowcap came back after being told that she could go back to her babies if she wanted to when she had dropped her rider and his mate off.
Meanwhile, in the Elder's hut, Caverna walked inside, carrying Thorin as Fishlegs followed her. Inside, they found Iris walking around, getting used to using her legs again after being forced by the elder to lie down for most of the weeks in order to heal, and the minute she saw them, she smiled brightly.
"There's my son." She smiled, walking over and taking the child from Caverna's arms.
"Fishlegs and I have some errands to run, are you guys going to be okay without us?" Caverna asked.
"Of course, I'll see you guys when you come back." Iris smiled, and she watched them leave as the baby as he started to cry. "Oh dear, what's the matter?" She started to soothe him in the way that Caverna had showed her.
When they'd left, Caverna was walking down towards the village with Fishlegs and they were back to holding hands, and smiling with each other.
"So, apart from teaching in the Academy, what else do we have to do?" Caverna asked.
"That's it really." Fishlegs smiled. "Oh...I promised Hiccup that I'd write up the notes on the dragons that you and Astrid found the other week, I've nearly finished it."
"Great, if you need any help, then you know where to find me." She smiled.
"Of course." He smiled as they got into the academy, and found a group of young Vikings sitting around and messing around.
"Vikings!" Caverna shouted and all of the younger Vikings froze. "Now it's time to learn some basics on flying your dragons, so who's in?"
At the question, everyone raised their hands up with a war cry and that was how their day was spent, training, teaching and finishing the Book of Dragons.
That night, Caverna headed home as Fishlegs went to get some food from the Great Hall and when she got home, she was shocked to find Iris sitting in front of the fire and Thorin lying in his cot screaming in tears.
"Iris...What's the matter?" Caverna asked.
"He won't stop crying." She told her, and she sounded close to tears. "I've tried changing him, cuddling him, I've even tried to feed him from my breast, both nothing is soothing him."
"It's alright, he just might not be used to you being around, you haven't been well for a while Iris, remember?" Caverna reminded her, and she walked to the child, picking him up, and a few minutes after he was picked up, Thorin stopped crying.
"How do you do that?" She asked, shocked.
Caverna simply shrugged. "I don't know."
That wasn't the only time that Caverna was able to calm the child when Iris couldn't, and with each time, Iris started to rely more and more on Caverna to look after the baby, even when she started to take on her other tasks again. On such a day, Caverna was helping Hiccup organise some new defences over Berk, and they were laughing and joking as well as trying to be as serious as possible, but now that Astrid had started showing her baby bump, no one was taking Hiccup as serious without making him laugh first.
"I recon the kid is going to be just as baddass as its mother." Snotlout told them.
"For once, I agree with this cousin of mine." Caverna laughed.
"Oh come on, someone be nice." Hiccup complained. "And anyway, save it for a while, we need to get this done."
Everyone went quiet for a while, as they discussed plans and some fought over what would be the best idea, before they all went silent as they thought it through. But the silence was soon broken by the shrill crying of a baby and the doors opened to reveal Iris bringing in a crying Thorin.
"Caverna, he's crying again." Iris told her, and she held the baby out, waiting for Caverna to take him and then she left the great hall.
Watching them, Hiccup's blood was boiling; Iris was taking advantage of his younger sister's lack of ability to have children. So when Iris was gone, he looked at the others.
"Everyone, I need you all to leave, I need to have a word with my sister." He told them and everyone left, even Astrid and Snotlout, even though they lingered for a while. When everyone was gone and they were alone, he looked at his sister.
"She's taking advantage."
"Hiccup, don't start this again." Caverna asked him.
"I don't feel like I have any choice but to start this again, you're not seeing it." Hiccup told her. "Caverna, I know what this means for you, but you can't let her keep coming to you when he cries."
"Hiccup, you don't know what this means to me." She told him. "You've got a child on the way; Thorin is probably the only chance that I'm going to get...Ever." She looked at Thorin in her arms as she spoke. "Just please be happy that I'm being given a chance here Hiccup, please." She asked him.
Hiccup sighed. "I'm sorry Caverna, but I'm not having you being used." With that, he left the Great Hall and went back to helping the village as she stayed behind to look after the baby.
Hiccup walked for a while, inside he was seething from how Iris was treating his sister as well as how his sister was letting herself be treated. Hiccup wasn't a violent man, he left the violence to his sister and his wife, but hi anger suddenly went into overload as he saw Iris flirting with some fishermen and he saw Eret amongst them.
"Iris, we need to talk." He told her as he joined them, by the tone of his voice everyone saw that he wasn't best pleased.
"Yes chief, what is it?" Iris asked.
"Walk with me." He told her and together the two walked back up towards the village.
"What is it we need to talk about chief?" She asked.
"Why are you taking advantage of my sister?" Hiccup asked, being straight to the point. "And don't say that you aren't, because I can see it, you play on the fact that she can't have children, so you make her look after your own child."
"I don't make he do anything!" She snapped. "You know nothing Hiccup, you say that I'm using her, well don't you all use her too?" She asked.
"How dare you." Hiccup told her.
"Yes I dare, because you all use her" Be it to teach about dragons, to fight for you and no doubt she'll die for you when you need to her." Iris snapped, her voice filled with venom.
"She chose to fight for the village; she chose to become a shield maiden. She didn't choose to become someone that you can pass off your child to. She saved you and your child and you look like you don't even care!"
This time, Iris slapped him, and it caused everyone around them to freeze and look at the pair. "How dare you." She spat. "You pathetic excuse for a chief!" She screamed. "You don't deserve any of this, my son is more of a man than you ever where!"
Everyone watched as someone patted Iris on the back and as she turned around, she received a swift punch to the face, knocking her to the floor unconscious and behind her stood Caverna, who was retracting her arm, her face an emotionless mask, bu this time she held no child in her arms.
"No one speaks to my brother like that." She told the unconscious Iris, before she walked over to Hiccup. "Are you alright?"
Hiccup nodded and they both looked down at Iris, before Hiccup ordered them to lock her in a holding cell. Caverna simply watched, she didn't know that Iris could be this cruel, but now she did, she had a lot of decisions to make.