Author's Note: The long-awaited update to A Heroes Return. Please feel free to go back and reread the previous chapters for a refresher. So it took so many years to get this chapter up. I lost the account when my old laptop died, and I couldn't remember the password to get back in. The email was basically useless since I couldn't remember that password either. But I managed to get back in by a stroke of luck and am able to continue the store. Thankfully most of the chapters have been saved in my DocX thanks to having beta-reader DraconicBeing2.0. I don't think they are active anymore, but I will still credit them for their amazing help.
Anyways onto Chapter 8. I hope you all enjoy. Please don't forget to follow, share and review
Jorn walked in and found his patient sitting at the table, going over several documents at once. "So this is your idea of resting?"
"I'm just reading, Jorn," Hiccup stated. "These are important documents that can't wait. Births and weddings. Someone is trying for divorce since the husband is refusing to help provide for the family. Apparently, all he wants to do is drink mead and bet on races. He doesn't help tend to the land. He treats the children like slaves, which they aren't."
Jorn could tell Hiccup was getting worked up over the pitiful excuse for a Viking. He needed the kid to calm down. Stress was the last thing he needed. "How about we let Gobber look over the documents? He and the council can come to a decision later. Right now, go upstairs and change out of your flying gear. By the time you're done, dinner will be started. Wake up, Toothless, if you can."
Hiccup stood and headed upstairs. Jorn set the uncooked dinner down and picked up the papers. He put them into a neat pile and hid them away in a nearby book. After that, he took out the yak ribs he had purchased, seasoned them with salt, and put them in the coal oven. He began to make a sauce his mother taught him to make while searching for a knife to cut the loaf of bread.
He placed the sauce in a small pot and held it over the fire, waiting for it to simmer. Once it was done simmering, he opened the coal oven and poured it over the ribs. After he poured it all out, he set to work slicing up various vegetables to turn into a stew.
As he was mixing them together, Hiccup came back down the stairs, followed by Toothless, who looked a little better. His steps sounded as if he had a Gronkle attached to each leg. Jorn watched as Hiccup basically fell into his chair and laid his head on the table. Toothless sat by Hiccup's side, obviously hungry but trying not to show it. He was staring at Hiccup in an offhanded way.
Jorn set the pot of vegetables down, picked up the basket of fish, and walked over to Hiccup. "You're not looking too good, kid. Aside from last night, when was the last time you slept? Or ate?" He dropped the basket of fish for Toothless, but he ignored it. The Night Fury was whining, staring at Hiccup worriedly.
Hiccup gave no response to either of them. He lay motionless at the table. Jorn lifted Hiccup's head off the table and pushed him into the back of the chair. He felt for a pulse. It was very slow and irregular. Quickly, Jorn picked up a nearby candle and forced one of Hiccup's eyes open. He watched as the pupils expand, but not much. Toothless was pacing now, whining and moaning.
Jorn leaned in and listened to Hiccup's breathing. It sounded like he had been gargling salt water. All signs pointed to him having a seizure. He'd definitely been upstairs long enough to have one and come to enough to come back downstairs.
Jorn picked Hiccup up and carried him back upstairs. Toothless followed, worried for his rider.
Once John learned that Harry would be okay, he and Garff flew off to see just how bad the damage was. They spent a week looking at the mass destruction across all of North and South America. Both continents were basically leveled. Very few buildings remained standing. There was no power anywhere. It was as if it never existed. No form of technology worked. The only things that had any kind of power were flashlights and other devices that took batteries. Cars, planes, and trains weren't working either. The only way to get anywhere was either on foot, bike, man-powered boat, or dragon. It was if the entire world regressed a thousand years. No one was sure what had caused the second earthquake. John assumed it was all the alpha dragons emerging.
John landed outside a small cabin just outside of what used to be Panama City, Florida, dismounted Garff, walked up to the door, and knocked.
"Who's there?" A voice from inside asked.
"It's John," John replied. "I got your Terror Mail."
The door swung open, revealing a very disheveled Frank. "Took you long enough."
John squeezed past Frank. "Sorry, I was in Alaska when I got the Terror Mail. Poor thing was nearly frozen to death."
"How bad is it out there?" Frank asked.
"It looks like several nuclear bombs went off, but without the radiation," John described. "Where's Harry?"
"Upstairs," Frank answered. "Ariel got him here last night. Toothless hasn't left his side. His wound is infected."
"And no luck finding antibiotics?" John asked.
Frank shook his head. "Not a single pharmacy in a hundred-mile radius."
"Okay, Frank, I need you and Simon to go out and find me garlic, honey, Goldenseal, ginger, and clove," John listed off. "As fast as you can. Tommy and Rhea, I need you to go and find willow bark, valerian root, and frankincense."
The four young adults just nodded and ran out of the cabin, calling their dragons. John went upstairs and found Ariel sleeping in a chair next to the single-sized bed which held the one and only Harry Carp. Toothless sat at the foot of the bed, staring at his rider.
John slowly walked over to Toothless and laid a hand on his snout. "It'll be okay, Toothless, I promise."
Toothless just glanced at the doctor for a second, then went back to looking at Harry. John walked over to Harry's side and pulled back the covers. The young man had no shirt on, and the only clothes he wore were a pair of boxers. John touched the skin around the bandaged wound. It was warm to the touch. He moved his hand to the young man's forehead, also warm to the touch. Very carefully, he began to remove the bandage to get a look at the actual wound. It was red and inflamed, with puss leaking out of it. It was hard to look at it. Even John, a trained medical professional, could hardly stand to look at it without gagging.
He walked downstairs and grabbed a dishcloth and several bottles of water. He went back upstairs and began to carefully clean the wound. As he finished cleaning the wound, he heard the front door open. He walked to the foot of the stairs only to be met with a familiar sight.
Jorn decided to stay with Hiccup instead of going back to the Great Hall. He sat at Hiccup's desk and watched his chest rise and fall. The kid's breathing had evened out, but he still wasn't waking up. Toothless was sleeping on his rock, worn out from helping Jorn.
The healer was growing worried. With all the stress Hiccup had been under in the past few months, his health had taken its toll. A seizure was his body's way of pleading with him to slow down and take it easy.
Jorn was pulled from his thoughts when he heard the front door open.
"Hello," an unfamiliar voice called out. Jorn got up and walked down the stairs to greet the newcomer.
"Hi. I'm Jorn," Jorn greeted as he studied the new face. She was thin but fit. Her hair was auburn, just like Hiccup's, and her eyes were the same emerald green. He decided this was his mother. "You must be Hiccup's mother, Valka."
Valka stared at him, unsure whether to attack or not. The best course of action: talk to him and see if he is a threat. "What are you doing here?"
"Hiccup and Astrid offered me a place to stay until a hut could be built," Jorn answered.
"Where are they?" Valka demanded.
"Astrid is in the village with her parents," Jorn replied. "And Hiccup is upstairs. He's, um, not awake yet. Something happened."
Valka ran past Jorn and practically flew up the stairs. Toothless jumped up quickly into a fighting stance, growling, but sat down again once he saw Valka. Jorn quickly followed in order to keep her calm. He came up next to her as he stood over her unconscious son.
"What happened?" Valka asked, fear pouring into her body.
"You know about his condition?" Jorn wanted to confirm.
Valka's eyes widened. "He had one of those seizures?"
Jorn nodded. "Yeah. A bad one by the looks of it. He's put so much on himself, trying to fill Stoick's boots, his body can't take it. I'm doing what I can, but when it comes to things like this, all you can you do is wait."
Valka sat down where Jorn had been sitting previously. "You're a healer."
Jorn knelt down next to her, reaching eye level. "Yeah. Don't worry; I know how to treat him. But like I said, it's a waiting game right now. If he has any problems when he wakes up, I will do everything in my power to make him better."
Valka didn't say anything. She simply stared at her son, fearing the worst. Tears fell from her eyes. Jorn instinctively reached his hand up and wiped them away.
"No tears yet," Jorn said. "Healer's orders."
Valka let out a watery laugh and nodded. "Yes, sir."
The two stared at each other. At that moment, both felt something. It was as if they had been long lost friends who finally found each other again, only to realize their feelings for another moved past friendship. Before either could act on this feeling, a groan could be heard from the bed.
"Valka," John said.
"That was my name a thousand years ago," Valerie corrected. "I don't blame you, though. I still want to call you Jorn."
John gave her a small smile and walked down the stairs. He felt that same spark he felt when he was Jorn. History was repeating itself. When they had met in the hospital after the first earthquake, the spark wasn't there. Both were still remembering and were too busy for anything else.
"How is he?" Valerie asked, pulling John from his love-struck thoughts.
"His wound's infected," John answered. "I'm waiting for Frank, Simon, Tommy, and Rhea to get back with the lists of herbs and plants I need."
"And Ariel?" Valerie wondered.
"Asleep in a chair at his bedside," John stated. "Whose cabin is this, by the way?"
"It used to belong to Kevin, my late husband," Valerie answered. "After he died, it hurt too much to come back here."
"I'm sorry for your loss," John said sympathetically.
Valerie let out a rye laugh. "Don't be. He was a horrible man. He was a man of power in these parts. In public, he was a great man. Behind closed doors, not so much. We could do no right. Harry won't admit it, but he got the brunt of the abuse. Mostly because he was skinny and a bit of a nerd, nothing like his father."
John looked at her in shock. "I had no clue. He never said."
"Probably never will," Valerie said it. "Harry doesn't know this, but it's his father's fault they crashed. Kevin paid a man to crash into them. I think he underestimated the damage. He was hoping Harry would die and he would walk away. I'm so glad he was wrong."
"How do you know this?" John wondered.
"When I brought Harry home, I started cleaning out his father's stuff," Valerie explained. "I found letters, emails, texts to and from the man that hit them. I took it to the cops and never told Harry. He had enough to deal with."
The two stood in silence as John absorb this new information. Kevin had been nothing like Stoick, despite virtually being the same person. Kevin had been an abusive asshole who tried to kill his own son.
John was the first to break the silence. "At least this cabin can be put to good use now. We'll fill it with better and happier memories."
At that moment, several roars could be heard outside; the rest of the riders were back.
John quickly mixed the herbs together. He made a salve and a tonic. He applied the salve to the wound and wrapped it up in clean bandaging. With Valerie's help, he was able to get the unconscious Harry to swallow the tonic. The tonic was to help with pain and reduce the fever. The salve was going to help get rid of the infection.
"We'll need to reapply the salve every eight or so hours," John said. "And get him to drink the tonic every twelve hours. With luck and hope, he'll wake up in a couple of days." He looked at the riders standing around the room. "You guys go and get some rest. You must be exhausted."