Carried Off, a DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon fanfic by Raberba girl
Disorganized segment, posted 28 Oct 2016 (rough draft)
One dragon raid was particularly traumatic. Astrid had been fighting as usual, secure in the knowledge that her daughter and her son were safely in the caves... Then she'd heard children's screams, and she'd instantly known without conscious thought, and she slaughtered a Monstrous Nightmare in record time and found her children cowering in a corner of the now empty food storage shed, terrified and trapped by flaming debris.
She got them out. Her heart felt numb, afterward she and her weapon were coated with dragons' blood and she was sitting there having her neck and chest treated for burns as her children sobbed in her lap. Then she took them home and asked them what had happened, her voice sounding as numb as her heart.
Finn looked completely miserable and ashamed. She knew at once that whatever had happened was his fault, even though he wouldn't say a word. Valka was loud, verbose, her shoulders straight and her head up and her eyes flashing in 'battle mode,' but with a frantic note in her voice that her mother knew meant she was protecting her brother. "I had a GOOD IDEA, Mommy, I said we should go fight dragons 'cause me and Finn are good fighters, we went and we SAVED THE FOOD but then the bad Zippleback stole it and-" She started crying, traumatized by the memory. "A-A-And then the, the Monstrous N-Nightmare was, we didn't die, we're good fighters-"
"Mommy got hurt," Finn whispered, staring in anguish at the bandages on his mother.
"That's not OUR fault," Valka said shrilly, "maybe mine a little, not Finn's fault, Finn is a good boy, he's boring and always follows the rules, I'm a bad girl but it's okay, you can spank me, Mommy, I won't cry, I'm not a stupid baby like Finn, I can take my punishment like a grown-up, I-"
"Why did you leave the caves?"
"I told you, I had a good idea-"
"You both nearly got killed. I nearly got killed. We lost all the food in that shed." Finn was sobbing again. "I am your mother and I am your chieftain. I gave you orders, you know the rules, but you deliberately disobeyed me and terrible things happened."
"I'm sorry, Mommy...!" Finn wailed, nearly drowned out by his sister's resolute, "I'M SORRY, MOMMY!"
"Whose idea was it to leave the caves?"
Finn silently pressed his hands over his face; Valka immediately cried "ME! ME! ME! ME! ME!"
How to handle this? "...Well, Valka, if you're so eager to take the blame, then you'll get your wish. You're grounded and are not allowed to speak to your brother for one week."
"But you should spank me instead! I'm a bad girl, I did a bad thing-!"
"I said you're grounded, Val."
"No! I don't want to be grounded! All the other mommies spank their kids when they're bad, you always say you'll spank us if we're bad, why do you always ground me instead?! I-"
"Now it's nine days instead of seven, because you're arguing with me."
"NO, MOMMY!" Valka screamed desperately. "I, I, I, I won't talk to Finn until tomorrow! Please, Mommy, you can spank me and I won't eat any dinner and I won't talk to Finn until-"
"Ten days."
"Nooooooo," Val sobbed, clinging to her, "noooooooo, noooooooo, please, Mommy, please...!"
"Go into the room, Val," Finn begged tearfully, "before she makes it more, and more, and more..."
Sobbing, Valka dragged herself off her mother's lap and trudged into the bedroom and shut herself in, still crying disconsolately.
"Am I grounded, too?" Finn asked in a low voice.
"If you had told the truth, then yes," Astrid said, and saw his shoulders stiffen. "But you lied to me, Finn, and you let your sister lie," he covered his face with his hands again and started rocking a little, "and you stood back and you let your sister get punished for something that was really your fault, didn't you. You hurt our people and you hurt me and you nearly hurt yourself and your sister, and then you lied about it instead of taking responsibility."
"I'm...sorry," he whispered. Then he burst out earnestly, "I thought maybe we could get some food and bring it to the caves, I, I think, we'd still have some food left if it's in the cave with us instead of where all the dragons-"
"It's been tried before, Finn. The dragons found the food; children were slaughtered. It was years before the dragons gave up on the caves and they were safe to hide in again."
Finn hung his head. "...I'm sorry."
"I'm glad you are. I hope you'll never lie to me again." She started to pull him facedown over her lap.
"No!" he cried in a panic, struggling. She winced in pain as the effort of holding him still made her burns throb. "I won't do it again, I promise, I'm sorry, I'm sorry-!"
She had actually only ever spanked him once, and he'd hated it so much that the simple threat of it happening again had always been enough to keep him in line until now. "Stop that. The more you struggle, the worse it will be."
He screamed as she spanked him. It was more out of horror than pain; she knew that it hurt, but not that much. Still, Valka came bursting out of the bedroom as if her brother was being murdered. "LET GO OF HIM! YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO DO THAT TO HIM, YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED-!"
"Valka, get back in the bedroom."
Val flung herself over Finn and glared up at their mother.
"Valka, I'm glad that you want to protect your brother, but this is not-"
"I told you it was MY FAULT," she snarled. "Not Finn's! You can't punish him, you have to punish me because it was my fault!"
Astrid's fingers clenched, and she forced herself to breathe slowly and deeply until she had calmed down. Her voice was even again as she said, "Finn, make a choice. Tell your sister to go back and take her punishment, and you take yours. Or else I'll spank Valka and lock her up, then finish spanking you and ground you, too."
Valka screamed furiously and hit her mother. Her fist happened to glance off one of the burns; seeing how much it hurt Astrid, Valka viciously focused her attack, and Astrid snatched both the little girl's arms, squeezing tightly and trembling with the effort of staying still and not lashing out. Mother and daughter glared fiercely at each other for a long moment.
'...Hiccup,' Astrid managed to remember, tears stinging her eyes from the pain of her wounds. 'I will not be the monster Hiccup thought I was. No matter what this child does to me, she is still a child and I am her mother and I am the one in charge. I will not let her control me, I will not let my actions be dictated by the pain and anger she caused me.' She took a deep breath and relaxed her grip a little. "Go back to the room, Valka."
"NO! I HATE YOU!"
"Go, Valka," Finn whispered.
His sister stared at him, looking betrayed.
Huddled on the floor, Finn stared back at her with tears running down his face. "I don't want you and Mommy to be mad at each other. Go be grounded."
Valka burst into tears, jerked away, and fled back into the bedroom.
Astrid exhaled in relief and caught herself just in time from thanking her young son. "Good job, Finn," she said instead. "Come back and get this over with so you won't have to worry about it anymore."
Miserable but resigned now, he allowed himself to be pulled back over her lap, and cried softly as she finished spanking him. Then she just held him for a long time as he buried his face against her.
"Finn," she finally murmured, "I love you."
"Really?" he choked out.
It broke her heart how desperate he sounded. "Yes, Finn. Yes, of course." She tugged him back so she could cup his face in both hands and look into his eyes. "It's okay to make mistakes, sweetheart. Sometimes I make mistakes, too. Everyone does. But even if you do bad things sometimes, you don't have to be a bad person. You remember the bad things you did so that you won't do them anymore. You try your best and be brave so that you can be proud of yourself again."
"I'm not brave," he whispered. "Valka's brave, not me."
"You know...Valka's braver than you are about some things, but I think you're braver than her about other things."
He looked at her hopefully.
"Each of you is good at different things, and that's okay."
"I miss Valka," he whispered.
She hugged him again. "I'm sorry that punishing her means that you don't get to see her, either."
"I'm sorry I hurt you," he whispered, gently tracing the edge of a bandage.
"I'll heal. I'm all right. My children are alive and unhurt, that's all that matters."
"But we lost so much food, and it's all my fault..."
"...Yes, but I'm not angry at you, Finn. What you did was terrible, but we're just going to have to make the best of it. We're Vikings, we can handle setbacks."
He sniffled. She kissed him and set him down, then went to put a piece of bread and a handful of nuts in a bowl. She set it down on the table and called Finn. "Come eat your supper."
He trudged over to her, but balked at actually eating. "I'm not hungry, Mommy."
She gave him a hard look. Everyone was hungry all the time now. "Are you lying to me again, Finn?"
"No," he gasped. "I mean, yes, yes, I told you a lie, please don't spank me again-"
"I won't. But don't lie to me again."
"I'm sorry-"
"Sit down and eat your food."
"...I don't want to," he whispered.
"Why not?" she said in exasperation, puzzled that he seemed genuinely remorseful about his refusal rather than defiant.
He stared at her as if he couldn't understand why she didn't understand. "It's my fault we lost food. I'm not allowed to eat."
"Finn, no. You're still a little boy and you already don't get enough to eat. This isn't enough for you, either, but it's all I have. Sit down and eat."
"Please, Mommy," he begged. "Please, no."
"...All right, don't eat the bread. But I'm your mother and your chief, Finn, and I'm ordering you to eat the rest of it."
There was a long pause. Then, slowly, he climbed into the chair and started to sit down, sucked in a breath, knelt on the chair instead, and ate his pitiful supper one piece at a time.
Astrid took the bread and another handful of nuts to her bedroom. When she opened the door, she found Valka standing in the middle of a disaster - blankets ripped off the bed and now covered with stains, stuffing pulled out of the pillow, clothes strewn everywhere, thrown things, smashed things...
Astrid stormed toward her daughter. Valka's expression instantly turned from defiance to terror, and she bolted. Astrid caught her, Valka screamed and struggled, Astrid gripped her tightly but then paused. 'I need to try something different.' This was not the first time Valka had been purposely destructive, but no matter how much she was spanked as a result, she kept doing it every time she wanted revenge. Corporal punishment, so effective and therefore rarely used on Finn, obviously didn't work for Valka. 'She's so scared. Why does she do this when she knows she'll get in trouble and is so afraid of it?!'
"I HATE YOU MOMMY I HATE YOU I HATE YOU-!"
'Unless she's afraid of me, not the punishment.' Astrid wrapped her arms around her daughter and hugged her. "I love you, Val," she whispered.
Valka went silent and rigid.
"You hurt me and confuse me and frustrate me...but you're my daughter, and I love you. I love you no matter what you do."
"I messed up all your stuff," Valka said shakily.
"Yes. You're going to have to clean it all up."
Valka burst into tears. "And then I get punished because I'm a bad girl."
Astrid looked her in the face and said firmly, "You are not a bad girl. You're a good girl, who makes good and bad decisions, just like everyone else."
"Don't yell at me, Mommy," Valka sobbed, "Don't yell at me, don't get mad at me, don't hate me...don't lock me up all alone, I hate it so much..."
"I love you. I love you. I love you." Once Valka had been comforted, Astrid was shocked at how eager she was to clean up the mess, and that she apologized sincerely and without any prompting.
"I'm really sorry, Mommy! I won't ever do it again. I'll do it every time I'm bad, but if you don't ground me then I won't be bad, okay? I promise~"
Astrid sighed a little. "I hope not. Here, Val, eat your supper."
"Can I go talk to Finn?"
"...Tomorrow. Right now, eat your supper and then go to sleep."
Valka started crying. "Mommy, I don't want to be grounded, I want to go see Finn-!"
"I know I overdid it, so you're only grounded until tomorrow morning instead of ten days, but you need to learn how to control yourself, Valka."
"I'll be bad!" Valka screamed, "I'll be so bad, and I hate you and I-! NO, MOMMY!"
But Astrid, though her grip was firm, was not rough or violent; she simply held the little girl so Val couldn't run to the door. She sat down and held her daughter and determined that she would sit there all night if she had to, but she was not going to respond to the kicking and screaming and vitriol this time.
"I HATE YOU, MOMMY, I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU...!" Then, after a lot of wordless crying, "I want...to see...Finn...!"
"Tomorrow, sweetheart."
Valka burrowed into her mother and cried and, to Astrid's surprise, soon fell asleep. Astrid hesitated for a while, then put her daughter to bed and went out to find Finn curled up by the fire, drawing sadly. "Come on, sweetie, you're going to have to sleep upstairs tonight." The twins were still too young to sleep in the loft very often, but it had slowly started being furnished as they began using it as a playroom during the day.
"By myself?" he asked anxiously.
Astrid hesitated. She didn't want to leave her timid little son alone all night, but if she slept with him, then that would mean abandoning Valka. Finn would survive a lonely night, but Val would completely panic if she woke up and found herself alone in the darkness. "Not all by yourself - you'll have Spike, won't you?" Astrid said encouragingly. Finn clutched his stuffed Nadder tighter. Astrid still thought that a dragon toy was inappropriate, but she had thought of a way to spin it for Finn, claiming that his little dragon companion would have a better chance of protecting him from the more murderous members of its kind.
"I'd rather have you and Val," he said in a low voice.
Astrid picked him up and carried him upstairs, soothing him all the way. "I know, but you're a very brave boy, Finn, and I know you can handle a night with just you and Spike."
"I'm brave...?"
"You remember how I said that Val is brave about some things and you are brave about other things? Think about how poor Val would feel if she woke up all alone. You can be brave enough to let me stay with your sister and comfort her if she needs it, right? You and Spike can do it, I know you can."
He sniffled and clung to her. She laid him in his father's old bed and tucked the blankets close around him and told him a bedtime story to help him relax, an adventure with him and Spike as if Spike was a real dragon. "...and then Spike whipped his tail, whoosh! And a whole row of spikes flew straight into the shadow monster so that it disappeared, poof! And was never seen again. And then Spike nuzzled his friend and Finn patted his head, and Finn climbed on his back and awaaaaay they both flew, over the fluffy white clouds to where the sunbeams stretched toward the horizon..."
When Finn was asleep, Astrid kissed his forehead tenderly, leaving with great reluctance so she could return to her troubled little daughter.
To be continued...
Author's Notes: Yeah, I see "it;" I'll fix it in the final draft. X'D
Ftr, this story is not the first one I have written with Finn & Valka (a.k.a. Storm). They also appeared in my one-shot Name Change, as well as an outtake one-shot called "Hide." (If you're on AO3 or FFN, you can find both of those in "Two Worlds, One Family.") Both of those fics have a different setup where HiccStrid are genuinely in love and got married soon after HTTYD1.