Later That Night
He and Toothless took an extra flight that night. Hiccup felt he needed the bonus flying time after the physically and mentally exhausting day on his body and senses. Up here, the two rarely needed to talk. They had been together ever since he was a babe. Been flying together for well over half his life. They knew each other's tells when flying. Every time when Hiccup or Toothless would put them into a bank, turn, dive or climb, they'd almost never communicate with each other. They almost never needed to. Slight twitches in Toothless' muscle or a lean here, or there, from Hiccup was all the warning the other needed when they were about to change direction. But tonight, Toothless was doing all the flying, giving Hiccup all the time he needed to run over the days' events.
He'd be lying to himself if he said that he wasn't proud of himself for keeping up with Astrid today. Well...sort of keeping up. He didn't land a hit, but he made her sweat. If it wasn't for that damn scent, he could have lasted longer. Much longer. He wouldn't have become careless and uncoordinated in his attacks, footwork and energy expenditure. Disappointed as he was that their spar couldn't have lasted longer, he was glad this situation happened sooner rather than later. Before he'd grow even more attached. Jormungandr knows how hard that would have been for him. He also came to the conclusion that Toothless was right. He would have to tell her about it. That would be the smart decision. That would be the obvious decision. And yet, it was the most complicated of all. He couldn't just explain it to her without diving into the mannerisms and instincts of the Jormung when it came to...sensitive...topics such as the one facing him currently. Or would be facing once a month provided he and she grew closer. And he didn't want to drive a wedge between them, or to put in more mildly terms, make things awkward between them as it would all depend on how she viewed him at any point in the future concerning this subject.
Thankfully, the moment had passed without her catching on, despite noticing his discomfort. There'd be no further headaches regarding her for the next month at best. And he could always avoid her for a week. That's usually how long it affected Viking women. Come up with a believable excuse, tell her, and be on his merry way until it was over before resuming their weekly interactions. In a way it was a good plan. She had her concerns that her increasing trips to his part of the island would arouse suspicion among the more gossip prone villagers. Her not visiting him for a week would quell those rumours. But most importantly, it would save him from her presence. And even though both he and Toothless knew he would never try anything on her, he didn't want to be hard-pressed into learning what would happen if he was backed into a corner with her during that week.
So that night itself, he decided the best way to tackle the problem in the future was to avoid her entirely for a week for every month going forward.
He'd rather stare down a herd of charging Rumblehorns as opposed to explaining the primal tendencies of Jormung in certain situations to a 5'9 female Viking with an ax.
That Same Night - Berk
"It's been a while since we all were huddled around a fire like this, huh?" Fishlegs commented. Him, Astrid, Snotlout and the Twins were all seated at the top of one of Berk's larger watchtowers, a flaming brazier that doubled as a hearth in the center. It was their turn for night watch, mainly keeping eyes out for dragon raids. But it was also a great chance to hear how everyone's last couple weeks had been.
"What are you talking about, Fishlegs?" Snotlout asked, taking a quick swig of his tankard. "We see each other every other day."
"Yes, but when was the last time we were all seated by ourselves? Not surrounded by noise or fistfights or meetings or lessons?"
"You have to admit, he does raise a valid point sir Snot." Tuff agreed, ignoring the side-eye Snotlout cast him.
"That's sir 'Future Chief' to you."
"What did we ever do on nights like this?" Ruffnut asked.
"Boast about future accomplishments if I had to guess. None of which ever came to fruition. Well none for us, but Astrid anyway." Tuff said.
"Heh, yeah leave it to Berk's Valkyrie to stay on her path and achieve her goals while ever so frequently looking back towards us and making sure we aren't left behind in the social dust." Ruff and Tuff clanked their tankards together in a toast for said blonde. Fishlegs and Snotlout both laughed as well, and all waited for Astrid to come up with a retort, but quickly saw her staring aimlessly at the fire.
"Ugh, she's doing it again." Ruff muttered.
"Midgard to Astrid. Hello? Anyone in there?" Tuff scooted over and waved an open palm in front of her eyes. To which she immediately blinked and swatted his hand away, looking at him with an annoyed expression.
"What gives?" She asked.
"Welcome back to reality Ms. Hofferson. Do you care for an ale after your commendable impression of the great 'Odin's Sleep' with eyes open?" Tuff humoured her, while extending a tankard of ale to her, which she accepted.
"You've been spacing out quite a bit over the past few weeks, Astrid. Is there anything bothering you?" Fishlegs asked out of genuine concern.
"I'm fine, guys. Really, I am. Just a lot on my mind right now."
"Uh-huh. Not buying it. Now come on, sister. Tell us what's really eating at you." Ruff said.
"Is it related to your Hunt? Asta and Bjorn have been talking about increased trips to the forests." Fishlegs said.
"That's part of it." Astrid said, rather reluctantly. It was fine enough that her siblings mentioned her increased excursions to the forest. It'd be an entirely different story if they started following her and stumble across the living reason for her forest visits. Gods, it was like she was harbouring a dragon in the forest- Oh wait. She was. "Can never be too prepared. Berk's forests may not be the Huntfait Isles but it's all I have to work with."
"Does the other part have to do with Torsten's visit?" Snotlout asked.
"Who's Torsten? He sounds like a catch." Ruff said. Fishlegs was also curious about this.
"How do you know about that?" Astrid asked, eyes narrowed.
"My dad mentioned it when he going over our welcome of Torsten, as well as how to keep him occupied during his stay."
"Let's all be honest here, your dad didn't go over the most important stuff." Ruff said.
"And what would that be?" Snotlout asked, with a roll of his eyes.
"You not saying, or doing, the wrong thing that could set off, in the worst case, a war. Best case, a duel where you get humiliated by him." Tuff followed up.
"You do know my dad gave me strict instructions on keeping you two away from him, above all else." He clarified.
"Pish posh! What have we ever done to visiting dignitaries?" Tuff asked, immediately met with raised eyebrows from the rest of them.
"Anyway," Astrid interrupted, "I don't see how you could think Torsten's visit would have any sort of impact over me."
"Fair enough. We won't broach on the subject anymore." He gave a glance to Snotlout. "We're just worried about you, Astrid. It just seems that you're not really with us anymore despite being with us." Fishlegs said.
"I appreciate the concern, Fishlegs. All of you, in fact. But I'm fine. What else do I have to do to prove it?" She really was fine. It was just that blasted Jormung invading her thoughts at the wrong time. Again. Except this time, it seemed like something was off about him today. The fight started off great. It was clear from his first step that he had been practicing every day for the last five days, and had taken her advice to heart. His movements, strikes, and footwork still needed a bit of work, but his current skills were a far cry from not even two weeks ago. And yet he began losing focus halfway into their fight, becoming more breathless, uncoordinated, and careless with each passing minute. It couldn't have been frustration at not landing a hit on her. From their interactions, she deduced he wasn't that type of person. Especially considering how attentive he was. She was sure that he knew that he had no hope of landing a hit on her yet. He had just learned the basics, after all. But what was creating that much of a distraction for him that he began losing stamina of all things? It was almost as if he was fighting something else while squaring off against her. It was probably for the best to give him a few days to rest and recuperate. Hopefully he'd explain what happened the next time they meet.
"Okay, we'll drop for it now." Fishlegs sympathized with her. "But just know we're here if you need to talk about anything, Astrid. Even Snotlout."
"Hey!"
"Thank you, Fishlegs." Astrid shot him a grateful smile, while taking pleasure at Snotlout's offended look. They've been together ever since they were babes, had their struggles, their fights and their coming of age. Fate hadn't yet steered them onto different paths from each other. Deep down, she hoped it stay this way.
"So who is this Torsten fellow? And why am I only hearing about him now?" Ruff begged the question.
"Don't even think about it, Ruffnut. This is one man you definitely do not want to get involved with." Snotlout warned her, which was surprising since it was coming from him.
"Is he that bad news?" Fishlegs asked worryingly.
"I think it depends on his mood. If he sees something he likes, he won't be afraid to flaunt his status and charisma to get it. And he definitely isn't afraid to use violence. Hence why I brought it up, Astrid."
"You won't have to worry about me. It won't be my first rodeo of an heir trying to woo me. I'll listen to him, laugh here and there, and then politely say I'm not interested."
"Except he's different from other heirs. I know for a fact he won't take 'no' for an answer. He might pretend to, but I won't put it past him to try something when you least expect it."
"How do you know so much about him when you haven't even met the guy?" Ruff asked.
"Because my dad has been reaching out to all his connections who've dealt with Torsten and his father in the past and you wouldn't believe the rumours swirling around him specifically. What sets him apart from other assholes is his charisma and diplomacy. Couple that with his skill as a warrior and his privilege as an heir, you have the most dangerous person alive who can talk, or fight, his way out of anything. And get away with it completely with barely any repercussions."
"I mean we all know who his father is." Astrid commented, but she took Snotlout's words seriously. Since there were rarely any heirs Snotlout warned them about. If he was this worried about Torsten, then she'd keep an extra watchful eye over him. And not say, or do, anything that would give the slightest misunderstanding that she was interested in him.
"And we have it on trusted sources that Torsten inserted himself as the head of this visit."
"So the rebellion their dealing with is just a ruse?" Astrid did hear about that part from her dad.
"No, the rebellion is real. Torsten is just helping his father with some of the cleanup. Otherwise he would have been on the first ship here."
"Let me guess, he caught wind of my capture of a Jormung." Astrid stated in an annoyed tone.
"Bingo. It'll be safe to say he'll be dead set on meeting you. Which is why, even though we all know what you're capable of, you need to be doubly cautious around him."
"Don't worry, Snotlout. I'll stay on high alert with him. And I know you and the council will be watching closely as well to make sure he doesn't try anything. If anything, he'll probably be on his best behaviour." She joked.
"On that note, I expect the two of you to stay as far away as humanly possible from him!" He pointed two fingers at the twins. "I mean it! When he arrives, you cannot do anything, and I mean anything, that you would have done to any other visiting Chief and their family. This is one man we do not want to cross under any circumstance." Snotlout couldn't stress his concerns enough.
"Okay. For once we'll listen to you and steer clear of him." Ruffnut conceded, any hint of amusement gone from her voice. Even she could see how concerned Snotlout was about this visit.
"Good." He sighed.
"How about you Fishlegs? How have your classes been?" Astrid asked, shifting the conversation to something more lighthearted.
"And I thought our generation was hopeless." He sighed, running a hand over his face. "I cannot stress enough how thankful I am for Asta, Astrid. Your sister is definitely taking after you and keeping everyone else in line."
"As if one Astrid wasn't enough." Tuff muttered.
"Asta's at the top of the class in her studies. She asks a lot of questions which I have to regretfully cut short because I need to carry on with the lesson. Otherwise I feel I could talk to her for days on end about dragons." Astrid held a proud smile. Now if only Bjorn could follow his older sister's footsteps.
"What does she ask about dragons?"
"Oh the usual. Their blind spots, weak points, best weapon for each kind of dragon-"
"Yep. A literal miniature Astrid. It's only a matter of time before Brenna follows suit." Ruff laughed.
"It's not my fault they look towards me. Berk needs more role models if you ask me." Astrid said, looking over the at twins and Snotlout.
"Again, why me?!" He whined, to which they all laughed in response.
"What about you Tuffnut? How's the babysitting job going?" Astrid asked. Contrary to his erratic behaviour and actions, Tuffnut was surprisingly great with kids. He had enough energy to keep up with them and unlike himself, always kept the little ones out of trouble and danger. It started off with taking care a couple of them, parents who were absolutely desperate to have someone watch their two and one year old kids while they went fishing, and Tuffnut, his schedule being unsurprisingly free, offered his services. After much deliberation between the parents, they reluctantly agreed and handed off the kids into his care. Fast forward to sunset when the fishing ships returned, both parents were, understandably, anxious. What they didn't expect to come home to were both of their kids bawling at the fact that their day with Tuffnut was over. From then on, a lot of parents began leaving their kids with him when they had to go off for fishing, expeditions to find the nest, or hunting in the forests.
"A-mazing." He emphasized with his hands. "The little tikes can't get enough of uncle Tuffnut. I think I'll take them down to the beach since we're having such great weather."
"Don't worry. Fishlegs and I will be going with them that day. My brother's good with kids, but we'll be there to make sure them kiddies don't wander off too far from the group." Ruffnut settled Snotlout's and Astrid's unsure gazes.
"What about you Ruff? How's sewing going? Your mom still adamant about you taking up the family business?" Astrid asked. Aside from the twins, the Thorston's were one of Berk's oldest families, along with the Haddock's, Jorgenson's, Ingerman's, Hofferson's, and the Gunnisson's, who were Erlend's family line. And their family specialized in clothes, both fur and leather, and tapestries. Basically, any garments, tapestries or any order involving sewing, the Thorstons had their hand in it.
"Hehe, oh yeah. The ole' bag of bones is dead set on me taking over. And, not to brag but, I can make a mean tapestry. Busy working on those brand new tapestries that Stoick himself commissioned for Torsten's arrival."
"Hard to believe we're all adults huh? I mean, it feels like yesterday we were just walking into the Dragon Ring for the first time." Snotlout spoke fondly of their past.
"Do you remember the days when we were in dragon training?" Fishlegs reminisced.
"I don't even know how we survived Gobber's lessons. I swear that man was out to kill us." Tuff said.
"How he was allowed to teach, we'll never know. But-" Astrid started, "He was the best teacher we could have asked for." They all finished together. They let an easy silence fall over them. No talking. Just the sound of the flickering fire, encompassed by the distant sound of waves crashing against the cliffs, lounging under the star-laced night sky.
Tuffnut finally broke the silence, but not with a Thorston type question. "Do you think it'll ever end?"
"What will end?"
"The dragon raids." He said, still gazing up at the sky. "Will we ever live long enough to see a future like that? Where we don't have to worry about dragons attacking in the middle of the night, flying off with livestock, and not ruining anyone's lives?" Everyone sat still, letting Tuffnut's question stew in their mind. A future without dragons seemed almost seemed like an impossible dream for the residents of Berk. They'd been fighting them since the moment their ancestors set foot on island's shores three hundred years ago. And they were no closer to finding the dragons' nest in that time.
"I think we will." Everyone stared in surprise at Astrid, who had her eyes set on the fire, but her gaze seemed to be staring past it; into a future that she couldn't see yet.
"What makes you think that?" Fishlegs asked.
Astrid turned her gaze away from the fire and up to the full moon above them, just in time to see a familiar black blur shoot across the front, that went unnoticed by the rest of her peers, disappearing once again among the inky blackness of the night sky. "Just a hunch."
"I'll drink to that." Tuff raised his tankard, as did the others.
"To a future with no dragon raids." Snotlout said and they all took a swig after the toast. The rest of the night passed by relatively quickly, with idle conversations helping the time pass by. The next party of lookouts showed up around midnight to take over for them. The five of them let the new group know there was nothing to report and took their leave quickly, eager to return home and to their beds after saying their 'goodnights' to each other.
Astrid arrived home, surprised to see her father sitting by a lit fire with Brenna in his arms. Bran smiled when he saw her, and put a finger over his lips, indicating to her sleeping baby sister with her doll clutched close to her chest. "She was waiting for you, even though I told her you'd be late tonight because of watchtower duty." Her father explained, getting up and walking over to meet Astrid halfway. "Tried with all her might to stay up." He chuckled as Astrid shot her sleeping sister a sad pout, running a finger along her cheek, which surprisingly stirred her.
"Astrid?" Brenna muttered sleepily, rubbing her eyes with one hand while tightly clutching her doll to her chest in the other.
"I'm here my little terror." She took Brenna out of her father's hands into her embrace. "Who said you could give papa a tough time huh?" She chastised.
"But wanted to sleep with you this night." She said sleepily, and Astrid decided then and there that it was extremely unfair as to how adorable Brenna was. She could get away with anything with how she was behaving right now.
"Well I'm here now. Come on, let's go to sleep." Brenna wrapped her hands around Astrid's neck in preparation for bed. "Goodnight dad." She said as she kissed her father on the cheek.
"Goodnight my girls." He said with a last kiss on Brenna's head and the two headed up towards her room.
Once inside, Astrid pulled back the covers of her bed, laid Brenna down and pulled them up, tucking her in, with Brenna staring intently at her, despite her sleepy gaze. "How is your friend?"
"Which friend?" Astrid asked, kneeling by the bedside and brushing a few hairs away from her baby sister's face. "The quiet one, the loud one, the crazy one?" Brenna didn't quite know their names and only by the descriptions Astrid listed off.
"The one with dragon eyes." Astrid's own eyes widened at that. She quickly checked behind her, looking at her bedroom's closed door, focusing her ears on any sort of noise behind it in case her father walked by. Fortunately, there weren't any floorboards creaking. She let out a breath and looked back to Brenna.
"Why are you asking, Brenna?" She never brought him up ever since the house fire since that night raid. Why all of a sudden now?
"Because he secret right?"
"Yes, he's a secret friend." She remembers the little pact they made - to never mention Hiccup to anyone. She could not begin to find the words to express how grateful she was that Brenna never breathed a word about him to anyone; not to the other little kids, the villagers, her siblings and most of all, her parents. She never brought it in the last month. So why now?
"Because you keep going to the forests." Never in her lifetime did Astrid think she'd be scared of a four-year old. But then again, Brenna always loved spending time with her and watching her closely. So of course she'd hear her siblings and parents talking about her increased trips to the forest. Under the guise of training to them, but did Brenna see past that?
"I'm training for my Hunt, Brenna."
"With your secret friend?" Gods, she was persistent. Should she just lie and tell her no? Would she have to spend the whole night explaining that Hiccup had left after that night raid? Would that stop her questions about him? But then would she bring that up with the rest of her family? Or the other little kids who would inevitably start talking about it with their parents? Or should she tell her the truth and keep this little secret between them going?
"Yes, my little terror, I train with my secret friend. You don't talk about him with anyone else do you?" She had to check.
"No! Cause we promised!" She huffed angrily.
"Just checking, but you're right. It was wrong to think you couldn't do it, Brenna." She stroked her head. "Why are you asking about him?"
"Can I see him." She didn't know it was possible for her heart to make room in her throat.
"What?" She nearly squeaked. And Astrid Hofferson never squeaked.
"Can I see him?" She asked again.
"Why?"
"Because he's your friend. And I always meet your friends." She really was too cute for her own good. She also wasn't wrong. Brenna's met every single person Astrid's come in contact with on Berk. Even Erlend. "And he helped me. He's a good guy." She couldn't argue with her there. Hiccup was indeed a good guy. And he had saved her which spoke volumes to his character. Would it be a risk taking her to see him? Hel yes. Would she keep quiet about meeting Hiccup? Most likely yes. Brenna kept him a secret all this time. What would their meeting change? The only concern was Toothless. But before she could give Brenna an answer, she'd have to ask Hiccup first.
"I'll have to ask Hiccup first, and if he says it's okay, then I'll take you, okay?" After a few seconds, Brenna eventually nodded. "Good girl." She stroked her head, and extended her pinky finger towards her. "And remember, Hiccup is our little secret, right?"
Brenna wrapped her pinky around her big sister's. "Right."
000 (Somewhere in the Barbaric Archipelago)
Ripper and Heather landed under the cover of dark in the middle of a forest of an island that Ripper refused to disclose to Heather. She figured he wouldn't want her to know any of the names in case she came across said villages, or heard of them, in the past. He was extremely calculated. She had to give him credit for being cautious around her. Ripper slid down the Deadly Nadder first, before beckoning for Heather to follow. She carefully slid one leg over and slid down, Ripper catching her by the waist as he effortlessly guided her to the ground.
"Thanks Cutter, remember, stay here and try to stay of sight in case any patrols come this way." Ripper scratched the Nadder's flank.
"Will do." The dragon replied. The Nadder was one of many dragons that lived on his island. Since Bladewing didn't have the body to fly two people, he kindly asked Cutter to give them a lift this time.
"I thought we came here to get clothes." She spoke.
"We did. Most of the village should be asleep right about now. And unlike most other islands, the people of this village have a dedicated washhouse where they leave their clothes and a family and its workers take care of washing them, then leaving them out to dry overnight." He walked past her, in the direction towards the village.
"We're going to be stealing them?" She asked, revolted by the idea about swiping clothes from a multiple families.
"What else did you expect? Walk into a village market in the middle of the day and actually pay for clothes?" Ripper mocked her line of thinking as he continued his walk, hearing her steps to catch up to him. "How'd you think I got most of my clothes? Now come on, I spent quite a bit of time looking for a place like this. But if you're so against taking someone else's clothes, we'll just head on back." He didn't hear her reply, and he took it as a sign that she begrudgingly accepted his idea. The two stayed in silence as they approached the washhouse, which thankfully, was on the east end of the village, away from most of the houses. Apart from a few lanterns hanging on posts surrounding the building, there were no signs of any residents or patrols. And he couldn't hear anyone close by either.
"Okay, let's go." They made their way to the open yard that held many clothes lines that were filled with shirts, pants, sheets, undergarments, and more. "Come on already!" He whispered impatiently as he waited for her to leap the fence, following closely behind her when she did. Heather began looking through the clothes, shuffling from line to line, to see if there was anything her size. At first she tried darting between the bedsheets to try and lose him. But he was always half a step behind her. And then she remembered he'd be able to track her via smell. So she slowed her pace and luckily came across some clothes that seemed to be her fit. She pulled down a few shirts and leggings, holding them over her body and legs, gauging their length, width, and estimating whether they'd be an okay fit at best.
"I think those'll fit." She jumped his sudden voice and just realized he was standing at her back, watching her as she inspected her potential wardrobe. The fact that he was able to casually walk up behind a trained warrior like her without noticing was alarming. He really could kill her before she knew what happened.
"Like you know anything about women's clothes and my body type." She shoved him a couple paces away from her. "And personal space please?"
"You'd be surprised at how much I notice." He smirked and handed her some more clothes for her to look over. And it turned out, much to her annoyance, he was right. The clothes he plucked - shirts, leggings, skirts - all seemed to be, more or less, her size and style even.
"I'd honestly prefer if you could stop studying me." She muttered just loud enough for him to hear. "It's really terrifying having my captor know almost everything about me while I know nothing about him." She stacked the clothes over one hand as she continued looking for undergarments next. She was praying to Freyja that he didn't know her measurements too.
"You could ask, you know." He followed after her.
"And you'd answer them?"
"As best as I could."
"Even questions about your weaknesses?"
"Yeah. It's not like you'd be able to do anything with that information in your current situation."
"You really do love flaunting your invincibility, don't you?" She turned back to look at him with an unamused expression, which made him chuckle.
"Sorry. Force of habit. People usually fail to comprehend the situation they're in when they face-off against me that I've grown used to repeating that I'm a Jormung. Just to dissuade them from trying anything stupid, which, most of the time, always fails. I'm just glad you're smart. I don't think I would have been able to survive you if you were more like your brother." They paused when they came to the undergarments section. She heard him smirk. "Here, I'm sure this'll fit you." He tossed her a breast band. Catching it in her free hand, she immediately realized that it would not fit her. Clearly the breast band was for a woman with more...size. If a gaze could kill, he would have been dead immediately. She tossed the clothing at his face, frustrated at him catching it and placing it back where he pulled it from.
"So that's your type, huh?"
"No." He chuckled. "Even that would be too much woman for me."
Ripper suddenly paused them, turning his head and looking in the direction of the house which they were currently in front of, only a random bedsheet separating their line of sight to the door. "Wait here." He whispered.
"What?" She asked but when she turned, he had disappeared. Why would he just leave her here? Did he hear something? Were people approaching? She took a few steps backwards, revealing herself from behind the bedsheet.
"Hey! Who're yah and what're you doin' here?" She heard a man ask. She turned to the source of the voice and saw the man slowly walking towards her, with a sword in his right hand and a lantern in the other. "I've never seen yah around here before." He remarked as he closed the distance enough to where the light illuminated her face.
"Uh..." She didn't know what to say or do. Would he believe she was held against her will?
"Ah, you're a thief ain't yah?" He saw the clothes draped over left forearm. Okay, maybe he wouldn't believe she was a prisoner now. But then she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye, and saw Ripper walking out of the shadows of the house toward the man. Would he really-?
"Wait!" She called out to Ripper just as he reached the man's back, who clearly didn't hear him approach. But before she could continue, Ripper gave him a quick blow at the bottom of the man's skull, and quickly caught him before he fell to the ground.
"Relax. I didn't kill him. Just knocked him out." He said as he dragged the man by his shoulders over to the steps of his house and gently laid him outside. "Just grab whatever undergarments you can, before anyone else shows up." He said. She didn't know what possessed her to listen to him and not argue what he had just done, but she did. She quickly scanned the lines for any undergarments that looked about her size and snatched about three pairs of them.
"Alright, that should do it." She said hurriedly, and as if on beat, Ripper gently grabbed her upper arm and began leading away back towards the forest. They were able to avoid any other potential problems and quickly reached Cutter in the clearing they'd landed in. Ripper grabbed most of the clothes in Heather's possession and leaped atop the Nadder with ease. He then told Cutter to squat down enough so Heather could climb up top with Ripper's help. And within seconds, the trio were up in the air, heading back towards his island.
Although, Heather couldn't help but think about when Ripper had led her away from the washhouse after she said she was done. Because when she gave one last glance back at the knocked out man, she could've sworn she saw a bag of silver coins next to him that wasn't on him when he first came out.