Trust Must Be Earned | Eret Son of Eret (HTTYD)

CHAPTER TWELVE - LOSS

A/N: Here are some more tissues for this chapter, guys: 🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧

Atlas was paralyzed, unable to move. She stood there a few seconds, not comprehending what just happened. Not wanting to comprehend what just happened. Because this was not real, and that did not just happen.

A few feet away, Hiccup lay on the ground, gasping for breath.

He slowly got up, looked over at Toothless, and then back at his father.

"No..."

He quickly ran over to his father, which snapped Atlas out of her trance, and she ran over to him too.

They began pushing pieces of ice off of him.

"Dad!" Hiccup yelled.

Valka ran over to them, and shook her head, not believing it either.

"Stoick..."

They all turned Stoick on his back, and Valka put her head on his chest, listening for a heartbeat.

Hiccup and Atlas looked at each other, desperation in their eyes.

When Valka heard nothing, she sadly closed her eyes, her heart cut in two.

She looked at her two children, her eyes conveying all her sorrow.

"No." Hiccup whispered.

Atlas could feel her heart shattering. This was real. That did just happen. Her father was... gone? Gone. He was gone. She closed her eyes, feeling the tears well up.

She felt Hiccup slip his hand into hers, and the two intertwined fingers. Hiccup rested his head on his older sister's shoulder, needing her security. She wrapped an arm around him.

They put their other hands on Stoick's chest, wishing there was something they could do to bring him back.

All around them, the other riders landed, quickly dismounting. As they got closer, they realized what had happened.

Astrid and Gobber quickly ran over to the crying family. Gobber was crushed with grief upon losing his best friend, and Astrid felt her heart breaking for Hiccup and Atlas.

In front of them, Ruffnut was crying, her hands covering her mouth. Tuffnut was shocked, his hands on his helmet. Snotlout and Fishlegs were sniffling quietly, looking solemn. After all, Stoick was a legend to them all. They had grown up hearing tales of his adventures and mighty feats. They didn't think he would ever die.

And as for Eret, he felt deeply sad at the loss of the chief. He didn't know him at all, but he seemed like an extremely courageous, honorable man. He was sorry it had to end that way for him. And, he couldn't help but admit it: it hurt his heart to see the beautiful red-head - wait, she had a name: Atlas, so upset. He swallowed, thinking of his own father's death.

Toothless whimpered, wondering what was going on. He inched up to where Stoick lay, and rubbed his hand, trying to get him to wake up.

"No! Get away from him!" Hiccup yelled, pushing Toothless away from his father.

Toothless groaned sadly. Never had Hiccup yelled at him that way.

"Go on, get out of here! Get away!"

Toothless whimpered again, and slowly ran away from the group.

"It's not his fault," Valka said. "You know that. Good dragons, under the control of bad people, do bad things."