Found again (HTTYD FF)

✯10✯

Valka crouched down in front of the winged boy. She studied his face intently. Although his dragon eyes were unfamiliar, they looked familiar. Everything about him seemed familiar to her. As if she had known him long ago. She couldn't explain the feeling, but deep down she longed for his presence. Like a parent longs for their child, like a mother longs for her son when they are separated for too long.

After hearing his name, the feeling seemed even stronger - right, even. Could this be Hiccup, her son? If so, what would the others say? To his wings? She would love him no matter what, there was no doubt about it. But could he stay? Would he even want to stay? Was that why the dragons had taken him away that time? To... protect him?

First she had to find out who he really was. It was useless to ask those questions so soon. Maybe it was just a coincidence, maybe he just had the same name. But how many people -creatures?- in the archipelago could be named Hiccup? Only Berkians gave their children names like that.

"Where did you get that name?" She asked in as calm a voice as she could muster.

"I-I don't know." Was his reluctant reply. "M-my parents gave it to me, probably."

"Who are your parents?" Valka could see how uncomfortable the question made him. His gaze dug into the ground as he answered quietly.

"I don't remember. I've n-never remembered. I guess... I guess it's better that way."

Valka suddenly felt sorry for him. But she would never get to her answer that way. She had to ask something else. What could give her a clue?

"Were you... were you born with those wings?" She could barely breathe as she waited for an answer. She scolded herself for not thinking of the question sooner - after all, this was the first thing she should have asked, for Thor's sake! 

"N-no."

"Then how did you come by them then?"

"B-by transformation," he said after a small moment of hesitation.

Valka wasn't getting her information through his evasive answers. She understood his need to talk about these things as little as possible. He must have been scared to death. She needed to calm him down. Reassure him that she wouldn't do anything to him.

"What transformation?"

"After... after a certain age, a person with a... a dragon s-soul transforms. They said... they said there could have been more of us. But I'm the only one the d-dragons saved. They say no one else has survived." He paused for a moment, peering through the floor into the distance as if looking at something. "Toothless said that he took me when I started to t-transform. That... that they'd kill me if I transformed where I was."

Valka was growing curious. The more she learned about this boy, the more she wanted to know. Who is Toothless? She figured probably some dragon, so she didn't ask. For a moment, she completely forgot what her original purpose was for wanting to know more about the boy in front of her. "So where are you from?"

"Before I transformed, I h-heard the Queen, so that would be... somewhere near her n-nest."

Valka grew serious. The Queen? "What Queen? The one from the nest? You know where the nest is?" The dragon's nest had a queen? How come no one's ever thought of that before?

"I-I don't know where it is. N-no dragon remembers its location."

Valka noticed that he squirmed uncomfortably under her gaze. She decided to hurry the conversation along, to get her answers as soon as possible so she wouldn't have to force him to keep talking. "Can you tell me what you remember before you... transformed?"