They, with the Dragon Wings • HTTYD

Chapter 11 | paradise

The masked figure stood before the both of you, hesitating for a moment before reaching a hand out in Hiccups direction. He gave them a confused look, leaning away slightly. But it seems whatever they were looking for, they'd managed to confirm. Flinching in a stunned manner, they processed for a moment before you finally got to hear their voice.

"Hiccup?"

It was a woman under all that armour and thick snow clothes. Her voice gave it away, even with it being slightly muffled from the mask. Hiccup didn't recognise the voice, but if she knew who he was he assumed it must be someone his father had met before.

"Do I... know you?" He asked.

She sighed, pulling off the mask to reveal her face. Sharp features with long brown hair pulled back, green eyes, freckled slightly. You took a second to process why she looked familiar, but it dawned on you the moment her gaze at Hiccup softened.

"No... but I could never forget, even after all these years, I can still recognise the boy I bought into this world..." she explained.

Hiccup fell silent, simply looking up at her in shock and the gears in his mind turning as the family resemblance became clear.

"Mum..? Wait- you're my mother? You- I thought you died... this is where you've been all these years?" Hiccup stammered out.

You stayed silent, not wanting to intervene this sudden family reunion.

"It's a very long, complicated story. I wanted to come back and raise you, I really did. It hurt me so much to leave you behind... but Berk was just... I couldn't watch another dragon be killed, not after learning how truly magnificent they were, how much they needed protecting. And to think... after all this time you found that same conclusion I did..." she replied, turning her attention to Toothless who'd since gone from protective to curious.

Hiccup ran his hand over Toothless head, the dragon nuzzling into him for affection in response.

"I did... yeah, I couldn't do it. I looked in his eyes and I just... couldn't" Hiccup simply explained, still a little stunned this woman was his mother.

Then, her gaze fell upon you. A look of awe in her eyes, restraining herself from jumping on you to analyse your wings and tail.

"And the gods must have chosen you, Hiccup. Deemed you worthy of actually meeting a real live Hybrida... all those legends, true after all" she said.

You suddenly felt a little shy, like you'd been placed in front of a living legend herself and she was telling you that you were the chosen one.

"Oh, yes. That's also a long story... This is (y/n), and my dragon here is Toothless" Hiccup introduced.

"Nice to meet you" you simply stated.

"Likewise, I'm Valka. And that, is Cloudjumper" she replied, gesturing to the dragon standing behind her.

Almost owl like that dragon was, and double winged too, a very interesting breed. They seemed very well behaved and trained, calm too. Much calmer than Toothless who was on a mission to sniff every inch of the new dragon and their rider his own rider had deemed safe.

"Come, I'll show you... everything" Valka said, turning to lead you.

You and Hiccup exchanged glances, curious with the unexpected twist this island had taken. Following her, through that cave opening you'd been looking at and climbing over some rocks, you were lead into an opening in the centre of the mountains, a deep valley full to the brim with dragons, many species you'd not ever seen before, all of them well looked after by the looks of things. As you expected, Hiccup was totally geeking out over it all. You on the other hand, simply stood in awe.

You'd never seen so many dragons in one place before, and many of these breeds aren't native to your land so it was all very new for you. And just as you and Hiccup had suspected, there was indeed a massive bewilderbeast relaxing down in the bottom of the valley. The source of the ice spikes was solved then, only something like that could make them. It was clearly the leader of this massive pack of dragons, it's sheer size and the way it bossed around the other dragons clearly made it the alpha.

Your amazed daze was suddenly cut when you heard Hiccup say your name, the conversation with his mother had turned to you now.

"Huh?" You muttered.

"Your land, it's full of hybrida isn't it?" He asked.

"Yes, it's the only one I'm aware of but I'm sure there must be more of us somewhere out there in the massive world"

"Where are you from, if I may ask?" Valka asked.

You reached for Hiccups map where you'd drawn on where your island was to show her, folding it out and holding it up.

"Here, Ectacos located between Roma, Hellas and Kemet. Quite far away as you can see. I left because well... I wanted to see the world. I didn't have anything holding me back, no friends or any real family so I simply... left" you explained.

Valka took in the map, only recognising the archipelago and a few islands just outside it. She's not gone across the biggest part of the sea between the Norse land and yours, she never even knew there WAS land out that way.

"Amazing... so much land, so many dragons, and Hybrida too. I don't blame you for wanting to explore, there's just so much to see" she said.

"We're heading that way, (y/n) said they'd take me to see their land. And... we're kind of avoiding hunters right now" Hiccup explained.

Valka scoffed, having dealt with hunters many many times before.

"Agh, the bastards. Most of the dragons here are rescued from hunters, poor things have been permanently injured, lost limbs, on the brink of death... was it them that caused this missing tail?" She asked, lifting Toothless prosthetic to examine it.

Hiccup gave you an awkward look, both of you knowing exactly how he got it. You just snickered at him, now having to explain it all.

"Ooohh, that! Well uh... you see, it was actually ME who shot him down. BUT! He got me back! We're even now! Half my legs gone" Hiccup explained, lifting his own prosthetic.

Valka sighed, shaking her head in the classic mother disapproval.

"I should have known you'd grow up to be trouble, you are your fathers child after all. And yet your affinity for dragons seems to have come from me after all. I take it your father wasn't too pleased about the whole dragon thing" she asked.

"Not at first, but I think almost loosing me... woke him up. Berk is crawling with dragons now, if you can believe it" Hiccup replied.

"Can confirm, they even met me stay and recover. I was the one he found on the hunter ships, almost died of starvation... but! This yapper here is quite multitalented and got me back into good health, flying and made me all this armour fit for my body type. I owe him big time, hence why I agreed to show him my homeland" You added.

A slight knowing grin crept onto Valkas lips, watching Hiccup act all humble about literally saving your life. Followed by you trying to tell him to just accept the praise damnit, he deserved it. The way you bantered, the smiles you wore when you looked at each other. It reminded her of when she was young with Hiccup's father.

You may not see it yet, but she could. She definitely could. Mothers always know when their babies are in love, it seemed.