Omphalos (Hiccelsa)

Chapter 35

There was a squelching sound as Ull stumbled and fell, his hands almost touching the hilt of the knife, but more so instead circling them, as if something prevented him from taking the sword out. His mouth was agape, and he shot a glance up to Calder, who stood in shock, staring with wide eyes.

"C...Cald...Calder?" He whispered. It could have been a question of reality, it might have been recognition of his faults, and it might have stemmed from the young boy with no mother and no father that came to Berk all those years ago. Whatever it was, it rocked Ophelia to the core. She almost wanted to go and hug Ull, for he hardly seemed dangerous now as he slumped forward to fall on his face.

"Ull?" Calder scrambled over to him; setting him upright so he was sitting against the ice, "Stay awake buddy, please?" He whispered, Ull's eyes flickering and dazed. There was a half-grunt from Ull as his eyes fluttered shut.

"No, c'mon, bud." Calder snapped his fingers in front of his brother's face, "I'm going to take this thing out, okay? We'll be okay. We're both going to be okay. I don't forgive you, but we can get there. We'll work on it. It's going to be just fine." Calder grabbed his sword and prepared to pull it from his brother, but Ophelia saw it for how it was.

She gently took herself from Einar's grip, still holding her back, and went to Ull's other side. She pressed two fingers to his neck, biting back tears. She placed her hand over his shaking ones, stopping him.

"He's gone, Calder." She said, and Calder jerked the sword out in shock, stumbling back on the ice.

"You killed him!" Einar finally spoke, looking between the two brothers, "Awe...wow." It was now awe in his voice, but fear. He took a step back. Calder looked up, and Ophelia expected him to get angry, to go off yelling at Einar for such an unhelpful and insensitive comment.

He didn't do either of those. Instead, he slumped across from his brother, his sword clattering to the ground.

"I didn't want to. I didn't mean to. I was just going to let him get steam out, take him home, lock him up but I didn't really meant hat I wanted to kill him. I was irrationally angry today. I didn't-," He broke off abruptly, and what he did next shook Ophelia backwards. He cried. She'd never seen him cry.

Seeing Calder was like seeing your father cry; you knew they did it, but you knew things had turned really bad then they cried. It was a total release of their ability to suppress tears, which they did rarely if anytime, and things were so desolate who they cried in front of didn't matter.

Einar shot Ophelia a helpless look, "I did not sign up for this." He hissed, going to sit beside the female dragon, "Nope, nope."

But Ophelia didn't' expect him to comfort a person he hardly knew, and a person that held animosity toward him until just less than an hour ago. Ophelia wasn't even sure she wanted to comfort him, merely because she didn't know what to say at all.

She noticed his chest was still bleeding, and she got out her bandages silently. She got the thread and needle out too, in case she needed to sew it up...it depended how deep it was.

She crawled to sit beside him, careful to keep herself at his level, and moved his hand. Calder paused crying to look at her. She offered no comforting words, no empty promises, but healing. It was the sort of movement she thought he would appreciate.

The cavern was cloaked in silence, as she worked, not even the ailing dragon made a sound. Then again, she was ultimately wise, and likely understood the sanctity of this moment.

"I'm sorry." She finally said when she had finished patching him up, and that was all that could be said. Calder looked right into her eyes, and he seemed to see that it was genuine. She'd lost a friend.

"Can't believe it." Calder wiped away his tears on the back of his sleeve, "That jerk, leaving me alone. Guess I deserve it, I left him alone enough." He laughed, although it was still mixed with sorrowful tears, "I hope he meets mom. He deserves that, on his side. Odin, what will I tell Hiccup? I killed my own brother; he's going to disown me, for sure."

"No one has to know..." Einar offered cautiously, "We were the only ones to witness it. And her." He added, rubbing his fingers along the mother dragon's pelt.

"He's right." Ophelia made sure she was quick to agree, "I mean, this is a dangerous place. No one should have to judge you, they don't...it's not...what you did was an accident. I know you loved him."

Calder looked unsure, looking at the ground dubiously. "Maybe I deserve those stares."

"Do you want them, thought?" Einar asked, standing, "Look, we understand. Others...won't. You're a good guy, you know? You shouldn't let this moment make the rest of yours awful." Calder finally gave a long nod.

He stood, going to stand over Ull's body. He went to rub the blood off the sword when it slipped out of his hands, falling on Ull's lap. Calder bent to pick it up, when he froze mid-motion. He backtracked hastily, staring at the image before him for a long, long time. Clearly he saw something that Ophelia didn't.

Finally, he muttered a singular curse word.

"What?" Ophelia came to stand by him, maybe there was writing or something around, but just saw Ull against the wall, sword across his legs.

"Do you remember how I said I found the sword across the lap of a skeleton?" Calder's voice was haunted. Now when she looked at the boy in front of her, she felt her breath catch in her throat.

"This is what you saw?"

"Exactly. He didn't move an inch in a thousand years. But he didn't have..." Calder licked his lip uneasily, going a different direction, "He was just bones."

"So...wait?" Einar came over, shaking his head, standing next to Ull, "So you find a sword on your own dead brother whose not dead at the time you find it, then go a thousand years back in time and kill him with it, leave it there, to a thousand years in the future pick it up again? It's a never-ending loop? Where did the sword come from to begin with? Arg, my head hurts." Einar rubbed his head.

"There are some thing in this world we can't explain, not in reasonable terms." Ophelia said, as she knew that better than anyone, "I guess you have to leave that here, so you can find it again." She said to Calder.

"I wouldn't want it now anyway. I'd look at it and remember..." He trailed off, eyebrows knitting in pain.

"So, if we go back to our time, and you come back here, will he have the sword or not? Help me out, man!" Einar was still trying to wrap his head around the whole situation as it was.

This made Calder think, "I'm not sure." He admitted, "Because I find it, take it, but then I always go on the path to go out searching with Ophelia and Co. for Unn, go back here, leave it again...it should be there." He said, "I think..."

"Does it matter?" Ophelia questioned, resisting the urge to go and pick it up. Knowing this, what she did now, it made her stomach churn.

"No, no." Einar frowned, "I just still don't understand." He said, "About time-traveling and paradoxes and life was so much easier two days ago."

"You also lived with Unn, so I don't know if I'd be judging the days in comparison to that." Ophelia pointed out. Einar held out a hand.

"I didn't say it was better, just relatively easier. Course there was war and stuff coming up, but naw, this is..." He made a tiny 'pew' motion with his hands outside his head.

Calder finally stood, sighing. His fingers twitched and Ophelia knew he was doing everything in his power not to turn around. She looked past him, to where Ull lay...just lay. It was really bizarre, to bizarre for her to handle. Suddenly, it all bubbled up inside of her, the raw pain about loosing someone she loved as strongly as a brother, and she understood why Calder wasn't looking. She bit her fist hard, shaking her head softly.

If she kept associating Ull with good things, she'd never get over it. She had to accept the awful and very clear truth of it all; Ull was a bad guy. She was just too stupid to see it.

"What about her?" Einar leaned up against the mother dragon, whose breathing had slowed to nearly nonexistent. He ran a cautious hand across her pelt, and came back with blood on it. He frowned, wiping it on his shirt.

"I'll ask." Calder said, before Ophelia could offer, and went to sit by the dragon. Ophelia felt a little jealous; she wanted to experience this odd connection with such a wise being, yet maybe Calder needed this a little bit more than she did. She got the experience to meet her, and that would be good enough forever. She, along with Einar and Calder, might be the only humans ever to get this chance.

Calder pulled back from her forehead, and she started to stand. Einar stumbled back, egg still tucked under his arm.

"What's happening?"

"She doesn't want to die here. She sees the future that her eggs will be found, cared for. She must preserve them in ice for me to find." He said. She shimmered and changed to a fire-breathing dragon, and burned a hole through the ice above their heads. Cool water dripped down Ophelia's back as daylight steadily broke through until there was a large sunspot gleaming down, making the eggs shimmer.

"She wants us to get on her back." Calder said as the dragoness adjusted herself.

"What? Can she carry us?" Einar glanced around shiftily, biting his lip hard, "Really?"

"Really." Calder said, deadpanned, slinging his leg over her back, "Ophelia?" He offered a hand. Einar got on after them, muttering nervously, and nearly squeaked when she took off straight up, to the top of the glacier.

The view was stunning. Ophelia felt as though she was on the top of the world. She breathed the fresh air, watching the sun over the vast expanse of whiteness. In the distance, she saw a million dragons, no human interference whatsoever, mingling about, all flying and living simply.

"Berk is there, see it?" Calder said as he slid off, pointing to a large rock formation just hazily on the horizon.

"It makes me a bit sad." Ophelia admitted.

"Because your family doesn't exist yet, but you can see it?" Einar guessed, slipping off the dragon's back.

"Because one day we'll come in and fight these dragons, make them hate us and us hate them. Kill a so many off." Her shoulders deflated, and she shrugged, "One day...there won't even be any dragons at all." Her breath hitched.

"No dragon where you come from? But...how? They're natural predators? High on the line of who kills who!" Einar was shocked.

"I don't know. I pray I never do." Ophelia turned, and gasped, "Oh!" The dragoness had collapsed on her side. She shimmered and turned into a smaller sized Bewilderbeast, icing over the hole until it was solid once again. She looked up as if to say, 'they're safe now. Until you find them, they will be safe.'

She closed her eyes, and even Einar stopped his random ramblings as he realized with the other two it was a sacred moment. They all seemed to be holding their breaths; just...waiting for the dreadful moment this dragon would be gone.

The dragon took one last heave of energy and spread her wings, jumping off the cliff. As the wind caught her scales, they fell away like trees in the fall, spinning into a sparkling dust until she was gone.

The dust floated past them, and Ophelia felt the most intense emotions of love she'd ever felt. It was the suppressed memory of her snuggled between her real mother and father on a large bed next to a rippling fire, but also the warmth she felt when she placed her hand on Elsa's stomach while she was pregnant with Are, watching as Hiccup's face light up with delight, but still kissed her forehead and told her he loved her.

A gentle voice, neither male nor female nor human at all, whispered through the wind into her ears.

"Have faith little one. All things work themselves out in the end, and always for a reason."

The feeling lasted long after the dust had vanished into the air. She felt her cheeks and found them wet, and when she glanced at Calder and Einar, they too looked like they had felt the most wonderful feeling. Calder was half-laughing and half-grinning, looking to the sky and shaking his head. Einar held up a hand to attempt to cover his opened mouth, but found it shaking too hard. Both had tears dribbling down their cheeks.

She wondered what they had both seen or remembered, to get such strong reactions?

"I've never felt...so happy." Einar stumbled over his words, "I can't even try to describe that." He gave a long breath, wiping under his eyes.

"We are blessed." Calder's voice rasped, "To have experienced that. Those feelings." He looked at Ophelia, a small smile on his lips, as if there was some inside joke between them. Yet Ophelia had no idea what the expression meant, but it made her smile back nonetheless. Calder smiling was such a beautiful sight.

She looked out across the snow. In that moment, getting home- to any time- didn't seem to matter. It was all such a trivial thought in the greater span of everything in life, a meaningless blimp on the horizon of truth. She was encased in a gleeful bubble that seemingly couldn't be popped.

Her eyes narrowed onto something.

"Guys, look!" She grabbed Calder's arm, "Down there- it's Jor and Randolph!" She said. Calder let out a long, shaking breath.

"Thank Odin! I thought Jor was dead. I thought it was all for nothing." He said, holding his heart.

"Uh, guys?" Einar said, suddenly laughing, "How are we going to get down?"

OMPHALOS

Hiccup ducked as an axe came soaring at his head. He gritted his teeth as it nicked over his hair, and a tiny brown lock fell to the dirt, among the blood of his comrades. Whipping outward, he managed to hit the guy straight across the kneecap with his leg-his fake one-mind you, and watched with relief as the man crumpled to the ground, axe falling out of his fingers.

Hey, if there was one good thing about getting a prosthetic metal leg, it was that it hurt a hell of a lot more to get kicked with it. It was like his own personal weapon built into his body.

The woman had vanished soon after the fight started, her beef not with Hiccup, and quick to get to the true target-Elsa. If Hiccup were being perfectly honest, he'd like to have a go at Unn or Drago too. Some of his anger issues might be easier dealt with if he got a black eye on them.

He grabbed up the axe, throwing it to Eret, who was fighting a couple of old comrades. They certainly looked unhappy to see him. He was rather outmatched, even with his superior fighting skills. A Bog warrior swooped in, hacking around, and almost hitting Eret.

"Oi! I'm on your side, you dimwit!" He said, avoiding her stick with nails drilled through it.

"That's what someone trying to live would say, you dirty dragon-enslaver!" She snarled, hitting the butt of her weapon hard against his slightly showing tattoo. Hiccup jumped between them.

"Glass, he's with us." He frowned, "For god sakes, cover that thing up." He added, turning to Eret. Eret was about to nod, but pushed Hiccup down and threw a dagger over Glass' head, nailing a guy right between the eyes.

"Good shot." Glass acknowledged before moving on. Eret too nodded to Hiccup before another ex-comrade launched himself at Eret. But he seemed to be handling this one guy well enough on his own.

Hiccup himself had already felt as though he'd narrowed the field a bit; he was an obvious target. Not only the man who had driven Drago away the first time, but also the chief leader of all the tribes. Logical thinking was if they chopped off the head, the rest of the people would sizzle away.

But it wouldn't work like that. Hiccup had the very frank conversation with everyone before the battle. He dies; keep fighting. Thuggury will take the place next of Omni-Chief. This wasn't a fight to just kill, this was fighting for something. There were going to be casualties, but no one was more important than anyone else.

Already, Hiccup was stumbling over bodies- his own, theirs, who knows? Most were so badly disfigured and still bleeding it was hard to be able to look at faces, and clothing were so muddy and disgusting that it was impossible to tell that way. While he could have the naive hope it was all the enemies, he wasn't stupid.

He just hoped Elsa was fine.

He spotted Fulla whacking through people with a pair of knifes that didn't look very sharp at all, yet when she impaled someone, it look like it hurt. He sidled up back-to-back with the young girl.

"Got a weapon, by chance?" She asked as she kicked a guy in the balls coming at her, "These butter knives are sort of dull."

Hiccup almost guffawed; this girl had balls, or she would...if she was a guy. He couldn't image going out into a full-on battle with such minor things to arm himself. Yet, this was the daughter of Thuggury they were discussing. Just as hardcore, a hell of a lot prettier.

"Here." He said, grabbing a discarded sword while she watched his back, "Where's the others?"

"Fine. Wimps going to get real weapons and real armor. Pfft; amateurs." She said, and Hiccup let out a sigh of relief. The longer the young adults, but he still thought of them all as children, and he didn't think they should be here. He almost wanted to ask if Ophelia was really dead, but Fulla ducked out in an impressive roll, and he realized there would hopefully be time after for that.

He turned and saw a small figure darting out between the bodies, carrying ones that could be indentified as their own away from the melee. His throat clenched as he realized one was Camacaczi's son, and he looked so small in comparison to the large Viking he struggled away with.

A man with an evil grin came up from his behind, and before Hiccup could react, stabbed the boy. Asmund cried out, grabbing his arm. Like magic, though, Camacazi appeared out of nowhere, her black hair flying everywhere as she jumped over Asmund.

"You filthy piece of dragon dung!" She cried as she attacked him, "You sicko! A child, a child, you realize?"

"Uh..." Asmund tapped Camacazi's shirt hesitantly, "Miss Chief, I think he's dead."

She looked at him, such a forlorn and soft expression on her bloodstained face. She looked at the man, nodding.

"Oh, I suppose he is."

Then she leaned down, almost pausing, but then her callused hand guided down his cheek. From any smuck's point of view, it would seem an older leader being gentle to a young boy, a soft gesture. Hiccup realized it was so much more. It was the first time in nearly decade she'd gotten to be so close to her son, to touch him.

When she spoke, there was a ripple of fury running beneath her tone, so subtle that Hiccup only barely picked up on it. She wasn't mad at him, not necessarily. As a parent, he understood her tone. It was the anger in possibility; that he was here dragging bodies out, and perhaps she wouldn't be there next time, because as a leader she couldn't shadow. And you can't protect your children forever either.

It was also the anger about the situation of it all...that she couldn't even tell him, that if it came to it and he died, that she loved him so that maybe he knew for a passing moment that his mother loved him so very much. It would be a vastly changed tale from the one Jari was forced to explain.

"You listen to me, you need to always be watching your back. Didn't anyone ever tell you that? These...these savages won't hesitate to kill a child, so you can't assume you're safe out here, even under such an innocent act. We-er, Jari, you know he'd be devastated it anything at all were to happen to you."

Her eyes watered and her voice quavered at the end, and Asmund blinked in surprise.

"You know my father?" His voice was full of wonder, and Hiccup often forgot that on Meathead Island, he was just another kid. No one, maybe not even Thuggury, knew he was actually a son of a chief. Camacazi straightened, still looking at him longingly.

"Very well, actually." She whispered, then shook her head, "No...you be more careful, you hear?" She added in her 'stern voice'. Asmund nodded vigorously.

"Yes, Miss Chief!" He said, scrambling away into the fray.

It was then Camacazi looked up to meet Hiccup's eyes. She realized he'd seen it all. She skirted the field to him, slipping around him to bash in the kneecaps of someone Hiccup hadn't noticed had been sneaking up. She wiped away a tear on the back of her hand.

"Did you not just hear that whole lecture I gave the kid, Hiccup?" She bit out, and Hiccup returned the favor by smashing his head as he crawled toward Camacazi. She stuck her axe into the softened ground; giving him a hard glance that was motherly enough to make him sheepishly hang his head.

"I couldn't help it." He admitted, "I didn't even think..." He trailed off.

"I've never been so angry as I was in that moment. Not even when Tyrah broke Brinja's leg. That was just fury." She licked her lips, and then flicked away some blood gathering at her cheek.

"He's your son." Hiccup said softly, "Back to back?" He asked, and she nodded, pushing her bony shoulders against his back.

"Just like old times, eh, Hiccup? Protecting Berk from-," She sliced a hand off and it hit Hiccup in the side, "Lizard people?"

"Well, we were almost right." He agreed, chuckling, "But if I recall you were all blood and death and back then I was still talking to make an agreement." He said, remembering how upset Camacazi would get with his child-self when in their play fighting, he was more peace than stabbing.

"Think talking would work now?" Her voice was deadpanned. Hiccup gave a half-scoff, pushing her out of the way as he ducked from a flying arrow.

"Nope." As they repositioned themselves, flowing like a continuous river instead of separate entities fighting together, he felt his muscles move into the familiar patterns they'd play-practiced as children, made from watching the older adults. Camacazi was insistent about getting it down perfectly; their movements in step so that they both had each other's back together. He'd taught Elsa some of it, of which she was grateful for.

His throat constricted.

"Have you seen Elsa?" He called over his shoulder, without moving his eyes from ahead of him, "Or Valka."

"No! Not since the stand-off." Camacazi said, then her voice softened, "They're better fighters than you, Hic. They're fine; you know that." Whether it was meant to be reassuring or insulting, Hiccup was still grateful.

"I just...I'm worried. At least Are and Rika are down with the others, I don't have to be concerned about them too." Hiccup was already worried for his whole tribe. He couldn't even imagine having to constantly be wondering about his children as well, "Is Jari okay?" He added.

"Yeah, that idiot is still kicking." Camacazi attempted to sound detached, but the relief in her voice was evident, "He and Thug are killing it...and them." She chuckled, "Crap! Shit, darn it!" Camacazi exclaimed.

"What?" Hiccup yelled back.

"One of my girls, from my tribe, aw what she' thinking, taking him on? She's going to lose!" She gave Hiccup a conflicted look, stepping away slightly from their position. She would have hit him with a stick if he'd broken position as children.

But they were not longer children anymore. They were chiefs; adults. They had more responsibility than reasonable, and to think that things could be as effortless as it were years ago wasn't logical.

"Go. I can take care of myself, you do realize." He said, pushing her a big farther away from him. She gave him a warm look.

"I do have to say your combat skills have improved. But only a smidgen." She winked at him, and was off.

Gone was his back-watcher, and not long into a tussle with another person, he felt a weight attack him from the back. He fell to the ground, the wind knocked out of him, making a sound of pain. There was a screeching from the sky, and Hiccup curled up into a ball. Around him the world exploded in blue flames as Toothless swooped down, baring his teeth at Hiccup's still unknown assailant. His ears rang and the colors around him danced, due to his muddled senses. The fire licked the trees around the field, lighting them in a vibrant hue of cobalt.

Toothless licked up his back.

"I'm fine, I'm okay." Hiccup grunted to his dragon, his limbs aching as he pushed himself up, "How are you doing, bud?" He asked. Few people dared to attack him with a Night Fury curling protectively around Hiccup. Toothless tilted his head, and hissed at someone, distracted. By the time Hiccup had made it shakily to his feet Toothless was all bristled up, snarling up a storm. He knew his friend was agitated by so much ground commotion, and would rather attack from the safety and viewpoint of the skies.

Hiccup too found this an opportune time to survey the battle from the top. See the losses, the damage, see who needed help. Toothless was up off the ground the fastest he'd ever been, shooting into the sky like a rocket.

The damage spread for miles across Berk, and Hiccup felt his body tense and blazes with pain. It was a profound pain, which slowly ate across his body until it reached his heart.

It had reached, nearly, the outskirts of the village. It was such a large area, that it seemed it would never be able to be fixed. The dead and the fighting were evenly mixed, but his stomach churned at faces he knew personally staring blankly into the sky, lips parted slightly.

And the worst? The thing that set his whole body burning and made him quake with unbridled anger?

His house; his beautiful abode he'd spent such a long time making for Elsa and then growing in it with her and their children, was nothing more than a pile of smoldering ashes.

"We have to end this Toothless." His voice was hard as he patted his dragon's flank, "This has to end. It has to."

OMPHALOS

After ungracefully sliding down the glacier, Ophelia took off running at full speed-ignoring her throbbing leg- and smacked into Jor at full speed, hugging her so tight that she thought she might crush the tiny girl.

"Jor, you're alive. Thank Odin." She said, her legs turning to jelly as the pair of friends collapsed to the snow. She pulled back, "How..."

"Randolph carries quite the collection of emergency packs in his pockets." Her voice was raspy, pained, but she looked a lot brighter. She was wearing his jacket, and he stood shivering. Overall, he just seemed mostly relieved she was okay. They all were.

"We thought you guys were goners." Randolph went to pat Calder on the back, "I'm uh...sorry about your brother, being crazy and all."

Calder winced violently.

"I told you they were alive. I can feel it." She said, and Ophelia was well aware she didn't mean metaphorically. But few actually took her words for face value. But if she could still hold onto those string then-

"I know." She whispered to Ophelia, finishing her thoughts for her. She looked at Calder, whose face was so quietly distressed, and frowned, as if reading the whole event from a couple of looks, "I'm sorry too, Calder." She raised her voice a little. Calder gulped, for Ophelia was sure he realized what she was sorry about.

"Whose this...?" Randolph eyed Einar with a judgmental glance.

"Einar. Yeah, Unn's...well, I'm not really his son, as I've figured out, you know. I was sort of raised as it, but I'm not a bad guy. Ask Calder." He finished meekly, shuffling his head and ducking near Ophelia. He was rubbing his egg in gentle circles, blowing on his hand and rubbing the egg to keep it warm.

Randolph sent Calder a sharp, wild look. Calder gave him long, tired sigh in return.

"He's good, it's okay." He vouched, waving a hand. He slid into the snow, staring out. Randolph looked ready to argue at first, but noticed his friend's expression. Quietly, he knelt by Ophelia.

"Hey...what's wrong with Cal?" He questioned.

"It's really something he needs to tell you himself, if he ever feels ready." She said, and Randolph nodded, a clear sigh he wasn't going to push the subject. He glanced around.

"Ull was down there in the hold. Have you seen him at all?" He asked. Ophelia bit the inside of her cheek, forcing a frown.

"Not at all. Who knows where he is?"

"I think we should worry about where we are." Calder snapped, and Randolph stumbled a bit.

"Or when..." Einar muttered under his breath. Randolph seemed a little confused for a moment, almost wary, as he licked his lips and rubbed the back of his scalp.

There was a flapping overhead. Ophelia readied to run back to the wall of ice for a smidgen of protection, but her heart nearly jumped out of her rib cage with joy to see Randolph's dragon.

"There you are! Thank god." Ralph grabbed his chest, "I was beginning to think you'd popped away again." He said, rubbing his dragon's muzzle affectionately.

"What sort of dragon is that?" Einar crawled forward.

"No one is really sure." Ophelia said, coming up to pet Sappho's head, "She was found with, you know." She jerked a finger back to the glacier. He nodded.

"Well..." Randolph scratched his head, "About that..."

But Ophelia was distracted. Sappho was scrawling things in the icy ground with her claw. Odd symbols, not Nordic nor English, by her estimation, in fact it almost looked-

"That dragon is writing in Greek." Einar finished for her, scratching his head, "They can do that?"

"She can." Randolph shrugged, "Most dragons communicate in their own way, and usually it's very personal to the rider. But this...she's a bit more obvious."

"How do you know it's Greek?" Calder came up to stand beside Einar.

"Spent my formative years on a ship, going port to port. Was a lonely kid; spent a lot of it reading. You know, casual stuff." He shrugged, as if it wasn't a feat in itself to learn a whole system of different symbols.

"I think we should be asking how that dragon knows how to write in Greek." Jor said, frowning hard at Randolph, her face shifting, "What are you not telling us?" She pressured, coming to stand face-to-face with him.

"What does it say, Einar?" Calder asked, pushing Einar forward a little so he was directly in front of the word."

"Erm, I'm not a master, but uh...Pegdine Opiti." He read out loud, which was met with mostly still confused glanced, "Go home, it means. You know, I think there's the inflection, unspoken of course, of a question." He clarified. Jor let out a long sigh.

"Home...she can get us home?" Jor seemed ultimately relieved.

"But how?" And Ophelia wasn't merely asking how five young adults would fit on one dragon, but after all she saw there wasn't anything anyone could say that would convince her they weren't back in time.

"Aren't we...?" Einar lowered his voice, as if someone was listening in, "The past?"

"The past?" Jor said, unconvinced. Randolph just stayed silent, but it wasn't shocked into silence...but a guilty silence. Ophelia noticed, rounding up on him.

"Dolph...?" She said, "Jor's right. You're hiding something."

"Okay, okay!" Randolph shoved her back softly, holding up his hands, "You all might want to sit down for this." Everyone stayed standing.

"Sappho is a drake. As in...a Greek Dragon. I mean, it's logical. There are dragons all over the world and stuff. How it got up here, I don't know. I'm glad though, regardless, because-ah, that's not important. But Sappho, she creates these like portal things that can take you anywhere you want to go. She travels through time. Crazy, right? Sometimes the portals stay. Saw a guy fall through one...I think he's burning up somewhere in a desert still. But you can travel with her. I don't do it often, though, sort of a weird feeling. Makes my stomach churn and riot against me. ?" Randolph said, "You all seem not as shocked as I expected." He frowned.

Calder and Einar had heard this all before. Jor had likely guessed. Randolph turned to Ophelia, his eyes rising in slight relief, "Except you. I mean, that means you think it's true, at least...a bit?" Of course to himself, he sounded mad, and the rest seemed doubtful.

Ophelia couldn't even hear him say those words though. Her breath shortened, her forehead sweat, and she felt something- maybe actual shock or happiness or actual vomit rise up her throat. Odin, no...it was vomit. She pressed her hands against her lips.

For eons it seemed, her parents- both sides (likely) had been searching for this. An Omphalos. A portal between the words. Randolph had possessed that power for ages, and he didn't even know the proper name. It had been flying around, literally in front of their eyes, and no one had been smart enough to look at her hard enough.

It all made more sense now; her periodic disappearances that Randolph seemed unconcerned about, her gangly and totally awkward appearance, and how Sigrid always had laughed that sometimes- from the way Randolph talked about Sappho- it seemed as though the dragon was actually communicating verbally with him. And her name...Sappho, that was Greek...wasn't it?

And of course, out of the two children here that were from a time different than the one they lived now- oh, yes Ophelia knew all about how Randolph and his sister plopped from the sky, solving Ragnar's problems of an heir- the egg had picked him. But perhaps that was better, wasn't it? For if it had picked her, Ophelia might not even be in this moment...she might be back with Anna and Kristoff and-

She could actually meet them now, couldn't she? It wasn't just a fantasy. Sappho seemed to hold power over where she went. It was boggling.

"I do believe you." Ophelia finally agreed, and he sighed in relief, "I'm from the future, that's why."

"We're all from the future here, technically." Randolph scratched his head.

"No, no, no. Like...future, future. Future of Berk." Ophelia said, "Like how you're from the future too."

"Him too?" Einar kicked some snow, "Getting weirder every second..."

Randolph's eyes were wide.

"How-,"

"When Elsa and I appeared here, in Berk, it wasn't that our kingdom was burned. I found a dragon scale- Toothless' actually, in a big hole. When Elsa went to look at it to assess the danger, I followed because I was mad at my mom and liked Elsa better at that moment. We fell in. The rest is literal history." She rubbed her hands on her pants, "But Elsa and Hiccup have been looking for a portal for like 12 years, trying to get me to their idea of what my home is. And from what I hear about my real mom, she wouldn't stop either. And you've known...for years." There was still a bitter tinge on her tongue.

"Whoa." Randolph just scratched his head, "Would have never guessed. Are any of you from the future? Or past?" The rest shook their heads. Randolph let his shoulders sag in slight relief.

"We need to get home, Dolph." Ophelia said, "We don't know if they've reached Berk yet, but we need to get back there." She said, reminding him of the situation at hand.

"Yeah, of course."

"Can't you just take us back to before this all happened? Like cut off the root before it grows?" Einar questioned.

"Naw, man. I don't mess with timelines already established. Everything happens for a reason and I might be smited if I try to mess with that. Besides, you'd still be with your liar of a father, huh?" He said. Einar quieted after that.

And Ull...he'd still be alive. But deep down, he'd still be a betrayer. He still would be two-faced. Yes...there were some things that couldn't be changed.

"Do we all have to get on her?" Calder asked.

"Anyone you're touching gets ported along, so everyone hold hands...and hold tight. I don't know if you can fly off in the middle of traveling, but let's not risk it. There's probably more than two thousand years between now and Berk. And time slows down when there's more weight; so I might not even be able to guess where you land." He said. Jor tightly grasped Ophelia's wrist; that girl didn't need to be warned twice. Einar grabbed Ophelia's other hand, at the end of the chain, as he held onto his little dragon egg as gingerly as he could.

"This might hurt a bit. Helps to hold your breath." Randolph said, and nodded to Sappho. With a blink, they were hurled from the time. Knowing it was coming made it hurt less, in Ophelia's opinion, and when they boomed back into their time, she was the only one not retching on the ground.

"Where's the Omphalos?" Ophelia spun; confused, looking for a shimmering pool her mother had talked about.

"Doesn't appear when she just travels like that. Opens when she's more or less passing through for leisure." Randolph threw his hands up in a slight-exasperated sigh, "I don't know the whole works of it, okay?"

"Guys." Jor was standing, bringing the four others to the attention of her view, "It's all...gone."

"Did we go too far?" Calder jumped up, examining the burnt landscapes as far as the eye could see.

"No, we're in the right time. I think." Randolph sounded less convinced than Ophelia wanted him to be.

"Where are we? What island?" Einar asked logically, "Berk might still be fine." He assured Jor, who shook.

"It is...I can feel the war. So many connections snapped away, just like that." She slouched, "It's brutal."

"Then we need to get there ASAP!" Calder said, springing over to Sappho, "Can she take us all?' He asked, getting onto her back. She glared at him slightly, until Randolph calmed her.

"Not cool. Ask before mounting a dragon. But I think, if it's not too far away, we might be okay. We should give it a go." He agreed, loading everyone strategically onto the dragon according to weight.

The smell of burning was more pronounced the more they flew, along with the growing din of war. They flew high above the clouds so they were unnoticed, and Jor grabbed around Ophelia's waist tightly.

"We're loosing. There's so many of them. Look at all those ships!" She said, pointing, her voice reaching hysterics.

"At least there are us five. Or four?" He looked at Einar, "This isn't your war."

"The hell it is. Five." He agreed.

"Four." Ophelia said, "Jor is in no position to fight anyone. Take us down to the safety shelter." She pointed.

As they landed, Jor continued to shiver. Ophelia was certain it was also the mixture of feeling all the agony as people died, along with her near-death experience. She put her jacket on the girl's shoulders as well, and as she did, the drawing fluttered to the ground.

As she picked them up, there was a memory of Elsa telling her about Arendelle, in much detail as the woman recalled. The fjorge of the strong ships selling spices and fabric, the woody mountains that smelled so good, the mountains, the marketplace, the palace, the palace guard and militia-

"The militia!" Ophelia spun round, grabbing Randolph, "You need to go Arendelle- my time, and find my real mom and tell her we need help. We need her armies. She'll come, I know she will!"

"What?" Randolph frowned, "Are you crazy?"

"It's crazy enough to work." Calder added in helpfully, "We need the help. These people are slaughters and have no sense of decency." He said firmly, "We're being killed like sheep."

"How do I even know what time to get to?" Randolph still seemed skeptical.

"I don't know, I mean, I don't remember the exact year I vanished from." Sappho was nudging her side, giving Ophelia a meaningful glare, "She knows."

"But-why me? Shouldn't you go?"

"She's your dragon. And my parents are down there fighting, no doubt large targets on their back. Besides, you'll need as few people traveling to take back as many as you can at a time, or to make a portal. Please, Randolph." She begged.

"What if she doesn't believe me?" Randolph asked, and Ophelia bit her lip, gnawing on the bottom.

"Take this." She said, gently taking out the last item from her pocket. It was a snowflake charm her mother had gotten her on a silver necklace for her on the day she was born. It was inscribed with her name; one of a kind." Randolph looked down at the little necklace. His forehead furrowed in thought. After a long moment he nodded.

"Stand back. I'm going to have her open a direct portal, if possible. If it shimmers, don't step on it, for Odin's sake. Try to inform the others too."

"I'll stay back and direct them and tell the children and elders." Jor wasn't shivering as hard anymore.

"I'm going to fight." Ophelia went over to the mostly empty rack of weapons, "Calder?" She asked, picking up a heavy sword. He took it from her. Einar browsed the selection, but then looked at his egg hesitantly.

"I'll take that. I promise, it will be safe." Ophelia said, and he gave it to her after a brief moment of hesitation.

"If I don't fight, and they win, it'll never be my dragon anyone. Something to fight for." He murmured under his breath, grabbing a shield bearing the Berk emblem and a helmet obscuring his face, "Don't want to be mistaken for the other team." He added dryly when Ophelia tilted her head.

"Good luck." Randolph called, patting his dragon, "I'll be back with the help, I promise. If you see my dad fighting, tell him I'm okay. I don't know what dirty lies Unn had told him, but they won't be pretty." He saluted, and then there was a loud boom. When it settled, there was just a glimmering pool shining over the ground.

There it was. An Omphalos. As if it were the most casual thing in the world.

But she couldn't focus on that. Not when she was terrified that she might not even get to see these reinforcements of her home country, but she had to try. This was her home too.

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DID THIS CHAPTER EXCITE YOU? BECAUSE IT EXCITED ME SO MUCH REVEALED. DEATH, WAR, THE FEELS. EVERYTHING YOU COULD EVER WANT IN A STORY. Haha, that would be a pretty good bi-line for this story, wouldn't it? XD

So please, please, please, if this chapter made you happy or scared or any other emotion to read, please leave a review or leave a vote. I don't get a lot, and it might, just might (because I have the other chapter already written) get it out a bit faster. If not, it will be up within 7-10 days.

Also, if you have any predictions, I would LOVE to hear them! I like hearing what y'all have going on in your brains. and sometimes, I'll even tell you if you were/are right. Like one reviewer had actually guessed or thought Ull might turn out as a traitor, than talked themselves out of that. I would have gotten a kick to read that before the previous chapter went out. Things like make me happy!