Let Your Heart Decide

A Whole New World With You

@elliesjones Thanks for the inspiration! More to come :3

Dictatious growled but didn't move away when Blinky sat down beside him, a vast improvement over his actions of the last few weeks on the island. Over this period of forced interaction, Blinky's brother had changed from open resentment to resigned dislike. "How was your day?" Blinky asked tentatively. The last time he had asked, his brother had thrown a rock at him and left. Dictatious shrugged. "As good as can be expected in my captivity."

Blinky sighed and poked the fire with a stick, at a loss for how to reply. He noticed that his brother's knees were bruised and wondered what he had tripped over to hurt them. Even so, he knew better than to ask, which would only embarrass the blind troll. Eventually Dictatious spoke again. "I have found myself rather confused on one thing- why take me? Now I know where you are hiding." Blinky shrugged, watching his camp bustle around him. "One less agent of Gunmar to worry about. You do know about my camp, even so there is no way for you to notify Gunmar. On a more personal level... I wanted my brother back."

Dictatious snorted. "Soft sentiment has no place in the heart of a leader." Blinky raised his eyebrows, slightly annoyed. "Is that why Gunmar never hesitates to murder his followers?" Dictatious looked confused, and asked, "What do you mean?" Pleased to have information that his brother didn't, Blinky replied, "Oh, you didn't know? The changeling Otto is dead- Gunmar left him behind as a distraction and made him die when we discovered him. It appeared to be a horribly painful death."

The green troll tried to look indifferent, but Blinky could see the shock on his brother's face. Dictatious had never liked Otto, the two always competing for power, but it was hard to think about Gunmar callously sacrificing one of his top servants for a distraction. "The changelings... are considered expendable." Dictatious mumbled, but he seemed disheartened. "I thought he was working in a different area."

Blinky was pleased with this minor breakthrough, but it was time to leave the subject behind for now. "The dragon riders are coming to visit tomorrow." Dictatious groaned and shook himself. "Just keep those awful creatures away from me. Last time I was savagely attacked by one, as I'm sure you remember well."

Blinky barely stopped himself from snorting with annoyance- of course he remembered. Toothless had started to sniff Dictatious, shoving his large nose into his stomach, but since the green troll hadn't been warned, he didn't know what was touching him and freaked out. Hiccup hadn't been able to call his dragon off in time and Toothless had chased down the frantic troll, licking his face and pushing him into the dirt. When Blinky pulled him up, Dictatious had pushed him away, embarrassed. Blinky had almost wanted to laugh, but then he had seen the fear on his brother's face, and for the first time, he felt bad for blinding him, for leaving him so helpless.

It seemed that both trolls had regrets, but maybe it was possible to turn over a new leaf. Blinky needed to treat this situation as if he was juggling glass; one mistake, and Dictatious would only slip farther away than ever.