Home-Bound: Broken Ties

12 - Undoing Mistakes

hiccup mentions he's fluent in four languages. those languages are norse, latin, english, and dragonese (although he can't necessarily speak it well because he's not a dragon, he can still understand it). also, English wasn't really the English we know today. today it's known as "old english" but of course it wouldn't be old during the time of the vikings. it was still a relatively new language at the time so hiccup would be very with-the-times for knowing English :)

also... 4k words. you're welcome!

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"You must be mistaken," Luneah interjected. "I'm married to Chief Hayden of Isle Isunder. Hiccup Haddock ran away from Berk five years ago. Why would he ever want to come back?"

Gobber barely heard what Luneah said. He spoke directly to the Chief who was standing behind his wife. "Tha's wha' I want to know, Hiccup! Why did you come back? We treated you so... foul!"

Luneah took a step forward to escort Gobber out but Hiccup took her wrist in his hand firmly. "No, Amare. Gobber's practically raised me. Lying won't do anything."

"You bet it won't. Hiccup, I know tha's you. I had an inkling from before, but 'yer voice was lower and tha' mask muffled you a bit..."

Hiccup took in a shuddering breath and slowly pulled off his helmet. "Hi, Gobber. I'm sorry you had to find out this way— eugh!"

He was cut off as Gobber swept him into one tight hug, his feet being lifted off the ground. Hiccup returned the hug with just as much fervor, missing the comforting embrace of his second-father. He was around Gobber so much that Hiccup saw him as his cool uncle—the one who made crude jokes and let you get away with anything. The one who snuck you treats during the holidays and hid you from your parents when you were in trouble.

"I knew ye weren't dead! You may 'ave been small but you were the smartest of them all."

"Well... thanks Gobber..."

"And now look at you! Chief of a town thirty times the size of Berk! And married! And riding a dragon!"

Hiccup stammered and scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "Ah— I guess you never really got the proper introduction to my family, huh? Toothless?"

Said dragon perked up and bounded over. Hiccup placed a palm on Toothless' head and wrapped an arm around Luneah's waist. "Gobber... This is Toothless—my bonded dragon. That," he pointed to Jeysannia who made a face at the title. "Is my wife's best friend, Jeysannia. And this," Hiccup turned to Luna with a loving smile on his face,"is Luneah Egirium Maia—my wife of two years."

"Why didn't you show yerself sooner, boy! I would 'ave wanted to meet Luneah here as soon as possible!" Gobber scolded lightly, laying a gently smack against Hiccup's arm. Toothless chortled when Hiccup flinched; a sort of taunting smile that only bonded dragons seemed to possess.

"Well... I was going to show myself after the treaty was signed but decided against it," Hiccup stated truthfully. "I thought leaving in peace would be more beneficial to our treaty than staying."

"Oh, Hiccup. You never told me this," Luneah set a hand on Hiccup's back. "What made you change your mind?"

"Let's take a little field trip, shall we?"

Hiccup pulled his cloak out of one of the saddlebags and clipped it to his armor. Before stepping out of the forge, he pulled on the hood and took Luneah's hand in his own.

"Toothless, stay," he pointed to his dragon. The Night Fury simply curled down and set his head down for another nap. He continued to stoke the forge, knowing he would have much more work to do later on if it died down.