A Siren's Song - A Hiccup Love Story (HTTYD/RTTE)

20

Hiccup grew even more worried when he touched Aldru's hand. "She's freezing cold; we need to get her warm," he exclaimed.

At the word 'warm,' Hookfang immediately flamed up, catching the grass around him on fire. "Ah, woah," Hiccup gasped and held up his hands, "not that warm, she's in her human body."

Hookfang's flames died down. He gurgled something to the larger nightmare guarding her. The larger one squawked back. Then, the female dragon moved to rest her long chin over Aldru's body. Closing her eyes, she heated her scales gently.

Hiccup touched the dragon to feel that she was a reasonable temperature of hot. "Yes, that's perfect," he praised. Then, a realization hit him. "This must be Aldru's mother dragon."

After not too long, Aldru began to stir. Slowly, her eyes flickered open. She sat up carefully, the mother dragon supporting her up with her snout. A smile spread on Aldru's lips when Meatlug waddled over and licked her joyously. Then she saw Hiccup, kneeling beside her, holding onto her hand, and everything began to come back to her.

"What happened with Viggo?" Heather asked in concern.

"Viggo.." Aldru repeated the name; it didn't sound the same to her anymore.

After a moment, Hiccup gasped, "ow, ow ow ow."

Aldru realized then that his hand was still in hers and she was sqeezing her fists tight. She immediately released him and appoligized in a mumble, "sorry."

"Aldru," Hiccup began quietly, "what did happen?"

Before even thinking about trying to tell her friends what happened, Aldru changed into dragon form and flew upward in a spiral. Soon, all of the wild dragon were going back to their homes. Aldru landed and was immediately human again. She wobbled a bit, still exhausted from earlier.

All eyes were on her, and she sudden felt self conscious. It was as if she were surrounded by strangers once again. Only, it was her who was the real stranger.

"It's okay," Tuffnut assured in a remarkably serious tone, "we're your friends, remember? You can tell us anything."

This eased Aldru a bit, and she was able to give a weak smile. "I know, I just..need to be alone for a while.....then we'll talk."

Everyone was shocked by this; Aldru never wanted to be alone. She was always looking for someone to keep her company, even if it was just Chicken.

When she was out of sight, Hiccup began to follow, but Heather caught him by the arm. "Hiccup," she spoke in empathy, "we should leave her be."

"She did say she wanted to be alone," Snotlout added.

"I know, but.." Hiccup started, unsure how to word his reasoning, "this might be the time she needs someone most." Before anyone else could object, Hiccup turned away and began after Aldru.

• • •

After a long hike, Hiccup found Aldru at the tallest peak of the island. He signalled for Toothless, and together they flew up. "Aldru?" He called hesitantly, unsure if he was welcome or not.

Thankfully, Aldru accepted his company. She looked over her shoulder from where she sat, then back out at the scenery. Hiccup took a seat beside her. "You don't have to tell us what happened until you're ready," he began, "but we're worried about you."

"I am, too," Aldru agreed with a dry laugh.

Hiccup gave her an odd look, but decided not to asked; she'd tell him if she wanted to. To his surprise, she began to talk more. "He treated me like an equal," she muttered, "he just wanted me to see what it was like to be a person; without the tail and scales, just..human."

"..But that's not you," Hiccup told her gently.

"All this time it felt like he was trying to keep me safe, and I told myself that couldn't be true," Aldru went on, "but it was. And now I know why."

Hiccup watched her fist hit the ground between them. It took all of his might not to press her for that reason of, 'why?'. "He did know another song wing; he knew my mother," Aldru explained warily, "and he knew about the letter, he knew every word--" she choked on her own words.

Now Hiccup knew what she meant. Aldru had automatically assumed that the letter had been left for her by her mother. But it was Viggo. He'd called her his beloved. Aldru was Viggo's daughter.

Yet strangely enough, Hiccup wasn't as surprised as he probably should've been. "Aldru, that doesn't change anything," he insisted. He lifted up her chin with his hand and pointed her head toward the bulk of the island, "look what you have here, what you've created. This island is full of dragons that depend on and love you."

Aldru let a smile pull at her lips as a tear rolled down her cheek. "And people, too," Hiccup added. He felt her tear hit his thumb and proceeded to wipe it away. Their eyes met and Hiccup took his chance to grow this small bit of positivity. He put a hand on either of her cheeks and squished her face.

When Aldru squirmed out of his grasp he chuckled, and she laughed as well. "See?" Hiccup proved, "same old you, same old me. You were always this, whether you knew it or not; I promise, nothing has changed."

Finally, Aldru was able to give one of her bright grins again. Hiccup stood and helped her up. Together they walked in silence all the way back to the Edge.

• • •

A few days had passed and everyone now knew about Aldru and Viggo's connection. She'd even become comfortable with sharing all of the details. And although she seemed to be taking that well now, it was obvious that something was still bothering her.

While everyone was sitting around eating some of Heather's yak chops, Aldru noticed Tuffnut giving her odd looks. Finally, after the tenth time or so, Aldru looked over at him and asked with a laugh, "what?"

"What? Nothing," Tuff responded suspiciously. Knowing he wasn't going to get away with that, he sighed an explained, "it's just, you don't usually eat, uh, cooked meat."

At this Aldru felt embarrassment rise in her chest. "So?" She muttered somewhat defensively.

"I also noticed you haven't been using your wings much lately," Astrid added her point carefully.

Hiccup sighed and gave Aldru a grave look, "this is about what Viggo said, isn't it."

"It just got me thinking," Aldru admitted, "I want to just be a person for a while, see how it goes."

"Wait, you're not a person?" Tuff asked in confusion.

Aldru sighed in frustration, "I just wish it were simpler; if I could just be one or the other.."