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

26

Viggo grinned, "I thought you could use the help." He looked down at Aldru by his side. Her eyes were full of hope and happiness; the island was safe.

"Well, it seems like this nightmare is finally over," Hiccup said hopefully. But all too soon.

Suddenly the ground beneath them began to crumble. Stormfly grabbed Astrid just in time and pulled her away from the instability.

Aldru soon found herself plummeting down. However, her body jerked to a sudden stop; she looked up to find that Viggo had grabbed her arm. "Hold on," he told her as the ground he laid on also began to crack.

With all of his strength, he pulled Aldru back to the surface and threw her as far from the volcano mouth as he could. And within a split second, he was gone.

Aldru stared in disbelief. It was as if he'd just vanished completely, but she knew he fell. She didn't even notice the explosion of lava headed straight toward her. "Aldru!" Snotlout grabbed her and raced to Hookfang. But even as they flew away, all she could do was watch the volcano fade into the distance.

They soon landed on the landing platform where everyone else met. "It looks like the lava isn't going to reach us this time," Fishlegs observed.

"Well, that's a relief," Astrid answered.

"Really? I thought it was a bit of a let down," Ruff stated with a frown.

Tuffnut then added, "me too, sister. I was looking forward to the mass destruction." He then looked around and furrowed his eyebrows, "speaking of mass destruction, where's Viggo?"

Hiccup hesitated, looking from Aldru to the twin. "..He fell into the volcano...he saved Aldru's life."

There was a stressful silence after he said this as all eyes fell onto Aldru. But the girl didn't look in shock, not even upset. All she did was stare at the peak of the island with squinting eyes, as if she were waiting.

"Aldru..?" Hiccup called for her attention. Finally, Aldru turned to her friends. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah," she replied subconsciously; it was obvious that her mind was somewhere else.

• • •

The rest of the day felt awkward for everyone. Although they were glad to be rid of Viggo, it was upsetting that their friend had to lose her father. But all in all, the subject was avoided. Until Hiccup decided to bring it up to her that night. They sat on the edge of the club house platform together when he started, "you haven't really talked since earlier..what's on your mind?"

Aldru sighed, then looked back at the volcano with confusion. "When my mom died," she began, "I felt it. I felt her pain, saw her fear, heard her scream..I felt her existance disappear." Finally meeting Hiccup's gaze, she explained, "I didn't feel any of that today."

It saddened him that she still had hope that Viggo had lived. "Dru," he began softly, "he fell into the volcano."

"I know, it doesn't make sense," Aldru confirmed, "that's what's bugging me."

Hiccup put an arm around her and pulled her into his shoulder. "Well, if he did survive, by some miracle," he told her, "then I'm sure he'll come to see you again, so don't worry."

He was right, she knew that. And although she still had so many questions, Aldru was able to relax. Instead she smiled up at Hiccup and prompted, "you were pretty quick to let him help us."

"Well, we were in a bit of a rush," Hiccup reminded with an amused grin, "but, he really pulled through for us..which is more than I could've ever imagined."

• • •

A few months had gone by without a single hunter sighting. Hiccup and Aldru had grown much closer, but their relationship remained careful. Although, Hiccup wanted to give her everything, he knew she wouldn't accept it; not yet. And no matter how much she wanted to be with him 24/7, she didn't allow herself. It seemed that as time went on, she became more guarded with her feelings.

It was no secret that her time to go to the Stones of Destiny was nearing, she'd told everyone that she could feel it. And it only grew Aldru's fear of having to lose one of her two loves; her dragons or Hiccup.

"Come on, I've seen a terrible terror do better than that," Snotlout yelled as he drilled Aldru. After realizing that she wasn't stong enough to fight the last war with the hunters, she wanted to build up her human strength. Just in case there was ever another battle.

Aldru was on her twentieth push-up when she collapsed onto the ground. Snotlout crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine," he said reluctantly, "at least you did better than yesterday."

"Hey, improvement is improvement," Aldru breathed as she rolled over onto her back.

Snotlout wore a determined look though as he declared, "I'll make a Viking out of you yet!" And with that, he left; class was over for the day.

Tuffnut approached Aldru and lookef down at her. "I can't believe you're actually training with Snotlout," he laughed, holding out a hand to help her up.

"Well," Aldru began, "I've got to be strong if I turn out to be just human after the Stones of Destiny."

"Yeah, but it's Snotlout," Ruffnut spoke with distaste.

Aldru laughed and changed into her dragon form. She flew up to the club house just as Astrid and Fishlegs got back from their scouting mission. The two were talking to Hiccup and, by the looks on their faces, it didn't look like good news. She changed back to human form and walked over to ask, "what's wrong?"

Astrid answered, a grave look on her face, "dragon hunters."

"What? Again?" Aldru was shocked.

"Apparently, they have a new leader," Fishlegs explained.