A Storm from the East (A Viggo Lovestory)

Chapter 19

As the trio continued walking down the pathway in the cave it steadily got steeper and steeper. At first, they were still having conversation, Viggo and Eos carried on their talk about Maces and Talons, but soon the path got to steep, and they started to get out of breath. Now that everything was silent, only the repetitive deep breath sounds of the Riders and the metallic sound Hiccups leg made with every step audible, Hiccup finally got to clearing his mind. Eos and Viggo seemed awfully close. He wasn't sure if he had missed something, remembering his own girlfriend telling him, or rather Heather, that he does that sometimes, but he just wasn't sure what had changed or when it had. It wasn't like he wasn't happy that Viggo finally found a friend and it was to be expected that the girl was kind to him, she was kind to everyone. But this was a different sort of kindness. She treated Viggo almost like she treated himself, but there was still something.. off. Maybe he was just overreacting and they were just friends. And even if there was something different between them, why should he care? It's their life, no matter what was going on between the two, it was their business. And yet, he couldn't help but worry about his best friend. His sister.
A strong wind started to pick up from somewhere in front of them, making the three almost jump in surprise. As they continue on, the path slowly started to even out and the darkness slowly started to fade into a pale light. And then, they saw an exit to the cave. Happy that they had escaped their freezing prison they ran outside, only to land in an even worse situation. They were still surrounded by icy walls, but looking up there was a clouded sky over their heads instead of a stone roof. They had landed in a canyon.

"Oh, for Thor's sake!" Hiccup cursed.

"It's like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire!" Viggo agreed.

Eos sighed and looked around. There was no climbing these walls. They were completely covered in ice. Fortunately though, Eos noticed a few dead trees and dry sticks. She figured that, in summer, the plants must be protected by the walls of the canyon and there was nothing blocking the sunlight. On the negative side, it was winter now and when they looked at the sky, it was evident, that there would be a storm soon.

"Look, guys-", Eos began. "Yes, this looks bad, but at least we're a little shielded from the wind. And if you look around, there are dead trees and sticks down here. The sun's about to go down, maybe we should start a fire and settle down for tonight."

"Maybe you're right. Walking on doesn't do any good when we're cold, hungry and tired.", Hiccup agreed.

They started to collect wood and looked for a place that was a bit more shielded. Viggo soon found a place, that seemed a bit more shielded. Soon, night started to fall and the temperatures started to sink below zero. The trio shivered heavily, the cold even worse now that they were in the canyon. The fire was only providing little warmth compared to the freezing world around them. Viggo, honestly no longer caring whether Hiccup found out about their relationship, moved closer to Eos and laid an arm around her shoulder to warm her up. She however, blushed slightly and removed his arm quickly.

"Thanks, Viggo, I'll be fine though.", she said. Hiccup got up from across of them and sat in between them to pulled Eos into a hug.
"Nothing wrong with warming you up a little.", he said, his back turned to Viggo, not realizing that the man was giving him a death stare. Eos, however, noticed and pulled out of the hug.

"Neither of you have to worry, there's a fire to warm me up, I'll be fine, okay? We have different things to worry about, like water and food. How about we take care of that first and your male protective instinct later?"

Viggo and Hiccup both gave her an apologetic look. At this point, Eos was kind of done with everything, so instead of talking about the tension between the two men, like she usually would, she laid down to sleep.