Another Nightmare Book 3: Facing Nightmares

Chapter 14

"That's a nasty wound. Were you training or trying to disarm him?" Ivar asked Heather while looking at a long gash on the arm of a young man sitting between them.

"It's not that bad, and pain does good for him", Heather answered in an innocent tone that was contradicted by a small but devious smirk. She handed Ivar a cup of water. "He should learn that combat training isn't the place for flirting, especially not for someone who can't back up his arrogance."

"You're lucky mom isn't here," Ivar noted while cleaning the wound, "both of you. Should be more careful."

"Look who's sounding like a mom now. Must be all that dragon babysitting you did."

Ivar was going to answer something snarky, but at the mention of dragons, their patient's eyes hardened, and lips pressed into a straight line against each other. Heather glanced down, noticing the same. She looked at Ivar.

"You want me to take care of him?"

"No, I got this," Ivar answered quietly. It didn't take long for him to finish taking care of the wound. As soon as he did the young man walked out without as much as a thank you. Heather looked after him longer than she would usually do with patients.

"Guess I didn't hurt him enough," she muttered.

"Heather," Ivar scolded.

"What? I'm behind on my hurting people quota since Hiccup always had that dragon of his around."

Ivar tried to keep his stare serious and accusing, but as Heather responded with an unflinching blank expression, it became ever harder until Ivar failed and chuckled. Heather reacted in kind.

"I wonder if he found the Wingmaidens," Ivar said. "It has been a month already."

"You shouldn't worry about him, what with that flock of dragons that follow him around. The real question is, what happens when he meets them? He acts like he is fine when that Night Fury is around, but I don't think our training was enough to... get over his old nightmares."

"I know", Ivar responded. "Even if Wingmaidens live with dragons, they are still people, people that Hiccup hasn't learnt to trust yet. He'll be fine with Toothless and Sharpshot, but that won't solve the problem."

"He won't be able to take care of himself on his own if things go bad," Heather added, "And there is no guarantee that meeting with the Maidens will be peaceful."

"Thank you for your reassuring words," Ivar sneered sarcastically. "I wish we could do something to help him."

"Well we can't. What he went through can't be treated with medicine. You can only wait 'till he returns and hope that the hunters won't attack us in the meantime."

"Are there any more problems you'd like to remind me of?"

"Yes, your mother just walked in, and you haven't cleaned yet." Heather picked up her axe and walked past Ivar. "Gotta get back to training."

Ivar's mother worked him until the sun was already approaching the horizon, something about learning to be more responsible rather than skipping work to fly with the beasts. By the time she let Ivar go he was too cranky to say anything to her. He grit his teeth, looking at the sun shining barely over the sea. He was late, but didn't want to just go home. He walked out of village, not doing anything that might have attracted attention. He only increased his pace after reaching the shade of the forest. Hiccup had told stories about sneaking out to meet Toothless back in Berk. Ivar wondered if Hiccup had felt the same anxiety he did. Ivar ran quickly through familiar forest until he got to a completely different side of the island. Usually people only came this far to hunt and there were hills blocking sight from the village.