The Strength of the Princess (HTTYD)

Friends or Foes?

Chapter 26: Friends or Foes?

Days passed with no sign of Dagur. Eira and Heather were sullen for awhile and spent a lot of time together. Snotlout did not know what to say to either of them. He was not good at this sort of things. They did have each other to talk to. Maybe it was best if he just left them alone.

But when he found Eira sitting on the beach alone, he knew he could not remain silent. He stopped next to her in the sand. "Hey."

Eira looked up at him. "Oh, hello Snotlout." She smiled at him, but there was sadness in her eyes.

"What are you doing?" He probably sounded awkward, but he did not know how to begin.

"Just thinking. But go ahead and sit." She patted the spot next to her.

Snotlout sat down and pulled his legs up, resting his arms on his knees. "Were you thinking about Dagur?"

Eira frowned. "No. Well, a lit, but-"

"It's okay. I understand. You were close." He knew he would be pretty upset if he lost anyone close to him, particularly because that number was few.

Eira sighed and looked out at the ocean. "I keep thinking about what I could have said or done to make everyone see the truth about him before it was too late. Maybe if I was more open from the start-"

"This was not your fault, Eira." Snotlout took her hand in both of his, and she looked at him in surprise. "You did everything you could. You can't force people to see the truth."

Eira bit her lip. "But if I had just-"

"No," Snotlout said emphatically. "Stop thinking that way. It will eat you alive."

Eira nodded. "You're probably right." She pulled her hand away, but she did lean into him. He tentatively put his arm around her to help support her.

"You know, he might not be gone," he said.

"Then why wouldn't he have contacted us?"

"Maybe he's stranded somewhere."

Eira's eyes widened. "That wouldn't be good." She looked at him anxiously. "Should we be searching for him?"

Snotlout hesitated. That was not what he meant to imply at all. "We don't know for sure we would find anything, and we could be searching forever." He smiled when an idea occurred to him. "But maybe that Terrible Terror of yours could search for us."

Eira brightened. "That's a great idea, Snotlout! Squirt would be sure to find him. Let's go write a letter right now!" She grabbed his hand and helped him to his feet.

As he followed her back to the base, he wondered if he should have done that. When Dagur was around, he spent most of his time annoyed that Eira's attention was on him instead of Snotlout. But when she looked back at him and smiled, he knew he could not have done anything less.

***

Two weeks passed, and Eira saw no sign of Squirt. Did that mean Dagur was hard to find, or... She wondered if she had sent the Terrible Terror on an endless search. Surely he would know when to give up? Perhaps sending him out had been a bad idea.

Her thoughts focused on the dragon hunters when Hiccup set out to meet Viggo. She found the invitation suspicious but knew he had to check it out. And when he came back, he had a map with Viggo's signature. Apparently, Viggo was willing to allow us to keep the land below the line on the map if they left him the land above.

"A truce?" Heather said incredulously. "You have to be joking me."

Hiccup handed Fishlegs the map and walked to the other side of the room where he had his game board set up.