Searching For You

Chapter 10: Birds of a Feather

Hiccup wasn't lying. After ten minutes of walking through the woods, they came across a nicely sized lagoon.

But before they jumped in they took a moment to think about the weather. It was rather chilly that day as the winter air was setting in. But Hiccup reassured them it would be fine. Snotlout was the first to jump in. Soon followed by the Twins, Fishlegs, and Astrid. To everyone's surprise, the water was actually warm. Not too hot but warm enough to make them forget about the chilly air around them.

Even the dragons decided to take a swim. Hiccup, however, did not join them. Instead, he sat against a tree and watched them.

Astrid knew that Hiccup had never been one with water but that didn't mean he didn't like swimming with them.

So like anyone would, she decided to go ask him about it. She got out of the water, dried herself off a little bit, and went up to him.

"Why don't you join us?" She asked.

"You know me, I'm not much of a swimmer." He said gesturing to his prosthetic.

Astrid grinned and rolled her eyes. "Well, the water's not even that deep so not much swimming would be needed." She said. Hiccup knew he couldn't argue with that. He could stand in the water and it would barely pass his waist.

"Well, how about you go and enjoy the water? I'll just stay here where it's dry." He said simply.

For a moment she stared into his dull eyes. For a moment she thought about how things used to be. The days they would spend together. Not caring about anything around them, only focused on the love they had for each other. But she reminded herself that all of that was gone. The Hiccup she knew was gone, dead.

She could see that in his eyes. No longer did they shine bright. No matter how much she missed that, it would never come back.

"You know.... you're right. I'll just go join the others." She said awkwardly.

As Hiccup walked away he felt something deep within his heart. But yet he pushed it back down and ignored it

She didn't still love him, did she?

SkullCrusher was flying as fast as he could. As soon as Stoick read the letter he rushed for his dragon. They hadn't been flying for that long and were already almost there. Although true urgency can never be displayed through writing, he knew that he was needed immediately.

Soon the island came into view where he saw two familiar faces ready to greet him.

He landed right in front of them and slid off the back of his loyal dragon.

"Ah, Stoick glad to see you came in a hurry." a certain redhead greeted.

"Yes, Dagur, as soon as I got your letter I got here as fast as I could." Stoick returned, feeling slightly uncomfortable. But who could blame? There weren't many people who didn't feel a little uncomfortable in Dagur's presence, except Mala of course.

"So, where is the young lady?"

Mala pointed to the healer's hut as they began walking towards it.

"I will warn you, she is very untrusting. She only trusts us a little since we helped her. But, we know nothing about where she came from, how old she is, or even her name." Mala warned.

"Yeah, she isn't spilling." Dagur supported.

Stoick took in this information and thought about what he could do. From what they were describing there was no way they could force her. Instead, they would have to be gentle and patient. Which wasn't Stoick's strong suit.