renegades, httyd

xxxii. Complicated Relations

renegades
chapter thirty-two

    Harald didn't return to the Hangar the rest of that afternoon. His reaction left me a little bewildered and suspicious, not sure whether I should go after him and politely demand some sort of answer, or wait for him to come back to me. It shook me because his reaction to my necklace was so similar to Bloody Bernad's that it left a shiver in my bones. He acted afterwards like it was nothing, but I saw the look on his face. That's twice now━twice in which I've felt like throughout all of this, and whatever happened ... whoever I was, I was not supposed to have survived. 

    Maybe my imagination was making out something far bigger than it needed to be. Maybe they were so shocked because no one was known to have survived. But I couldn't help but feel like it was deeper than that. I was not meant to have survived. Not just some random villager━me. It made the questions of: who am I? Who were my parents? Flow back to me like hits to the chest, making my heart race a little with nerves. 

     It just seemed so absurd everyone declared to know nothing, and yet I've had proof knowledge of my home still existed in people's minds. Why? Were they keeping things from me? To what? Protect me? Shelter me? Keep me locked up from the truth ...? With a jolt of fear, it made me wonder just how horrible the story of my home's downfall had been. Armoured dragons ... 

     "Estrid!"

     My mother's voice snapped me from my thoughts. I blinked, meeting her gaze with a, "What?"

     Her brows furrowed at the tone and I flushed. "Sorry, Mum. I was just ... I was just thinking."

     She sighed and nodded to the heavy piece of iron we were carrying and the reality of everything came rushing back. I flushed even brighter, "O━oh, right! Sorry, sorry━yeah, just over here, Winglash and I'll handle the rest ..." she helped me set it down against the bottom of the storm doors, ready to be hammered on. 

     "Were you even listening to what I was saying?" my mother dusted off her hands onto her armoured tunic. 

     I frowned at her ... she was speaking? "Um ... yes?"

     She knew that tone. My mum sighed again, "Estrid," she stressed. "I was asking you about that Harald boy. The two of you are getting along well so far..."

     Still very distracted, I hummed and nodded along. "Yeah! Yeah ..." I signalled Winglash over and she ducked her neck down, excited to cart something else that could swing back and forth. "Um ... yeah ... I guess ..."

     My mother pinched the bridge of her nose. "I swear, you and Astrid are so much like your father━it's like I'm talking to a brick wall━all three of you!"