Lost and Found

Chapter 4: Old Reunions and New Friends

"Hold on! Wait just a minute!" Hiccup calls as he chases Valka and the strange warrior through the tunnels of the nest.

Valka, with a big smile, glances back and motions for him to continue following, "This way."

"Come back here!"

"Come." Valka jumps over a rock. The person in dark dragon-scale armor mirrors her movements flawlessly. They both easily traverse the tunnels, as they've been here for a while.

On the other hand, Hiccup struggles a bit to keep up with their pace. "You can't just say something like that and then run off! You're my mother?! I mean, what the -- do you grasp how INSANE it sounds?!"

Valka and the other dragon rider vault up a steeper rock face easily. "Come quickly," Valka says, not bothering to slow down or acknowledge the questions and confusion coming from her son.

"I have questions!" Hiccup shouts, followed by a grunt as he tries to climb over the rock face as well. The masked rider glances over their shoulder to see that he is unsuccessful. "Where have you...." He attempts to jump up again, only to slide right back down. The night fury–Toothless–helps him up the rock, "...been all this time?" He continues with his string of questions despite the apparent fact that Valka is not answering them at the moment. "What-what have you been doing?"

By this point, he can no longer see the two in front of him, only hear the echo of their footsteps fading. "But they-they said you were dead!" Hiccup shouts. "Everyone thinks you were eaten by...." His voice trails off as he steps out of the dark tunnel into the light of the nest center. He stares in awe at the flock of dragons circling a large pillar in the nest.

Hiccup walks toward the edge of the ledge in a daze. Toothless stays right by his side as he wanders. A couple of baby gronckles tumble and play in the ferns nearby. Hiccup watches them with a smile. He continues toward the edge as the smaller stormcutter flies past with her rider steady on her back. Hiccup jumps a little, though he still looks on in complete awe. His gaze follows the mysterious rider as they seem to herd the dragons around the nest.

Valka spares a slight glance to the rider, but her focus primarily remains on her son's reaction to the nest and dragons.

Toothless notices the larger of the stormcutters and growls. Hiccup gasps and steps back when he, too, notices the dragon clinging to the wall. Valka appears perched on one of the dragon's wings.

Cloudjumper tilts his head and warbles as he looks between the night fury and the boy below him.

"This is where you've been for twenty years?" Hiccup asks.

Valka nods with a soft smile.

"You-you've been rescuing them." Hiccup says. Toothless sits down, and a windgnasher begins sniffing him curiously.

Valka looks around at the nest before giving Hiccup another nod.

Hiccup looks around as Toothless, growing uncomfortable with the windgnasher's proximity, tries to lean away from the dragon. "Unbelievable." Hiccup mutters.

"You're not upset?" Valka asks softly.

"What? No." Hiccup shakes his head, "I-I don't know. It's a bit much to get my head around, to be frank." Hiccup explains, and Toothless moves away from the other dragon, trying to ignore it. "It's not every day you discover your mother is some kind of crazy, feral, vigilante dragon lady working with a mysterious partner."

"Oh-" Valka chuckles, "Well," Cloudjumper helps her down to the ground by grabbing the top hook of her staff with his claw and lowers her to one of his other wings. "At least I'm not boring... right?" She asks as she slides off the wing to land on the ground.