Found again (HTTYD FF)

★22★

From the moment they got back to Berk, Valka couldn't stop thinking about a legend she had once stumbled upon somewhere. She couldn't remember the exact wording, but she was sure of one thing. The legend told of people with dragon souls. People on the very threshold between the world of men and dragons.

She didn't know how to interpret it, why she remembered it now. Did it have something to do with her son? Was he one of those people with a dragon soul? After all, he had said something about a dragon soul himself, if her memory served her right.

Valka was sure the legend was talking about something important. But unless she found out where she had read about it, she was unlikely to learn anything else, and she wanted to learn all she could, whatever it meant to her. She'd never finished reading the legend; now she remembered, it was in some book here on Berk. She probably even had it at home.

All she had to do was find it.

She'd gone through the whole house, looked in all the books they had, looking for places someone might have accidentally misplaced it. She was so busy looking that she overheard a loud knocking at the door. She paid no attention to it and continued her quiet work.

Maybe it was burned in one of the dragon raids, Valka thought. Maybe I'll never find it again. She sighed and slumped into a chair at the dining table. Her gaze slid to the fireplace - there was something strange just above it. The small rectangle was anything but the same colour as the rest of the wall.

She stood up and went to examine it. She ran her hand over the wooden wall. Something didn't fit, the wood just above the fireplace was missing, instead she ran her hand over the leather cover of a thin book. Carefully, she pulled it out. It was her, she remembered now. But why would she hide it? From Stoick? Was there something in it he shouldn't know? From herself? Over the years she had forgotten the book even existed. She was lucky she hadn't lost it in any of the dragon raids. After all, it could have gone up in flames so many times!

She sat back in her chair and began to read the book with interest. She flipped through the pages slowly, trying to find the information she needed. Finally she came across a torn page. She was sure it was the very page with the legend she so desperately wanted to find.

Sighing, she closed the book in disappointment and set it aside. Why would she rip out the page? What would prompt her to do so? Whatever it was, she had no chance of finding out. It had happened a long time ago and there was nothing she could do about it now.

If she could just remember it.

She'd missed her chance to learn more about her son, about who he was. She'd lost the chance to get to the bottom of the situation he was in, the situation they were all in, really.

But fifteen years was too long a time to keep the thought of the book in the wall in her mind. Each year she remembered less and less, until finally she forgot it altogether.

However, she didn't get enough time to think about her problems. The front door of the house flung open sharply and Astrid burst in with the rest of her gang on her heels. Valka rose from her chair in alarm. The young Vikings all had a look of amazement and excitement written all over their faces. Had something happened to make them behave this strangely? Valka had never seen them look so excited - all at the same time, and especially not since they had grown up (some of them had).

"What's wrong?" She asked cautiously.

"We have proof!"

"Proof of what?"

"Proof that dragons..." Ruffnut threw her hands in the air in a grand gesture.

"...are not bloodthirsty beasts..." Tuffnut continued.