Found again (HTTYD FF)

★33★

They left the cove just before sunset and walked back to the village. Their dragons and Toothless had not yet returned. It was pleasant to walk under the canopy of green branches with ihs old-new friends.

He tried with all his might not to think about how he had run this exact way, trying to hide from the hunters. Now was not the time to think about such things.

He focused on Tuffnut's voice. His eternal chatter. The birds singing. The wind in the branches. On the rustling of the undergrowth beneath several pairs of feet - Snotlout's loudest and Astrid's almost as inaudible as his own. He focused on all the sounds of the forest and the distant sounds of the village that he was sure the others couldn't hear. He was so focused on it all that he missed everything Tuffnut was saying, even his sister's response. Even Snotlout's unwelcome intrusion into the conversation. And he didn't really care, it was fine. He didn't need to be directly involved in the conversation to feel happy in their presence.

Their lumbering footsteps eventually led them to the edge of the forest, the village in sight. And Hiccup almost stopped and turned to run, for this was a human village and he was far from rid of his fear of humans. Astrid was okay, his parents were okay, the twins and Fishlegs were okay, even Snotlout - but that didn't apply to the other inhabitants of the island. They were Vikings with a long bloody history that he couldn't forget, even after they had abandoned their ancient ways.

Fortunately, he overcame his urge before he could do anything and continued with them out of the forest. However, he couldn't overcome the urge to stab his gaze into the ground. How long would it be before he felt as comfortable in the village as he did when he was a child? He feared never. All that fear had burned itself so deeply into his memory that he would never get rid of it - he didn't want to get rid of it, it had saved his life a few times when he overcame his curiosity and preferred to stay away from any place where there was a noticeable human presence, only to find out later that there were traps set. Dragon traps that could cause nasty injuries, but could cost Hiccup his life if he wasn't lucky.

He unconsciously pulled his wings tighter to his body as the noise of the bustling village surrounded them from all sides, the only escape route being upwards or between the wooden houses.

"So I thought, since we're here, we could go to the Great Hall for a meal," Tuffnut's voice reached Hiccup's ears. "Because, I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

"Me too."

"Finally!"

"Hiccup?" Astrid turned to him. "What do you think?"

"Me?"

"Do you want to go to the Great Hall for a meal?"

He wasn't hungry yet.

Hiccup didn't remember much of the Great Hall. Just fragments of the high walls and the vastness of the room, a sense of titillation, but even those were hazy and blurry. The Great Hall inspired awe in him, even though it was just a room, just a building - a building with a unique atmosphere of safety and unwavering confidence that everyone inside would protect him from any potential danger. Was that still true now?

"Why not?"

And so they went. Hiccup followed them to a huge, heavy door that stuck in his mind, through it and into an area full of Vikings dining - which was why they hadn't met many of them on their way through the village.

Hiccup glanced around quickly before he fixed his gaze back on the ground. He feared eye contact even more than he feared the people themselves.

They sat him down at an empty table. "Wait here," Astrid ordered, and they disappeared from sight. Hiccup wished he could shrink into himself and make himself invisible to the inquisitive stares directed in his direction. Hadn't there been enough of those lately? Personally, he was sick of them.

Thankfully, Astrid and the others weren't gone too long, and soon a bowl of something liquid appeared in front of him. Soup, if he remembered correctly. He hadn't seen anything like it since he started living in the nest. In the bowl, besides the soup, was a spoon. It was a spoon, wasn't it?

Hiccup couldn't help wondering how to eat something like that, and how he was supposed to hold the spoon, since, even though he had all his memories back, he couldn't figure out what to do now. He looked at his friends buried in their food and tried to grip the spoon as they did, but then he paused.

What was that smell? He sucked in air and his eyes fell on the bowl full of soup. It was the soup. How could they even eat something like that? It reeked of spices and cooked meat. Cooked. And vegetables, and cooked ones at that. He dropped the spoon and let it sit in the bowl. He stared into the unchanging soup and played with his fingers.

As he watched the others eat, hunger set in, though it was unwelcome. But Hiccup could wait to eat until later, when he had a chance to catch some juicy fish and-

"You're not going to eat that?" asked Snotlout in surprise.

"Why not? After all, it's the best food you can get here!" Tuffnut exclaimed, and Hiccup jerked. Did he have to speak so loudly? Tuffnut reached across the table, picked up Hiccup's bowl, and shoved it under his nose. Hiccup couldn't hold himself, hissed at the soup and the stench pouring from it, and backed away from it. He did it all so fast that he almost fell off the bench and ended up on the ground, but managed to keep his balance thanks to his outstretched wings.

"Put it away!"

Tuffnut returned to his seat in confusion. "Hey! Relax!"

"Tuffnut! What are you doing?" shouted Fishlegs.

"I'm not doing anything! He's obviously the one with the problem!" Tuffnut defended himself.

Hiccup remained silent. He didn't have a problem. He didn't see any problem with leaving the soup here and going out to catch some fish. After all, it would be much better than a soup.

"Hiccup, what's wrong?" Astrid asked.

"Nothing's wrong." And it was true.

"Then why aren't you eating?" Snotlout wondered.

"Because I won't eat anything like that," he answered simply.

"Why?" asked Ruffnut this time.

"It stinks. And there's vegetables in it. And-and there's spices in it." He shuddered at the thought of putting something like that in his mouth.

"So what do you eat?"

"Fish, what else?"

"Cool!" Fishlegs was literally going crazy with excitement. "Looks like you've resorted to the dragon diet too! How did you do that? Did it come by itself? Was it gradual? What else-"

"Fishlegs!"

"I'm shutting up, I'm shutting up!"

Hiccup made a mental note in his head to discuss it with Fishlegs later, though he wasn't too keen on the idea of being examined as some new discovery. But he wanted to help him with it - maybe that way he'd learn something more about himself.

He hoped it would be a long time before another soup came his way.