Symphony of Shadows

41. Firelight

A/N: This one's pretty long but the end is worth it:)

She'd gone and done the most stubborn thing and nearly died in the process—if it hadn't been for the Deadly Nadder. Knowing he was asleep just feet away from where she almost fell to her death would start to haunt him. Great, just another nightmare to add to the growing list. Thank Odin, she was alright, but now Astrid didn't believe him about the random plush he'd received. Of course...she didn't have a reason to. He'd hoped that she would be easier to reason with, but she wasn't budging. For the past hour, she'd tried to poke holes in his story, certain he had an ulterior motive. Maybe he should have hidden the damned stuffed dragon, but he was tired of the lies too. Hiccup sighed as she paced back and forth.

"No, no, that can't be true. How does a boulder crash into a hut? And by coincidence you happened to be nearby?" She scoffed. "Sure, sure...Just say it already. You killed them."

He dragged a hand down his face in exhaustion; the questioning was getting tiresome. It was better to let her keep going and eventually run out of steam, so he kept quiet. She must have been keeping all of these thoughts inside because they were just flowing out one by one.

"I'm so fed up with your excuses. When are you going to tell the truth? Fine. If you don't want to talk about the stuffed dragon, what about the night I almost drowned? Why were you aiming at my boat? What crazy explanation do you have for that?"

Oh boy. She couldn't have picked a worse question because the answer was going to sound ridiculous. Berk had never seen or heard about a Submaripper, as the dragon preferred to stay out in deeper waters. He'd heard tales from traveling merchants at the market, but never thought he would encounter it. Just his luck.

"Well, uh, you see, there's a dragon that can cause really strong whirlpools and suck ships in. It also smells really bad, so I can imagine they didn't seem like regular stormy waters to you. I was aiming for the center of the whirlpool to distract it and give you a chance to escape. Unfortunately, that didn't work fast enough, and you ended up in the water."

Astrid was clearly not impressed and narrowed her eyes at him cynically. Guess she had recovered quickly after almost dying. Hiccup didn't know if he wanted to grab her by the arms and shake her for being so reckless or grab her and never let her go. Obviously, neither option was on the table as she would happily break both of his arms before he even got close to her.

"Yeah? What's the name of the dragon?"

"A Submaripper."

She doubled over in unexpected laughter as he just stood there—utterly clueless. He must've missed the punchline. Even though she was laughing at him, he couldn't deny that he'd missed the sound of her laugh.

"Yeah, right. Good one, Hiccup. What's next, a Boatbreaker?"

"No, I'm being serious. That's what it's called."

She sobered at his insistence and rolled her eyes, shooting an unbelieving glare at him. He hated himself for making her distrust him so much. It didn't matter what he said; she still wouldn't believe him. Instead of trying to answer her questions, Hiccup decided he had to show her the truth—because she sure as Hel wasn't going to trust him otherwise. He couldn't fly them to the same spot where her ship sank because it would be impossible to find and he couldn't guarantee that the dragon would still be there. The only solution would be to track it down and show her that it was real. Then she would see that he hadn't been trying to drown her. Until then, he had to keep her occupied. Submarippers were one of the hardest dragons to find just because they could dive deep and stay underwater for long periods without coming up for air. It would take careful planning and days of scouring the ocean, but he would gladly do it just for a chance at her forgiveness. Astrid left him with one final sneer and marched into his hut.