Finding you

Chapter 15: My Fishbone

Zephyr's POV

"Listen, Syver, you absolutely cannot tell my father about what I'm going to do, alright?" I pleaded with Syver as my eyes locked with his, a plethora of emotions running wild through those grassy green eyes. I took a hold of his hand and pleaded with him once again. "Syver, please."

"I can't just let you go out there all alone, Zephyr, what if you get hurt?" Concern filled Syver's voice as I felt his grip around my hands tighten. After our kiss, I had the wonderful idea of going to rescue my mother, but someone wasn't as excited about the idea as I was.

"Firestorm will be there to protect me. I promise that I'll come back to you, Syver, just let me do what I need to do." I put on my best puppy eyes as I brushed away a strand of that messy hair of his that hung in front of his eyes.

After a minute, Syver finally gave in with a heavy sigh. "Fine. Just ... promise me that you'll be careful, alright?"

A grin spread across my face before I nodded eagerly. "Of course I will! I'll see you in a few days or however long it will take, alright?"

I placed a quick peck on his lips before I shot up from my sitting position and called Firestorm over to me. As the dragon eagerly made her way over to me, I climbed atop her and readied for take off.

"Be safe, Zeph." Syver shot me a small smile as Firestorm and I took off. I kept waving at him until he was merely a tiny spot on the horizon before I steeled myself for going back there, for going back to Berserker Island.

Astrid's POV

"There is absolutely no way in Helheim that I'm marrying you, you deranged psychopath." I snarled at Dagur as he rubbed his temples in obvious annoyance from the other side of the table. After having allowed my former husband and daughter to escape, I had been presented with the great displeasure of dining with the man who had single-handedly ruined my life and now he had asked me to marry him.

Dagur began cutting into his steak as he spoke rather casually. "So you'd rather I burn Berk to the ground and kill Hiccup and his night fury in the most gruesome of ways instead of marrying me?"

I snorted as I sank back into the chair and crossed my arms. "You did gather that we blasted your armada to pieces, right?"

I noticed Dagur clenching his fist so hard around his knife that his knuckles paled before he quickly fell back into his eerily calm demeanor. "Alright, you got me there, but what you might've forgotten is that I still have an army on the island and at my command they could send a group to kidnap your precious little daughter, torture her to the brink of death and do whatever else they want with her. I don't know if you've heard, but we Berserkers are known to be brutal in the bedroom."

My blood boiled in my veins as I dug my nails deep into the wooden table. How dare this maniac threaten my daughter? I took a moment to calm down as I weighed my options, which were ... limited to say the least. "So what you're saying is that if I agree to marry you, you'll leave Hiccup, Berk and my daughter alone?"

"Why, naturally! I wouldn't want to harm my new step-daughter, now would I?" Something in his tone told me that wasn't a bother to him at all and that he wouldn't hesitate to slaughter them all in a second if I defied him.

I took a deep breath as I realized what I was getting myself into. "Fine, I'll marry you."

"Wonderful!" Dagur said gleefully as that trademark maniacal grin of his pulled at his features. "The wedding will be at the end of the week, so now you have loads of time to getting used to becoming the 'Queen' of the Berserkers!"

I sighed as I gently crosses my utensils over my plate, feeling like I had just gotten the weight of the world placed upon my nimble and frail shoulders.

A loud snap knocked me out of my momentary trance as Dagur's voice rang through the dining room: "Guards, take her back to the cell!"

Cell? I would've raised a brow and began complaining hadn't it been for how completely ... empty I felt. Instead I just complied and accepted my fate as two guards came up on either side of me and dragged me to a damp cell in a completely different part of the Berserker fortress, which happened to be the moldiest, most moss-covered place in all of the archipelago, the even lower dungeons.

***

A million thoughts raced through my mind as I laid on the tiny bed in my new cell, which was ten times worse than the old one I had shared with Zephyr and even the one before that again. I crossed my arms over my stomach as I wondered how long it would take for me to get used to the nauseating smell of mold or how long it would take to befriend some of those nasty critters that had become my new roommates.

I let out a half-hearted snort at that. How much did I really even care about any of that? Those were all things you could get rid of, whilst the many thoughts that were stored within my mind were things that would simply never go away. In the end, nothing really mattered anymore. Nothing really mattered without the two of them or without my faithful dragon by my side. All I had at that point were the remnants of another life, a happier life, one I would've died to have to possibility to get back to.

The flickering ghost of a familiar, auburn haired, emerald eyed boy with freckled cheeks and a lopsided smile filled my mind, calling my name at every turn, his voice echoing through my mind. My heart ached at the mere thought of him, and I couldn't help but melt into one of the many memories we shared.

"You're such a knucklehead, Hiccup Haddock." A laugh escaped me as I turned to face Hiccup, who was looking rather displeased with my statement.

Hiccup huffed as he crossed his arms. "I don't see how simply trying to help someone makes me a knucklehead, but alright."

"Helping someone is not what makes you a knucklehead Hiccup, you do that just fine on your own." I teased him as I nudged him with my elbow. The future chief of Berk scoffed in response.

"Astrid Hofferson, back at it again with her many insults." A smile tugged at the corner of Hiccup's lips and that's when I could tell that he understood that I was just messing with him.

"Oh, I have many more, just you wait and see, fishbone." I snickered as I awaited Hiccup's reaction.

The dragon rider let out a feigned gasp of surprise. "Fishbone? So we're staring with that again, are we?"

I grinned at Hiccup as a laugh escaped me. "It's too good to be forgotten, don't you think?"

"I certainly wouldn't mind if it was." Hiccup mumbled under his breath as he avoided eye contact with me.

"How about everyone but me forgets it? That way you can be my fishbone and my fishbone alone." I nudged Hiccup with my elbow once again as his face grew a dark shade of red.

"Y-your fishbone?" Hiccup stuttered as he turned to me with wide, sparkling, emerald eyes.

"Of course! There's no one else I'd rather be my fishbone than you, Hiccup." I shot him a smile as I noticed him growing even more red. How in Thor's name was that even possible?

"Really?"

"Really."

Then our lips met in a gentle and tender kiss under the light of the full moon, dancing together in perfect harmony as we melted into each other, savoring our every moment together as if it had been our last.

My fishbone. The words echoed through my mind as I braided my fingers into his hair. At that moment, nothing had ever sounded as right as those two words. My fishbone.