Finding you

Chapter 26: Finding You

Hiccup's POV

The chill evening wind ruffled my hair as we glided through the night. With a sigh, my gaze fell to the back of Toothless' head as I slowly disappeared into my own mind, which just so happened to be overflowing with guilt.

"I don't get it, how did you manage to make mom so mad?" Zephyr asked from where she flew beside me on Firestorm, yawning every so often after having been awoken from her sleep due to the little screaming match between Astrid and I.

A sigh escaped me as the memories of the fight flowed through my mind, tearing at me from the inside. I had been cruel to her, I had said things that I definitely shouldn't have said and I had driven her away. To think that just a few weeks prior I had been spurting meaningless promises about 'forever' and 'the rest of our lives' and now I had managed to drive away the one person in the world I would've given absolutely anything for.

"I ... I said some things I shouldn't have and she left." I clenched my fists as I suddenly found myself right back in the main room of our home, Astrid's hand resting on the door as she faced me, those ocean blue eyes brimming with tears, her thin brows drawn together and that expression of pure hurt that had taken over her face. I knew how much I had hurt her, I saw the way her eyes widened at every insult before something shattered behind them. I had hurt her, I had really hurt her. How would she ever forgive me?

"Dad?" Zephyr's voice echoed through my mind as the memory continued. It had been mere minutes since Astrid had left and I still found myself glaring intensely at the door, half-expecting Astrid to burst in through it and want us to talk everything over.

But she didn't. She didn't burst back in — she had left. All because of me.

"Dad!" Annoyance laced the echo of Zephyr's voice as I turned to face my daughter, who was standing at the bottom of the stairs, forehead creased as she patiently waited for me to say anything, anything at all. "You should probably go back to bed."

"What happened? Where's mom?" Zephyr asked, desperately searching my eyes for an answer.

"She ... left." That's when it finally hit me. A wave of guilt unlike any other I had ever been hit by before washed over me, drowning me in its misery. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. The words pounded against my brain with such force my head ached. I had hurt her, I had really, really hurt her.

"What? Why? We have to go after her!" Zephyr exclaimed as she rushed back upstairs to change out of her night clothes.

My gaze fell upon the door once more, my heart breaking in tact with the sound of it shutting after her, after Astrid. What was I even going to say to her? How was one supposed to make up for something like that?

"Dad, let's go!" Zephyr barked as she threw open the door, whistling a slightly altered version of her mother's tune to call on her dragon. Minutes later, Firestorm appeared with a pleased squawk, as if she didn't mind being awoken late at night to go for a moonlit flight.

My daughter climbed atop her dragon, a wild look in her eyes as she impatiently rushed me. "Dad, come on!"

I eventually gave in, which lead us to where we were now, flying across the seas, searching desperately for a sign of a certain Viking on a Nadder. Zephyr let out a sigh. "We haven't even had mom back for a full month and you've already gone and screwed it up, nice one, dad."

I shot Zephyr a sharp look before a firm and disciplinary tone laced itself with my words. "Careful how you speak to me, young lady, I'm still your father after all."

I could almost feel the amount of force Zephyr spent rolling her eyes at me. Suddenly, I was hit by a thought that I felt stupid for not thinking of earlier. "Tracker Class, of course!"