Heir and Pride

Chapter Forty-Seven

Forty-Seven:

"What about Astrid?"

Valka Haddock stared at the skinny shape of her long-abandoned son and tried to frame an answer. She had been shocked and amazed that her son was alive...and, more-he was like her. The young man was nothing like his huge and powerful father, his scrawny shape crouched by his dragon, his forest green eyes the mirror of hers and his scruffy auburn hair an exact match for hers. There were still traces of puppy fat around his cheeks, though he was skinny and there were more bruises than she liked to see on his pale and faintly freckled skin.

"Your friend?" Her eyes narrowed. Hiccup rose to his feet, his face calm and dignified.

"My best friend," he said calmly. "Human friend," he amended, his eyes drifting to Toothless. "She's on Outcast Island because we went there to heal Toothless. And she is in real danger..."

"Why?"

Hiccup stared at her, almost bug-eyed with shock and he fought to get his words out.

"Why?" he choked. "Because she's my friend, because she rescued me from Berk before I could kill myself, because she taught me to fight and survive when I was at my lowest! And in recompense...Stoick put a price on her head for snatching me from his clutches on Berk! And she is at the mercy of the Outcasts."

"But she doesn't trust me!" Valka pointed out. "She was evasive, she lied about who you were and where you came from...and she is not as dedicated to dragons as you are! Hiccup...face it. She is among her kind, among people she can understand and deserves..."

"She doesn't deserve Outcasts..." Hiccup said grimly, recalling all he had heard of them from his aborted training.

"But Stoick believed she had something to apologise for?" Valka said coldly. "She's not blameless, is she?"

"None of us are," Hiccup muttered, his shamed green eyes drifting to the black shape of Toothless again. "You certainly aren't..."

"What did she do?" the woman demanded and he sighed, closing his eyes.

"She was my crush from...oh Gods, probably when I was five or so..." he muttered. "But she was Astrid Hofferson, the finest warrior of our generation. Destined to be the Shield Maiden, the hope of Berk...and she wouldn't even look at screw-up Hiccup, though she never hurt me. Then Dragon Training happened and I was a success...even though I was a total screw-up...because I had Toothless and I was learning more and more about how dragons thought and reacted...so I could defeat them without harming them. And Astrid, who had invested her whole future in winning Dragon Training, grew jealous at my skill. And though she started out protecting me, she surrendered to the anger and she led the rest of the class to ambush me outside my home. I-I was badly beaten and left to freeze..."

"And you call her a friend?" Valka sneered. "She deserves the care and compassion the Outcasts will give her..."

"No!" Hiccup snapped, standing forward, his arms rigid and fists tight. "You don't get to make that judgement..."

"I am your Mother..." she began but he almost snarled at her,

"I have no mother!" he shouted. "She died a long time ago! Astrid scares me...but when I decided to leave Berk when I was chosen to slay the Monstrous Nightmare, she found me...but I persuaded her to come on a flight with me..." Valka folded her arms, her face cold. "Okay, I kidnapped her and she had the choice of coming with me or dropping hundreds of feet onto bare rock...but she sort of realised what I was trying to say..that Toothless was amazing. And then we ended up in the nest and saw the Red Death. Astrid and I talked...and I sort of forgave her..."