Wayfinding Berk

17. Weaving

17. Weaving

The first thing Eret woke up to was the sound of something snorting and something wet touching his face. Opening one eye, he was the soft pink snout of Pua, who started licking his cheek. Eret gently pushed the boar away and looked over to Moana's side of the bed to see it empty.

"She must have gone out for her duties." He murmured as he stretched his arms and got up to roll up the blankets they used. Eret heard a snort and turned to see his dragon outside the hut with Pua, both seated in front of the doorway and annoyed expressions on their faces. "Oh what now? Are you two hungry?" Both the dragon and the boar snorted and nodded their heads. "Fine, but after I put the blankets away and find Moana."

Once he placed the blankets where Moana had them last night, Eret walked out of the hut and greeted some of the villagers who had came up to him to say good morning.

"Have you seen my wife?" Eret asked and they all pointed towards the beach. "Oh of course she'd be there." He muttered and hurried off in the direction of the beach with his dragon and Pua at his heels.

Once at the edge of the beach, he found her standing knee deep in the surf with Kai, Tide and a few stingrays swimming in circles around her as she swayed her arms and hips, softling humming to herself. Eret cleared his throat loudly, but Moana didn't stop her dancing.

"So you finally woke up?" She asked, turning herself towards the beach but not stopping her dance.

"Your pig is hungry." Eret answered, jerking his thumb at Pua.

"I fed him earlier when I woke up, he's always hungry and tries getting others to feed him after I give him his meals."

"Makes sense, but don't you have chief duties to do?"

"I've already checked the fishing baskets on the lagoon, checked the harvest, fixed someone's roof, and got the others some tasks to do while they are here."

Tasks? Now Eret was a bit confused as Moana walked out of the water, giving her dragon a little nudge on their heads with her feet before walking back to him. As far as he knew, there were no tasks like weapon building, scouting, pranking or sorting collected dragon knowledge in this village.

"I sent Astrid and Maui with a small fleet to scout for the people who are looking for me, the twins and Fishlegs are helping my mother and some other villagers stock the cavern where we used to keep the boats with supplies in case the island gets attacked and we have to get some people to safety," Moana explained as they walked back to the village. "And Hiccup and Snotlout are helping my father out in fixing some old weapons we have if a fight must occur."

"Wow...you did a lot in one morning, how long was I asleep?" Eret asked, glancing at the sun.

"For as long as some of the others, I was awake at the crack of dawn getting all these things ready." Moana replied and gave him a soft smile. "Figured you needed the rest. At the moment, you can help me with the basket and net weaving. Know how to do either of them?"

"I used to weave the nets used to catch dragons, and I used to help my mother and aunt weave baskets when I was little." Eret chuckled. "It's been a while, but I'm sure I can still do it."

"Good! We've got a ton to help make."

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"Okay I am definitely not good at this." Eret muttered as he unwove his basket. "The ones I helped make were made with something else and woven differently."

"I told you to watch how I did it," Moana laughed as she set down her finished basket and grabbed some more palm leaves. "But you insisted on doing it yourself, now watch how I do it."

Eret's gaze wandered to a little girl who was seated with some older women and weaving along with them. He watched as her little hands wove the fronds over and under each other in such precision and speed. It surprised him that most of children that were that young were helping with the weaving, picking and everything else in this village while on Berk they would run around and play.

"Eret are you even listening to me?" Eret snapped out of his thoughts and turned back to Moana who was giving him a look. "Seriously, how many times must I repeat this so it can at least stick to your brain?"

"Sorry, I got a bit distracted." Eret apologized sheepishly. Moana glanced over at the little girl and pointed to her.

"See how she does it so well and quickly? You have to start out slowly and build up a rhythm as you weave, but you also have to be careful and make sure you don't tangle the fronds or tear them." Moana explained and gestured to her fronds. "Watch how I do it, and mimic my movements."

Eret watched as she slowly wove the leaves to create a pattern and began to do it on his own. When he got the leaves a bit tangled, he allowed Moana to take his hands and gently unwind them to keep them from getting torn.

"I think I'm getting the hang of this." Eret commented as he was weaving and tried to ignore the pain in his fingers. "Can we stop for now?"

"Of course! Hang on, I'll get something for you to drink."

Eret gave a sigh of relief before flopping back on the grass and looked at his hands. They were looking a bit red, but at least it showed he had been working hard and not being useless or lazy. He tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling of the shade they were sitting under and began to wonder if their efforts to stop that maniac from attacking the island would succeed. Sure they had dragons, but what if that man had some kind of magic or monster that could overcome and defeat their scaled friends? Eret shuddered at the thought of his dragon, formerly Stoick the Vast's dragon, and his friend's dragons being slaughtered in battle by some sort of monster that frightened even the most powerful Norse gods.

"Drink this." Eret gave a grunt as something heavy dropped on his stomach, bounce off and sat up to see a large green fruit the size of a dragon egg at his side. Moana was standing next to him with a basket filled with those same fruits and holding one of his swords.

"What's this?" He asked, holding the object up.

"A coconut."

"I thought those were the small hairy brown ones."

"These have water in them. Just try it."

Eret took the sword from her, stabbed it in as hard as he could to make a gap, before pulling it out. He lifted the fruit to his lips and felt the cool and sweet liquid drip down his throat. When he was done, Moana handed him a second one and he repeated the process, only this time he handed it to one of the other weavers.

"Such a sweet boy you decided to choose as a 'husband'." One of the women said to them as they were passing coconuts to the other weavers. "A shame you two haven't married for reals, he would have been a wonderful husband for you to help run the village Moana."

"I told everyone already Kono, I'm not ready for marriage yet. I still haven't even found the right man!" Moana chuckled, blushing slightly.

"Well who knows, if you do end up marrying, your future husband could be close! Besides, you know you'll need an heir at some point."

"I don't know, how can I run a village and raise a child at the same time?"

"I think that's why we have nurse maids or a close relative who will be willing to help raise the child." Eret suggested. "Or in this case, a spouse and your parents."

"He has a point!" Another weaver called from the back.

"Well I'll think about it, once I get a better grip on this chiefing, maybe I'll start looking for a spouse. But at the moment, I have to focus on preparing for an upcoming war that I'm going to attempt to end before it even starts." Moana said, shaking her head gently and glanced at Eret.

"You're doing fine, and I know you'll end this." Eret assured her, reaching out and placing his hand on her cheek. "You just have to believe in yourself."

"GET A ROOM!" Both jumped at the sound of Snotlout's shout and Moana grabbed a coconut from the basket.

"Shut up lalo!" She yelled, flinging the nut at the Viking and hitting him square in the chest, just enough to knock him over. "You really need to fix that filer of yours!"