The Gray Area (1/2) - A Viggo Love Story (HTTYD/RTTE)

7. Nightmares

Fire surrounded Sessa as she stumbled out of her family's hut. It collapsed into a massive pile of flaming debris just seconds after she'd made it out. Looking around in a panic, she found that everything was on fire. Lightning struck a few feet from where she stood, sending her flying to the unforgivable ground.

Sessa propped herself up on a hand, while the other one bled heavily from being gashed open. She held it against her stomach in attempts to slow the bleeding. All around her, people rushed to evacuate. But the smoke was thick. One by one, she watched people drop to the ground, coughing violently, losing their lungs.

Above her head roared the largest electrical storm she'd ever seen. Sessa forced herself to her feet and staggered away from the fires. But by the time she was out of harm's way, the toxic smoke was leaking all over the island. She fell into the wet grass as the thick tendrils surrounded her body. Soon, her breathing stopped.

"Sessa," a voice ripped her from her sleep. Her eyes shot open, wild with panic. Her gaze landed on Viggo, who was kneeling beside her with a hand on her arm and a look of empathy on his face. Immediately, Sessa relaxed her face and tried to play it as if nothing was wrong. But the shaking of her limbs and fingers gave away her state.

Viggo put a hand under her shoulder and helped Sessa sit up. But once up, she swatted his hand away. She didn't say anything. It was ironic to him that the most emotion he'd ever seen in her was while she slept. Sessa had been tossing around and whimpering in her sleep, water leaking from her squeezed-shut eyes. Yet now she composed herself, seeming unphased from the nightmare she'd so obviously had.

"I didn't think anything could scare you enough to give you nightmares," Viggo admitted, frowning in sorrow.

"Why would you think that? You don't even know me," Sessa snapped.

Viggo decided then to approach the subject in a different way. He looked to where Lilith laid beside him, awakened by the voices. She watched him with calm eyes, like she was waiting to see what happened next. After a long pause, Viggo began to speak, "I think you're the first person I've ever met...who's not asked about my scar." He glaced at Sessa to find her staring over at him blankly.

Reaching up to his own face, Viggo let his fingers smooth across his scar. Some parts had lost feeling all together from nerve damage. "I fell into a volcano months ago, when I was in my crazed state of greed," he began, "my face was lost to scorching flames." Viggo saw something flicker in Sessa's eyes; empathy, sorrow, understanding. But for only a second. He went on to add matter-of-factly, "nightmares are not uncommon, for those who've done...exotic things."

Sessa looked down at her hands in her lap. They folded gently around each other, paper skin blending together. "I'll never know why the gods spared me that day," she heard Viggo continue, "..fate is such a curious thing, wouldn't you agree?"

At this, Sessa whipped her head back up. She found Viggo grinning crookedly at her, a knowing look on his face. He believed in fate, too? When Sessa felt herself begin to smile, she turned away. Silence fell between them once again. Dusk had finally come, and soon they would be able to leave the cave for food. But Sessa found herself enjoying the moment.

She looked back over to Viggo, who was petting Lilith soothingly, his scarred side facing her. It was odd to see him just from this side, he almost looked like a completely different person. Wrinckles stretched from his brow bone to his jaw, and his eye was clouded with blindness. He'd shared such a meaningful event with her. Sessa felt it was only fair to return that much.

"...I lost my village when I was eleven," Sessa spoke quietly.

Viggo turned toward her with a look of surprise, listening intently. "There was a hurricane, and it just..destroyed us," she spoke with a hint of sorrow, staring at the ground before her, "I couldn't save them."

Suddenly, things began to make sense to the ex-dragon hunter. That was why she saved him, why she saved all of the people she saved. That was her reason for endangering herself to spare strangers. Sessa was trying to make up for those she believed she'd let down. And that was her business, her life, her purpose: rescuing people that she believed worthy of a second chance at life. All of a sudden, Viggo felt as though he knew everything.

"My world has seemed darker since then," Sessa finished, her voice sounded almost broken.

Viggo hesitantly scooted closer to her. He reached out to Sessa's hands and took one. She immediately snatched it away on impulse. But looking down at his empty hand, open and waiting, warm and welcoming, she slowly placed her into it. He spoke in a voice she'd never heard him use before; it was gentle yet full of heart, "it doesn't have to be."