The Rise of Light (Book 3: Together Forever)

Homecoming

A/N

Here's a long-overdue update.

Vera's POV

I am home. Home. That beautiful word.

I felt free. For the first time in a long while.

I had left to explore. 

I regretted leaving in the middle of the night. Regretted leaving without so much as a word of goodbye.

I had first met Agnar after six months of exploration. My regret had made me blind. I was young and foolish hardly over being a hatchling dragon-wise. 

I knew two months after I fell in love with him. Known that he hated dragons and wanted me to take him to my home so he could destroy my kind. 

It had broken my heart and yet I still held out hope. Wishing that he would see my kind for the kind, gentle, creatures that we really are. 

He never had and I had prepared myself for the day he would betray me and force me to take him to my home. And when it came...

I still hadn't been ready. The tears and anger that had followed me all the way home had been too much for me.

I landed on the edge of the waterfall, my uncle landing just behind me.

The wounds from our battle, really the first time we'd actually been trying to inflict pain on each other, stung. After each wingbeat, they'd stung. I guess the adrenaline I'd felt when we'd recognized each other.

A year. Gods above!

"How- Was she mad? When I left?" I asked as I turned to face him. 

"Gale was..." He thought for a moment. "Upset. Very upset. She... Hated that you... Left her." Clearly he was debating how honest he wanted to be with me. "She... wouldn't fly for a week at least. Then... one day she got up and moved on." I flinched. I really shouldn't've left.

"And... Dream?"

"She wasn't as sad as Gale. She misses you. A lot. We all did, Verr."

"I missed you all, too. Will Gale hate me for leaving?" I dared ask as growing dread filled my heart.

"There's only one way to find out," he said before shooting past me and back down the giant waterfall.

I hesitated a second more before following him into whatever awaited me in my home.

Nightengale's POV

I stared at her. My sister before taking a step back.

I had to get away. To go anywhere so long as it was away from her.

Her scales had wounds on them all over and as I looked at our Uncle I saw wounds covering him, too.

"Gale... plEAse," she begged me. Begged me to listen but... I had to get away. But where? Where could I escape? Where would I be safe from this nightmare?

I shook my head slowly as I took another step backwards. I heard rocks fall down and the back of my paw was hanging over the edge.

"You left me!" I cried. She had left me. My sister had left me alone. "You weren't there for me!"

"Gale-"

I didn't wait. I couldn't wait. So I spun on my paws and leaped into the air before flying from her.

No. She had left me. Betrayed my trust that it was the two of us against everyone else. My own sister.

The tears poured down my face as I flew. Her cries ringing in my ears. She had no right to call me her sister. No right to call me Gale. Not after she had left me for a year. Not after she had left with no warning. She hadn't even left a note saying goodbye!

We'd been so close and she'd thrown it away. Thrown away our bond of flesh and blood and love.

So it was with my heavy heart that I turned back and flew home.

Astrid's POV

The kids were in their rooms when Hiccup walked in. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. No. I was dumbfounded when I saw Hiccup walk inside as his Night Fury form with huge gashes running along his body.

"WHAT HAPPENED!"

"Vera came back," he said as if that explained everything.

"That doesn't explain why you look as if you just fell into a field of spiky rocks!"

"Well... I went flying and then I saw Vera but I didn't know she was Vera and she was coming this way and she was acting very hostile." He took a huge breath before continuing. "So. I attacked her to protect the Hidden World but she was able to hold her own until she messed up and I grabbed her wing. Then I saw the scar I gave her years ago and realized it was Vera and then I showed her the scar from when I died and we came back here and Gale is really mad and ya." He flopped down as he finished.

"Wh-what?"

"What was unclear?" 

'None of it. All of it.' I thought at him.

'I found Vera we fought because we didn't recognize each other and I thought she was a threat to our home.'

I blinked in shock.

'Vera's back?' He nodded. 'And you didn't recognize her?' Another nod.

"I need to sit down."

Hiccup's POV

I started trying to open the container of whatever it is that we use to heal wounds before choosing to shift and open it.

I frowned at the small container as I decided how to apply the healing stuff to my wounds.

I dipped a claw in before Astrid snatched it out of my paws. "I'll do it."

"I guess this means you'll be staying as a Night Fury for a day or two," she mused as she applied it to all of them. I flinched as she rubbed a particularly sore spot on my wing. "Sorry."

"It's fine," I warbled. "But ya. I will be. They won't heal otherwise." She nodded in understanding. "Thanks. For helping me. I don't know how I would manage without you."

"You wouldn't, Muttonhead." I let out a warbling laugh. 

"I'll have to one day." We fell into an uncomfortable silence. We hadn't spoken about my living for a thousand years or so since our wedding years prior.

"Hiccup-"

"I shouldn't've said anything."

"I know it makes you uncomfortable but, one day it will happen and... I think that you'll do just fine. You've survived the first twenty years of your life by yourself. True you always had someone, but you'll keep making friends and you'll survive. I know you will because you and I, we're fighters, Hiccup. We'll fight for what is right and what we believe in and our families and friends until the end."

"I know. But- It's scary to think of a world without you. It's so scary that I can't even imagine you not being there."

She didn't respond as she stood up and put the container away.

I lifted a wing up for her and she gave me a sad smile as she curled up beside me and all she said was, "I know." Before I lowered my wing like a blanket around her protectively and we fell asleep.