Between Waves and Clouds

08 - Thawing the frozen heart

Nuffink tried to digest the choc of meeting a real merman. He tried for the entire following day, not to avail. The second day was just as a faillure as the first one. It was impossible to get this merman out of his head. The dragons didn't seem fazed to have met a mythical creature, they resumed their life just as before, making the viking doubt it had even happened.

He knew that, sometimes, loneliness could drive one crazy and make them make up someone by their side. Yet, during his two years and half filled of travels and exploration, he had grown used to loneliness, and the journey to the frozen land was the only one he had made with the three Night Lights instead of only one, so he shouldn't feel lonely. He shouldn't have this kind of hallucinations. Plus, why would he make up a merman ?

Mermaids weren't real, and how could he have even managed to picture someone that beautiful ? And this baffling hair color... it really had look like his hair had been sculpted from snow, it surely wasn't a natural color, he had to have make it up.

As to his eyes... Nuffink had seen countless blue eyes in his life. It was the most usual color on Berk, and his own family had two representative of it. But Frost's eyes were so light and bright... Even lighter than the Jorgensons' eyes. There were like ice. No, not like ice, more like crystal. Although he was sure he had already seen this peculiar crystal color, somewhere.

He got up from his bed – more like the pile of furs on the ground where he was sleeping in – and reached the chest on the other side of the hold, where he was storing parchments and papers filled with his observations and studies of dragons, and also some treasures he had found during his travels. The second day of his expedition in the frozen lands, he had found a wreck. The old and damaged drakkar had not been one of Berk's but he had not managed to identify the blazon carved on the hull.

The ship had visibly wrecked on a southern part of the ocean, then drifted in the frozen lands, ending up stucked in one of the icebergs, half submerged.

Onboat, Nuffink had found a treasury, countless gold coins and jewels. Not wanting to travel back with a precious cargo that could have turned him into a target for pirates, he had left it there. Though he did took something that caught his eyes, a small gemstone.

Going through his belongings, he finally managed to find it. That was that. That was exactly that. A light blue, bright and shining, reflecting light like ice into the sun. He must had make up Frost, and he had put this gem into his eyes. Surely the merman tail and fins were just a way for his brain to explain the unusual eye color.

Nuffink sat against the chest, sighing. 'Such a shame' he though. Such a shame the merman wasn't real, even though the viking had suspected he couldn't be. Maybe this expedition was taking too long and loneliness had really driven him crazy ? Maybe he should leave and get back home, take a break for a few weeks ?

* * *

It took two hours for Nuffink to make sure he was ready to leave. Not that he was paranoid and had to check it twice to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything, but he had settled two camps outside of the drakkar and his hyperactive mind had made him forget some tools there.

Pouncer, Dart and Ruffrunner went with him to the camps to retreive the material. He was still distracted. He had spent the 'night' with his mind spliting in two arging parts. One was saying Frost was real, the other was giving countless arguments to prove it wrong. Nuffink had not rest, and the constant polar day wasn't helping him.

The three dragons were quietly flying above the freezing waters and icebergs, heading back to the main base, excited to get back to warmer weather, however Pouncer suddenly stopped. His siblings did too and stayed by his side, the threesome looking downward. Nuffink sighed and rubbed his forehead. 'They must have seen a big fish' he tought. He bent on the side and patted his friend on the shoulder, trying to get his attention.