The Lost Boy V - Short stories

Having two mothers

(after Book 3)

Vikings had troubles with changing. It was comonly known that they had difficulties accepting it, and even more applying it. Peace with dragons had asked a lot of adjustments and if most of the vikings got used to it, there had been some internal conflicts, mostly with old Mildew who could just not love them and Vakart who couldn't forgive them for killing his son.

With time, vikings ended up accepting their ancestral enemies as friends, still they had troubles accepting people from outside their clan. Elska and Eret had to deal with this when they joined Berk. Especially Eret since he had been a trapper, a dragon hunter. Elska fitting in had been easier and softer thanks to her strong and fighting spirit, but also her natural love for dragons and her few medical competences. She was far from being a healer like Goathi or Joke, but she knew enough to give some treatment for dragons.

While her own hutt was under building, she had lived at Hiccup's, and she had settled at the smithy, in the former workshop Stoick used to make saddles, so she could have her own space to work and treat dragons' injuries. Sharing the same work-space with Gobber helped the two to grow closer and get along, and Elska was also spending a lot of time with Olgarg and Reekfrid. She was really thankful for them to take care of her son.

However, there was some kind of tensions between them, like some kind of caution or distrust in the air, which was palpable but never spoken out loud. Olgarg happened to stare at the former queen when she was talking with Joke, and Elska used to do the same when he was talking with Olgarg. But never with Astrid or Reekfrid, strangly, only with Olgarg.

Though no one seemed to notice. No one noticed the unseasiness between the two women. At least, until one day when Joke was confronted with this. It was roughtly two months after Elska and Eret's arrival to Berk. Elska used to visit Joke at the Hoffersons' hutt, where he still lived. It was not the first time the healer would come back home late after a long day of work to find his two mothers chatting in the living-room, it even became something he wanted to get used to.

But that day, he would have rathered only one of them to be there as he was coming home earlier. He had opened the front door and started to talk without checking who was inside.

''Hey mom, Gobber wanted to know-''

He had stopped seeing his mothers, sitting at the table, who had both turned to face him. Both were looking at him, as if waiting for the rest of his sentence, as if each of them thought he was talking to her. Then he felt bad.

''Huh...''

With a lot of hesitation, he pointed to Olgarg.

''Gobber asked if you could come to fetch the pans you ordered. His plough has a broken wheel and he can't replaced it now so he can't make deliveries.''

The young man's heart ached as he saw pain flooding Elska's eyes. Her small smile dropped and she lowered her head with a distant look. Instantly, he didn't know what to do nor say anymore, and since Olgarg resumed the conversation by planing the retrieve of her order, he got distracted. It didn't prevent him from thinking back to this even during night.

Since the two women kept on acting as if nothing happened, he ended up convincing himself it was nothing. Until another incident proved him there really was something wrong. That day, he was visiting Elska at the smithy to bring her some medicine she needed to help a sick Monstruous Nightmare. Olgarg, on her way to the mill, stopped by to check on the both of them. They had started a casual and joyful conversation, at least until Joke saw some colors fading from Olgarg's face as he called Elska 'mom'. There was sadness and pain in her ocean blue eyes, and he hated that.