In Lieu Of A Tail

37. Hiccup Tells A Story

AN: Merry Christmas, here's your present!

Hiccup rose with the sun, taking Toothless - who did not want to get up very much but wanted Hiccup roaming Berk on his own even less - with him to do some fishing. They returned before long, one of the perks of riding the fastest known dragon in the world - and Hiccup knew a lot of dragons.

Valka woke just after they had begun to rebuild the fire. Rising slowly, she moved over and began to help.

"Do you want some help with cleaning the fish?" She whispered, so as not to disturb the others who were still asleep. He jumped, startled.

"S-sure." He replied in a low voice, handing her one of the many knives Aurora tended to keep on her person. They sat beside one another in silence, de-boning and removing the scales of the fish, having sent Toothless and Cloudjumper for water and mushrooms.

"I'm sorry." She told him in a small voice when the silence became too much. He glanced at her, surprised, as if he had forgotten she was there. "I'm so sorry I left you."

"I-I—" He tried.

"No, I should have come back. I truly believed I was doing the right thing, I need you to understand that," she whispered desperately, tears brimming in her eyes, "I thought you'd be better off without me," her voice cracked as she choked back a sob, releasing her knife and letting it fall as she buried her face in her hands, "I-I thought—"

She was cut off when he dropped his blade, crushing her in a warm, comforting embrace, "You thought it was for the best, you thought nobody would accept a bond with dragons." His voice cracked too. "You thought it would be better if you were remembered as a victim, not a traitor." He was crying too, if the water dripping on her forehead was any indication. My little Hiccup got so tall.

She eased out of the hug, enough to reach her hand up to cup his face. It fit just like it did when he was a baby, perfectly. She stared up at him, his face, so like her own, but his eyes burned emerald with a thousand emotions - just like his Father's had.

"I thought about you every day, I wanted to come back to you, watch you grow up." Her eyes watered again.

"But it was too dangerous," he whispered, "I understand, I'm not angry, if you think I am. I do get it."

"I'm still sorry, I will be sorry until the day I die, even after that."

He cracked a crooked smile, strained but there. "Let's not be so morbid this early in the morning."

She chuckled. "Perhaps you're right, we had better get back to cleaning this fish."

"You know, even though you couldn't be around, I still took after you." He told her in a hushed tone, at her surprised look he added. "Do you really think Stoick the Vast would try to tame a Night Fury?"

She scoffed in laughter, muffling it with her hand. Her eyes roamed around the clearing, around the family her son had built himself, settling on Aurora's sleeping form.

"You know," she started, turning her head to her son, "if you were a girl, we were going to call you Aurora."

He flushed, muttering something.

"What was that?" She teased.

"Yeah, I know, he told me when I was a kid." He seemed to consider his next words carefully, mulling them over and weighing them before he carried on. "That's why I suggested it to her."

"Whatever do you mean, Hiccup?" Valka asked confusedly. She waited patiently for his next words.

"Well," he began, "we met a few years ago, when Toothless and I were taking down a trapper outpost." He took a deep breath. "It was the biggest one we had attacked yet, and we were only able to because we met Astra. She had been captive there for almost all of her life, since she was a hatchling. She only came to us because she scented Toothless, and his scent was the closest to her Mother's, who the hunters had separated her from only a few years after she hatched. Her Mother was brave, always fought back, she taught Astra as much as she could - we think she knew her time was short."