Forgiveness; the re-write

Chapter 12 - Emotional Whiplash

Hours had passed since you'd kissed Dagur in the woods. After that, you'd helped him set up a small camp for himself, made out some more and then been on your way back to the Clubhouse for dinner. You left very reluctantly though, keeping looking back at his camp as Dagur sat by the fire to warm himself.

You clearly weren't all there during the meal with the other Dragon Riders, as you didn't laugh at Tuffnut's joke like you usually would. You also nearly spat out your drink when Hiccup mentioned Dagur and his "crazy pants".

As you forced yourself to swallow your drink with a small cough, you gave Hiccup a very alarmed look. Everyone else looked at him confused. He glanced at you before continuing, "Well, since we're on the subject of Dagur now; do you ever wonder why he helped Heather escape from Viggo?"

Placing your cup carefully on the table, you felt yourself growing worryingly nervous about this topic of conversation. Sure, getting used to speaking about Dagur in a positive light would take time considering the history you both had, but the addition of Heather didn't make it any less worrisome.

"Probably as a distraction so he could get away himself?" Astrid answered straight away with a pretty accurate answer to what Dagur might have done. Well, before his change of heart anyway. You kept quiet.

"Maybe, I don't know..." Hiccup looked at you, only receiving a panicked blink to indicate that you were not getting into this conversation right now and continued. "What if it was the first step on a path to a new life?" You almost snorted as Hiccup made a wide gesture with his arm as he described Dagur taking on a new path.

"A new life? Dagur?" Heather slammed her fist on the table, confirming your fears that this was probably not the best time for this conversation. You jumped as her drink toppled over and spilt over her axe. "A dragon doesn't change its markings, Hiccup." She growled, wiping the drink off her weapon.

You cleared your throat while looking at her. She made eye contact with you before huffing out a "Apart from a Changewing, I know." Fishlegs also chimed in, prompting her to get even more irritated.

"You get the point!" She snapped.

"Yeah, I get where you're coming from. But at the same time, who would've thought that our father, Stoick the Vast, would ever learn to ride a dragon? I mean you never know, the next time we see Dagur-"

"I'll split the father-killer in two!!"

Your brother had his motivational speech cut off by Heather slamming her axe into the small side table next to her, slicing clean through it. You still said nothing, staring at the table now in shambles on the floor with wide eyes and trying to keep your expression as neutral as possible.

Hiccup noticed your panic and decided to drop the topic. "Yep, I uh...I think we get your point." By this time, even Astrid was looking incredibly alarmed. She turned to you slightly in a gesture of 'are you ok'. You could only really blink and pull a worried face before going back to watching Heather roughly pull her axe out of the wooden it was buried in.

"I'd better go, I have island patrol tonight."

In a moment of panic, you shot up from your seat. "Actually! Hiccup asked me to take it tonight!" Finally managing to say something, you immediately dropped your brother in the deep end. Heather looked surprised and slightly disappointed, turning to Hiccup and asking why. "I uh...have a mission for you! An important one, for you and Snotlout actually. It's one last recon mission to check out our target."

Ah right, one of the topics you'd overheard was the mission to the Dragon Hunter Shipyard. You were all supposed to set off for it in the next few days and destroy as much of it as you could.