HTTYD: Daughter Of The Armada

Chapter 6

The girls sat side by side on the deck of the light ship that had been pulled out of retirement, the design having been long since outdated as soon as the first few generations of dragon resistant ships were brought into the fleet but only being phased out when the fully dragon proof ships followed a few years after, the ship being stripped of all its armaments for reusage aboard the newer vessels in the dragon army's collection. They maintained an awkward silence that had started between them not long after Heather had finally listened to Hicca's explanation for making her work for the Berserkers without even having the slightest clue, adamant that nothing could redeem Hicca in her eyes after she told her until she finally let her explain herself.

The duo stared out into the horizon with the Razorwhips and Light Fury sat beside them, silently begging for attention from the girls, as they watched the sun peaking over the horizon behind an island, one which Heather had last left covered head to toe in the blood of its inhabitants, her long lost brother's people, and a sadistic yet mostly satisfied smile across her face, Berserker Island. It would be safe to say that Heather was justifiably paranoid about returning to the island that she had once vowed to leave devoid of all forms of life, leaving nothing but ash and corpses in her wake, as vengeance for her own island that was strategically exterminated without even the slightest hint of mercy to even the youngest and the weakest of the once prosperous village. It was hard for the assassin to comprehend having a live relative, even if it meant her being abandoned by his family at birth, never mind the crucial detail about what she knew he was apart of that was staring her in the face, her birth brother ordered the attack that turned her home to ash and her family into nothing but painful memories, one of the few things that brought a tear to the eye of the girl how to suppress every emotion in her mind whenever she was without Hicca that she deemed unnecessary, struggling to sleep between the flashbacks of her younger self enjoying the life she once had with her parents and the painful memories of how she had found her family after having returned from Berk, having gone there with company from friends of her now deceased family within the Bog Burglar tribe, who inhabited a large island within a few hours reach of her home as well as also being the largest group for trading around her village if you were willing to not ask too many questions about where the goods were coming from and which less fortunate island was being raided to supply them.

"Look, Heather, I'm sorry, I messed up, I should have told you sooner instead of having you work for him without telling you who he is. I was just scared about how you would react, even if it would have been entirely my fault no matter what happened. I didn't want to lose you too but I thought it was better I try break the news eventually rather than having Dagur try do it, we both know he's neither a master of subtlety or people in general, he'd have probably found a way to break the news worse than I did," Hicca whimpered, her constantly blood shot eyes having no white left from the blood red surrounding her green iris',

"Hicca, don't blame my mistakes on yourself, I did this, not you, you were just trying to help me so I tried to kill you in return, none of this is on you," Heather tried to reassure the deathly looking girl but it wasn't hard to tell that she didn't believe a word of what she was hearing, unable to think of any way that it couldn't have been her fault that Heather reacted like she did, she knew what the Berserkers did to her after all but she still took contracts from their chief without telling her who she was working for, always claiming that she doesn't ask too many questions whenever she'd ask, even if she knew she didn't believe a word of it,

"How is this not on me? I should have told you before. I thought I was going to help you but I only made it worse for you, I just want you to not be alone, I know how often you go back to your old home to spend some time in the ruins of your village," Hicca responded with a whimper as a lone tear ran down her cheek, convinced that Heather must hate her now for what she had done, how she had betrayed the only person who would spare her a thought, never mind being willing to stay by her side. If she was being honest with herself, Hicca couldn't understand why Heather didn't just kill her, never mind wanting to stay around and acting as close to as she would if nothing had happened as she could with what she'd been told,