Someone is putting their hands over Ophelia's lips in the dead of night. Without a shadow of hesitation, Ophelia jabs forward, her fingers connecting with the flesh under the jaw, shoving upward hard. The person falls back onto the grass, grunting in pain. It's only then she realizes whom the noise belonged to.
"Calder?" She hissed, and she sees his slumped form on the ground. He looks up, his eyes wild and angry.
"What in the name of Odin?" He coughs in a hushed whisper, rubbing his neck.
"I think I should be asking you that!" She demands, "Scaring me like that..."
Calder pursed his lips. "I was trying to wake you without causing a scene." He said pointedly, "Waking anyone else."
Ophelia has a thousand retorts hanging off her lips, but purses them instead, looking at him hard. "Fine. I'm up. Now what?" She asks. He motions for her to follow him silently, and she has the fleeting thought of maybe it would be unwise to follow him. He is, after all, still a son of Unn with a tendency in his family to break.
But this is Calder, and Ophelia likes to think she'd know him well enough that whatever might happen, she'd be able to see it coming. Therefore, she stands cautiously and follows him out of the sound area that the sleeping camp lays. He was on night guard anyway, so there's no problems with avoiding one of their teammates, although she's still not sure why.
"What?" Ophelia yawns, crossing her chest.
"I sense something's going on between Jor and Ull." Calder said bluntly, and Ophelia raised an eyebrow.
"You mean like...lovers?" She scoffed, "Jor's engaged."
"Maybe, I don't know." Calder shrugs helplessly, "I just...tonight...they were giving off some weird vibes. I know it's been weeks, but their edginess...they were the only ones." He said in a frustrated tone, running his fingers through his hair, "Something...I don't..."
"I admit," Ophelia cut him off, "I was a little freaked out by the things going on tonight too. Jor isn't usually like that." She agreed, really thinking hard. The idea that Jor was unfaithful had never entered her mind until now, because Jor was too softhearted for that. Ophelia deep down believed the furthest that could happen was some strong pining, "So what now? We keep them apart in the searching?" She questioned.
"Actually, I think we should put them together again tomorrow." He said, and Ophelia's eyes widened in surprise.
"Wha-,"
"There's obviously something happening. I don't know what. Jor knows something, whatever it may be, and together-only those two- split up. But I think we should follow them."
Ophelia was silent for a moment.
"So you don't trust your brother, then?" She asked softly, recalling his brother's hurt eyes at the accusation that he couldn't trust him.
"Great Thor, Ophelia." Calder looked pained at the question, "I just...I can't trust anyone. Not when my entire life, I've been taught that no matter how good or how deserving you are, you will be left. Betrayed." He said, "Don't you see it too?" He asked.
Ophelia shrugged, biting the inside of her cheek, "I can't even recall my real parents." She sighed, "It feels like less of a betrayal because they also didn't choose for what happened to me. I didn't choose it." She said, and then took a staggered breath, adding, "Neither did your mom."
The words stiffened Calder's back. "Yeah, well," He snapped sourly, "We needed her, and she still died of something no one knew of. Left us as orphans. She was supposed to be the good guy, but hell..." He looked out into the forest. It hurt Ophelia to see his reaction. Elsa's love had been enough for Ophelia to have, at the very least, a rather optimistic outlook on life. Proof that even after everything is ripped away, there is still love. In Calder, it seemed to have gone the opposite way, and in that moment, Ophelia wished more than ever that he could consider Elsa a mother too, so that her love could be enough for him. But she knew it wasn't. That much was clear.
He was just a vagabond passing by their lives, in his mind.
Ophelia couldn't help but feel a little saddened by it, a wave of regret and longing freezing down her fingertips, but she pushed it aside. There was a war coming, and Ophelia didn't have time for silly and unwarranted emotions.
"So you're going to follow him tomorrow? Should we just hold everyone else here, in case...?"
"Actually, you're going to go." He said, then looked down, "Or, I hoped you'd do it." He added, a little less of a command and more of a request. Ophelia's face stayed impassive.
"I thought you didn't trust anyone. Surely this is too important for someone other than you to do?" She said, although there was little malice in her tone. It was truly a question. Calder gave a half-snorting laugh.
"Well, I guess that means I trust you, doesn't it?" He asked, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Oh, so you're just a liar then?" Ophelia prompted. Calder brushed off the jibe, and he gave a soft sound.
"Only on occasion." He agreed.
"Why me?" Ophelia demanded tensely, "I don't understand."
"After tonight, my brother would know something is up if he accidentally were to see me. You...he still trusts, I think. At least respects you. Besides, a bewilderbeast isn't exactly covert." He pointed out. Ophelia hummed in soft agreement.
"What do you think we'll find?" She asked.
"Best case scenario, we're reading into the whole thing. Worst case? Affair, maybe? I mean, it might not be that way in the span of war, but I don't need feuding lovers compromising the inner mission. We'd need to fix it right away. If it were peacetime, wouldn't be my place to intervene, even if it were my brother. Now?" He said, trailing off.
"I actually agree," Ophelia, said, "I mean, we all told Jor she wouldn't be happy with Gustav, but it was an honor and parents thing. Even still, I care about her enough that I'd want to stop it." She said.
"You're generally a better person than I am." Calder commented, narrowing his eyes in slight amusement.
"So I've come to realize." She said, and yawned wide, blinking away tiredness. Calder noticed, and began to lead back to the clearing.
"I've kept you up long enough. You should sleep." He advised.
"I don't usually take orders from you, but I think in this case, I'll do it." Ophelia informed him, "Only because it's a sensible order, you understand?" She said, and paused before the clearing, "So...tomorrow you pick the sticks. Put Randolph with me. He still has a nasty cold, and I'll send him back to you with the pretense he should rest, and tell him I'll catch up with Jor and Ull."
"Sounds workable." Calder gave a sharp nod, "Good thinking." He said, which was possibly the highest praise Ophelia imagined he was able to give, "Night, Ophelia."
"Night." Ophelia murmured back drowsily, blinking as the darkness faded into sleep.
She was surprised when she woke up in the morning and found that she was better rested than she expected. True that it had taken little time to fall asleep the night previous, with such a plan about to start, it was nerve-wracking. On the outside, and perhaps she was wrong, Calder seemed totally relaxed, as if today was merely another day. But Ophelia, from the moment she woke, was racked with scenarios of how literally everything could fall apart.
Worst thing would be if Jor and Ull realized they were being followed, because neither of them would trust Calder or Ophelia after that. In wartime, you couldn't have that. A leader needed to be positive their soldiers would take their word to be infallible, to realize the greater reason for anything. When it was with friends, it was difficult. Ull was, in the rawest of sense, their soldier. Yet, he wouldn't believe a thing either of them said if he realized what was happening ever again. They didn't need war between brothers, not with this coming.
After breakfast, Calder took the sticks out.
"Fulla and Gustav," He said and Gustav looked longingly at his fiancée, but nodded, standing next to the overexcited teenager, "Lyal and Sigrid," Sigrid of course was overjoyed. So far, her attempts to woo him had been pretty unsuccessful, but that didn't mean she was going to give up, "And Jor and Ull."
The silence that followed was thick enough to cut with a sword.
"What?" Gustav finally exploded, "After last night? You're letting them go together? Again?" He demanded hotly.
"The sticks picked it, not me." Calder waved the picking sticks.
"Change it then." Gutsav demanded.
"That's not fair. I think Jor and Ull realized their mistakes last night, right guys?" Ophelia looked meaningfully at them. Both nodded vigorously.
"It was stupid." Ull agreed.'
"Totally fish brained." Jor said, "Gustav, I'll be okay. Really." She said. There was a quiet murmuring from the group, but no one dared to question it.
"So that leaves me with my choice." Randolph said, sneezing as he said so, "How about-,"
"Actually, I saw a huge buck this morning. Thought I'd stay in camp and try to track it down." Calder threw in casually, "You fine with going with Ophelia today?" He questioned.
"If we get venison for dinner, I'd go searching with Loki!" Randolph said, hitting Ophelia on the shoulder like one of the guys, "Awesome."
"Sounds great." Ophelia said, wincing a bit as he wiped away some mucus from his nose. Yes, even if she normally were with him, he would probably be sent back. They couldn't afford anyone getting sick, and he seemed no better than the day before.
"Okay, so everyone come up and get your passages." Calder said, motioning to the rock. Jor and Ull ended up last, but Ophelia floated near by to hear what Calder would say.
"I want you guys to go back to the ship you found yesterday. Sweep it as a team. Can't be too careful." He said. It seemed he said the right thing, for both Jor and Ull's eyes lit up. Ophelia narrowed her eyes in thought. Now that the seed of doubt about Jor and her waning love for Gustav had been planted, she couldn't help but see the signs everywhere. Quietly, her stomach twisted in agony. She didn't want to be the one to catch them together. She didn't want to see this, to have to deliver the news to Gustav or make Jor do it. But Odin, maybe today she'd have to. She would have to do the hard thing, be the right leader.
Everyone set out in his or her different directions. About half an hour into the flight, Randolph's coughing turned into a fit, and they had to touch down without any intervention from Ophelia to check it out. She waited for his attack to pass, and when he did, he tried to re-mount his dragon.
"Oh, no." Ophelia shook her head sharply, "Not you. You're really sick, dude." She said.
"Don't be silly, I can still search." Randolph insisted, wiping his nose on the back of his sleeve.
"And if we stumble upon them, let everyone know within a five mile radius our location due to a sneeze or a cough?" Ophelia pointed out logically, "Randolph, you're smarter than that. I mean, I doubt anything will happen today if you spend a day at home drinking soup. We've been out here this long already." She pressed.
Randolph opened his mouth to argue and Ophelia sighed, "As your leader, I am commanding you in the nicest way possible to go back to camp. You can get an early pick of venison." She said.
Randolph scowled in frustration, but knew better than to disobey a direct order, even if in common time, they would be the same level of dominance, him arguably more because he was male. But today, he just looked distressed.
"But what about you? Last night you guys made such a big deal about being alone, not that I disagreed." He added hastily.
"I'll catch up with Jor and Ull, they can't be more than an hour that way." Ophelia said, pretending to survey the land, although she knew with certainty that they were that way and even less than an hour, "With a night fury, I'll be sure to catch up."
Another fit of coughs overcame Randolph. "Fine." He agreed, "Just because you used logic and food. If Calder gives me any BS for leaving you alone, you have to deal with him." He said, and got back on his dragon, "Good luck." He said, waving off, and leaving her alone.
She waited until he was a speck on the horizon.
"Okay, Achilles." She said, rubbing his nose, "We're going undercover. So you have to be really quiet, no giant wing flapping, you understand?" She told him. He looked at her.
"I know, they're my friends, Achilles, but something is really weird between them!" She justified when Achilles gave her a hard glance. He made a sound in the back of his throat, "You didn't see them last night." She argued with him, "We are going to get to the bottom of this."
Achilles grumbled, and just collapsed on the ground. She tried to shove him, but it was clear he intended to go nowhere. Ophelia threw up her hands.
"Great, I get the reptile with an arrow straight moral compass." She rolled her eyes, "Just do me this, Achilles, and I will personally catch you a barrel of fish tonight." She said. Achilles eyed her with interest, but still sat like a rock on the ground.
"I'll...wash your scales too?" She questioned, but Achilles still pretended to look disinterested, "You know Hubert would be with me, buddy." She said. For sake of not over-exciting the little dragon, he was left back at camp. It had taken not as long as she'd thought for him to transfer over to being fine with sitting on Calder's shoulders in Ophelia's absence, but he was still much calmer when he could latch onto his owner's shoulder pads.
Achilles threw her a dark look when she compared him to her other dragon.
"Yep, I went there!" Ophelia said haughtily, "Are you going to let a little itty bitty matchstick be more loyal than you?" She taunted.
Achilles bit out a bark at her, but still did not budge. Ophelia frowned; she really thought at bringing up Hubert would make him go. Unfortunately, Achilles was just as prideful as his namesake.
"Fine. I'm sorry. I know you're a better dragon than Hubert. Is that what you want to hear?" She questioned, and he gave her a narrowed glare, "Well, I can't say it any less sarcastically than that! You can't expect me to choose favorites, can you?" From his look, he obviously thought she could.
Ophelia paced, worried that they were wasting time and wouldn't catch up. "Look, Achilles, I really need you to be a good dragon right now. I'm so damn worried, and I'm terrified about what I'm going to find but you know what? I'm a leader. Maybe I didn't choose it, not really, but I am and I'm doing the best I can! And sometimes, that means we have to do the hard choices. We have to leave our families, we have to track what seems like they're ghosts or myths at this point, and we have to do things that maybe we can't return our morality from. But I can do it because maybe I'm always flawed, you know, and I can carry more. Should Fulla have to bear a burden of a secret? Should Sigrid, whose much more naive than she thinks? I do it so they don't have to. Don't you see?" She said, and she felt tears bubbling up to her face, "Don't you see, Achilles, you gotta..." She whispered, and pressed the palms of her hands hard against the slopes of her sockets to keep the tears from coming out, but Odin, they did anyway.
Achilles gave a soft whining sound in the back of his throat, a distressed sound at his master crying, and she felt him nudge her gently. She sniffled, sucking in tears, and looked at him, "Being a leader is hard." She whispered, "I don't know how either sets of my parents do it."
Sympathy flared in Achilles' eyes, and he gave a long sigh. She realized that while he still didn't want to spy on Ull or Jor, he would do what Ophelia asked, maybe even because as a guy- albeit in dragon form- he wasn't great at dealing with crying girls. Or maybe, for a glimmer of hope, he understood why. Either way, he motioned with a jerk of his head and flattening of his ears for her to get on.
"Thanks." She said, patting his neck, "Remember...really quite. Listen to what I tell you. If I'm wrong, then we won't have to do it again, and you can be upset at me forever about making you do this. If so, I'll bring you a fresh fish for the rest of your days." She promised. Achilles snorted, but took off all the same.
As predicted, on her night fury it didn't take long for her to catch up with Jor and Ull. But, instead of making her presence known as Randolph assumed she would, she raised Achilles high into the sky so that even if Ull felt a bit paranoid and turned, she would still be unseen.
The pair flew to a small island with an immediate outcrop of dark and foreboding trees, and a half-sunken ship crashed against the side of the cliff- assumedly, the ship that had been found the day previous. Jor and Ull landed down, but Ophelia brought Achilles over and down on the far side of the island. She made Achilles promise to stay quiet- he grumbled and rolled his eyes but agreed- and she caught him a fish quickly. She realized swiftly that humans must not be common, for the fish she grabbed from the little cove didn't even flinch at her presence. It was reasonable; if the attackers were looking for places to hide (maybe before the ship crashed) then this would be a smart choice.
Ophelia brushed through the thick foliage, keeping close to the ground, and trying not to make a sound. She hoped she didn't miss them discussing what they would do, and saw the flash of Jor's green dress through the trees and slipped down.
"So, do we really care about what Calder said? About partners?" Jor asked, shocking Ophelia. Firstly, because Jor was the least likely person to disobey orders, second because it didn't sound much like 'cheating' at all.
"I don't." Ull scoffed, shuffling his feet in the marshes, "We can easily like if we're questioned by Calder today. I mean, I can't believe you even said anything about it last night." He said, a tinge of disgust on his voice.
"I panicked!" Jor said, "I'm not a great liar."
"Clearly." Ull was covered by Ophelia's view, but his tones were doing justice to what was hidden from her sightline.
Jor grumbled, looking a bit hurt. "I won't get hurt today." She admonished.
"Hmm." Ull said, and then gave a long sigh, "No searching in burrows?" He teased. There were a couple things Ophelia couldn't hear, and then she heard the footsteps diverging. She saw Ull making a beeline for the ship, while Jor turned and went just to the west of where Ophelia hid.
Who to follow now? She suspected both were hiding things, but she was only one person. She was at the point of literally flipping a broken rock when she saw Jor pause and turn. A look of shame mixed with uncertainty passed over her features, and cautiously, she took a step back toward the clearing they'd been at moments before. Perhaps Jor was questioning where he was going too? Or even, maybe she'd reconsidered caring about what Calder had said.
Either way, Ophelia didn't have to make a choice now.
Keeping a couple feet buffer between them, she followed her friend to the edge of the trees, but she didn't worry about if Jor caught her. She was luckily a gifted liar- the best of her, Jor, or Sigrid- and could use the story of Randolph being sick and coming to help her. Luckily, Jor seemed so caught up in her thoughts or concentration that she didn't even falter and look back once.
The ship had no easy access point. She saw Jor uncomfortably wade into what looked like freezing cold water, soaking her clothes up to her waist to shimmy into a hole cracked in the hull. Ophelia was not about to go to that length, and noticed a few floating icebergs that were precariously just so that if she jumped and landed perfectly, she might be able to get to the deck of the ship that way. Taking few qualms with only freezing her fingers or palms, she stepped uneasily onto the first one.
It was a slower process than she had anticipated, but only because she was quite sure she did not want to take a dip into that water, just after feeling the breeze that carried over her skin from the harbor.
When she finally hung a leg over the side of the ship, she'd never been happier to see one. She knew from the craftsmanship it was undoubtedly a Berkian made ship, which wasn't surprising. Often, even with Lava Louts, ship pieces and designs were circulated around out of a sense of kinship, as sea faring was so important to their culture. It had definite flairs of Lava Lout, though, a certain general feeling of dankness.
The boat seemed firmly planted in the side of the cliff, for it did not creak or shudder at Ophelia's movements. It was a large ship, but it seemed abandoned. Only recently though; Ophelia found an unopened barrel of fresh drinking water on the deck. There were other oddities that seemed weird to have been left with the ship in no panic of sinking; a line of thick rope that would make a better than fair tie for an anchor, a table that seemed new and stable that could have been utilized for nearly about anything, a couple tin buckets stacked that faintly smelled of the sea, and upon closer inspection, found a dead fish, although it was not decaying yet, meaning that it couldn't have been more than a week old.
The sail was half-pooled on the floor, the edges of it fraying from general use, and spreading it out, it was a hand-made one that she did not recognize to be owned by the Lava Louts or Drago's branding. She could only infer it might have been the flag of the Southern Isles; a place picked up from stolen conversations between her parents in furious darkness. The most she knew was that her mother, both kinds, had an altercation with this neighboring nation just not long after Elsa was a queen. Of what kind, with who, and why it would be relevant years after were unknown to her. Even so, a shiver of worry ran down her spine at it. The name had always sounded like a fairy tale to her, a place that vaguely existed, but in the sense she knew did not exist- or not yet.
But now, seeing this flag, confirmed all her parents fears in a horrifying way.
There was a sound below the deck, and with a jolt, she recalled she'd been following two people onto this ship. She decided to pick up a discarded, and rusting, blade from the floor, for although she thought it might be her friends, she couldn't be sure.
She saw an open hatch down to the storage and sleeping quarters. The downstairs was extremely dark, and it took her a couple moments to find the first room devoid of anything; it was simply empty. The noises she heard were more now, and it did not sound merely like two people.
She pressed herself against a wall, holding her breath and staying perfectly still, until she realized that the noises- the people she could hear- were preoccupied with something in the room next to her, and seemingly no footsteps came her way to discover her. A real flash of fear and panic raced through her body; had they actually found their enemies? Was Ophelia in real trouble? Was she even going to get out of this alive?
There was a glimmer of light that danced on the edge of her vision. She turned so that her stomach was pressed to the wooden wall, and felt it give a little. She fell to her knees; fingernails creeping underneath the plank, and pulling it back gingerly. It came free with little resistance, along with the rest of the boars below it. It made only a few squeaking sounds, and she paused frozen between each board, waiting to be found, but she made it to the floorboards without an incident. It gave her a crawl-way into the next room, but a covert one, as a high pair of barrels blocked the place where she'd pried off the boards completely. She pressed herself into the other room, and on her left and right, could see feet shuffling, and now could hear voices. Unfamiliar, gruff, male voices.
Ophelia took a couple deep breaths and raised her head above the barrels, seeing that all the people were preoccupied to something to the other side of the room. While she was too young to recall what anyone looked like from the Lava Louts or Drago's army- she'd been too young or not even born yet- she was fairly sure that there was no other explanation on what these men could be. Some had the scarred over brandings peeking from their shirt-collars of Drago, some had dragon-pelt capes that made Ophelia's teeth grind in anger. There was a heavy din, and Ophelia couldn't pick out any one conversation, but within a moment of her peeking her head up, on the other side of the room, a door was flung open.
"Look who we found peeking around!" A gruff and roaring male voice cried out, and Ophelia had to press her knuckles hard against her teeth to keep from making any noise as they dragged Jor into the room by her hair. She was fighting, kicking out and rebelling, but in a room full of strong people, it was a loosing war.
A tiny squeak of a gasp escaped Ophelia's lips when Jor was thrown to the floor with such violence that a line of blood welled up on her hands, staining the floor. She ducked down immediately after, praying that no one had turned her way, but she waited a good long while to peek back up.
She counted swiftly, taking inventory of all their faces. Twelve men here, each distinct enough so that when she battled them, she'd take the greatest pleasure in it.
"A Berkian." Someone called out, jerking Jor around like a rag-doll, "Look at that. She probably worships Hiccup." He spat Ophelia's father's name out like a vile bug, and Jor snapped her lips together tightly. She didn't say much now, but Ophelia was extremely worried about if they took it to torture later.
There was a shuffling next to her, and Ophelia nearly jumped out of her skin, instinctively pressing a knife to the ribcage of the person who had invaded her space. Had the person not jerked her up to see the face, Ull would have been dead within another second.
"Ull?" Ophelia mouthed, her eyebrows knitting in confusion.
"I saw them take her, I couldn't do anything." Ull whispered hoarsely, painfully, "Odin, Ophelia...This is all my fault!" He sounded agonized.
"We can't take them all." Ophelia realized with a dull thud in her chest, "Not even with surprise." She said, glancing back over, swallowing thickly, "We need to go before we're found too."
Ull looked incredibly torn, his jaws opening and closing back up, as if he couldn't force the words out. Finally, he gave a nod, his shoulders crumpling in regret.
Once outside, safely away from the ship, Ophelia took the knife out again. "You...you need talk. Right now." She demanded in a shaking voice.
"You followed me." Ull realized with a jolt, and a passing of hurt crossed his face, but then he resolved it, "I can't even be upset. I might have tried to take them all at once if you hadn't talked me out of it, which wouldn't help anyone."
"You still owe me an explanation to why you two were alone, again, and why didn't you tell anyone last night that the ship..it...it..." She stuttered, feeling the fear rise in her body.
"Well, I didn't find anyone last night!" Ull ranked his fingers through his hair, "But I mean, you might have noticed the weird things left there, things that wouldn't be left. And the ship didn't really seem all that broken, so I had my suspicious. I wanted to check again, and if I still found it shady, I'd pressure everyone to go and look as a team tomorrow. But I didn't want to start any unnecessary missions, time-wasters. I wanted to be sure. Jor would have reported back immediately."
"That's asinine!" Ophelia objected, her voice thundering, "Any lead would have been better than none." She said harshly and Ull's head dropped in shame.
"And now I wish I'd warned her." Ull leaned against a tree; "She walked right into an ambush. I was a bit more careful, which is how I escaped unnoticed. You were just plain old lucky." He added.
"This is..." Ophelia pressed her fingers against her eyes, "Fuuu..." She trailed off, and sucked in sharply, "Well, either way, we have a reason to go now. Jor needs to be rescued. Gustav is going to have your head, you know?" She questioned.
"It's all my fault." He agreed, "I probably deserve it."
"This can't be all of them." Ophelia pressed her lips, "Twelve men. That's not an army."
"We can at least weaken them. Burn the ship. I think they're secretly hiding supplies on the very lowest decks, food and fresh water. That's what makes the ship stay in the harbor, it's weighed down."
"Any sabotage is worth is." Ophelia nodded vigorously, "I saw a younger man there. Our age. He might be able to be questioned properly for information."
Ull made a choked sound. "Torture?" He gaped.
"This is war. If you don't think that Jor won't be tortured, then we're naive." Ophelia shot back, even though her stomach twisted at the idea of hurting anyone so violently, but she shoved it down. Ull looked pained at the idea as well, but nodded solemnly.
"You're right." He whispered, "But he might not know much. When do we believe him if he's telling us the truth?" He asked.
"I don't know." Ophelia said, and whistled for Achilles, "I really don't."
OMPHALOS
Back in Berk, it began with rain. But it wasn't regular rain. It made the humans cough and the flowers wilt ever so slightly. But the dragons began to ail.
"It was planned." Hiccup finally declared after they had to give yet another dragon a Viking funeral, his heart heavy with failure, "I won't believe that our enemies didn't have a hand in this."
"They're thinning the crowd so when they attack, the dragons aren't as dangerous." Elsa added quietly, comforting a sobbing Yvonne, who was greatly upset by the sickened dragons.
"But...how?" Fishlegs demanded, flabbergasted, "We don't...what's...how..." It had been his dragon, which was not a young thing when he was first released from being a teaching tool all those years ago, which had passed most recently. Fishlegs was far too upset to form sentences.
Hiccup gave a helpless shrug, his shoulders slinking deep below his where they usually sat, "I don't know. Maybe whoever is after Elsa, maybe he brought something awful with him."
Elsa and Hiccup had long ago decided that anyone after her with the Southern Isles insignia must have gone through an Omphalos too. That's what scared Elsa. This person could have brought back any number of diseases from her decade and perfected them to kill dragons swiftly. Any reptilian disease would work well, she thought with a pained thought. The entire group of islands had been mourning their lost dragons. They were dropping like flies, and not one of the healers could figure out a cure at all.
It made some angry, war-hungry for revenge of those that they considered to be friends more than merely pets.
Back at home; Elsa sat with Mercedes, quietly stroking her dragon's muzzle. The timberjack leaned into her comforting hand. Mercedes wasn't as sick as some, but had still been affected. During the night, Toothless and Hiccup had been gone, leaving the alpha luckily unharmed. Toothless was for sure upset about it all though, and Elsa hadn't seen him in days, as he was going from dragon to dragon to comfort them the best he could. Whenever Toothless sat with a particular one for more than an hour, it was an awful omen that the dragon would be dead by nightfall. Toothless' intuition had yet to be wrong yet.
It was a heavy blow for everyone. Hiccup was obsessed with figuring out how it was done. His worst guess was that they infected a dragon that blew water over fire and infected it, and then flew it over the islands, as a few dragons had gotten milder diseases from being near already affected, but it wasn't perfect.
"Mom." Are murmured, causing Elsa to spin around.
"Where did you get that?" Elsa demanded, seeing him in full armor.
"The dragons are dying. I need to be able to fight more than ever." He defended himself, pausing a moment, "Eret gave it to me."
Elsa sprang up, shaking her head, "I won't lose you too." She said, "This is the last time I discuss this with you."
"I'm old enough to fight!" Are slinked away from his mother, "You can't keep me away when you'll be fighting yourself. I've been practicing."
"You are still just a child, Are." Elsa pleaded, "You shouldn't need to."
"But I want to, mom." Are pleaded, "I've never wanted anything more."
"We're all disappointed at some points in our lives," Elsa snapped sourly, "You'll live with yours and thank me one day."
"Other thirteen year olds are being allowed to fight, mom." Are still continued to argue, "All over the island, my friends will be honored after, and I'll have to admit I was holed away." He snarled.
"Honor is not worth it when you're dead." Elsa said, "You are not other's sons."
"But you're the wife of the chief! Shouldn't you, more than anyone, be putting a message out there and letting me fight?"
"And encourage others to follow? No, if I had it my way, no-one under fifteen would be out there." Elsa said, and she began to un-tie the armor from her son, "Are, you remind me so much of your father, it scares me."
"Why does it scare you?" Are blushed at the comparison, and Elsa saw the hint of a prideful smile underneath it.
"Because he was reckless as a young boy, often disobeying his parents wishes." Elsa said, "His actions more than once nearly cost him his life. I don't want you to look at his ill-chosen choices and think that it would be the same. People like Hiccup...he's more than lucky to have gotten away with merely a lost leg. I fear you wouldn't be as lucky." She whispered faintly, her throat clogging in agony.
"But if I'm his son, maybe I'll have inherited his luck..." Are begun hopefully.
"Are, please, sooth your mother and drop this argument." Elsa sucked in a deep breath, grasping his shoulders, "For me." She pleaded.
"Mom..." Are gave a long, heaving sigh. But he didn't argue anymore, and let her take off his armor. Yet, when she was finished, he turned abruptly toward the house, and did not say another word.
Hiccup appeared an hour later, and his eyes zeroed in on the discarded armor.
"Ah, I'd take it that's what's gotten Are into such a bad mood." He inferred.
"Eret gave it to him." Elsa said in a tense voice, "Can you talk to your friend? Tell him that I don't want him interfering in our choices?" She questioned. Hiccup gave a silent nod.
"How's Mercedes?" Hiccup asked, and he sat at Elsa's side, running his fingers through her half-braided hair.
"Not dying, but not better." Elsa said, "How's town?"
A dark expression flashed over Hiccup's face, "They're almost rioting. The people are bloodthirsty for revenge. I can't say I'm all too unhappy, battle training and weapon making has heightened exponentially in just this one day, but the darkness that's gripped people is horrifying."
"And you couldn't do anything?" Elsa guessed from the way his face contorted.
"No." Hiccup admitted, "I'm so damn worried that people are going to do things in this war that they can't come back from. That is too far-gone to let them be who they were before it. Especially now."
"But that's ridiculous. We're all going to change." Elsa said, pulling a frown, "War changes everyone, Hiccup."
"To what extent, though? What we do to stay alive shouldn't have to define us totally." He argued, "To do what we need to do to save our children, that's on the good team." He said.
"It's all so objective, Hiccup." Elsa shook her head, "Good? Bad? In stories, it's so black and white. But now, it's harder to tell."
"We're not picking a fight, Elsa." Hiccup continued, "They are."
"After tonight, we might as well be." Elsa said, and rubbed the palm of her husband's hands, "I just...people will be darker after. People will be different. You're clinging to the impossible if you think anyone will be spared. Even children will be wholly different after."
"I won't go that far, I can't." Hiccup rasped, "After everything with my father and my mother and the dragons, I'd be damned if I let myself fall into the darkness."
He said. Elsa nodded, but he was still talking, "So...if Drago seeks me out, you need to fight him for me."
"What?" Elsa startled back, surprised at his words.
"It's not cowardice. It's something..." Hiccup took a deep breath, "You know how long it took for me accept that my dad's death wasn't my fault?" He asked. Elsa inclined her head.
"Yes." She agreed. It had been only two years ago he'd been able to let go of the guilt, the overpowering feeling that he could have done something different. It was a dark smudge in their relationship Elsa did not enjoy revisiting. There had been moments where that darkness had nearly eaten him alive.
"That anger at myself is still there, but now, it's all at him. And if I see him, Drago, whatever keeps it at bay is going to snap. And I'm terrified about what will happen when it does, because it's not the only time I've prayed for a fate worse than death for him. But if I let that happen, how will my children be able to look up to me anymore?" He asked, already looking at his hands, "I am chief, and therefore, my fingers are constantly dripping with blood of those I can't save, couldn't save. But his death, no matter how deserving, will tip the scale and it can't be washed away."
"I see." Elsa said, "If it comes to it, I will fight him for you." Elsa agreed, "Because I'm confident I will be able to kill him humanly if it comes to that, or at the best, keep him locked up for a proper trial."
Hiccup burrowed his head into the shape of her neck, breathing against her. "Thank you." His voice was hardly a wisp, "Odin, I love you."
"Come what may," Elsa murmured back, "I love you too."