I realized too late I had screamed that question, and I covered my mouth instantly once I did, though I knew they had heard it. I was pretty sure anyone within a mile of where we were had heard it.
His mother, it was strange calling her that, just smiled at us, not minding my clearly loud scream, and motioned for us to follow her.
"Come" she grabbed her staff and took off; Hiccup and I shared a confused look. Mine clearly said 'What do we do?' he shrugged, still a little shocked, and we followed her with our dragons behind.
"Hiccup, what is going on? I thought you told me she was dead!" I hissed, not wanting Valka to hear us (Yes, I knew her name. Hiccup had told it to me five years ago).
"I-I don't know! She was supposed to be, that's what my dad told me!" he said, as we kept running.
"Ask her, she is your mother!" I ushered, motioning towards the woman ahead of us.
"B-but now?" I rolled my eyes.
"No, in five years. Yes, now!" he nodded and hurried his pace, trying to catch up with her.
"H-hold on!" I heard him yell, while we tried to get through a really stretch opening "Wait just a minute"
"This way" she hissed, as she walked through the cave easily, while we struggled a lot to get through the rocks and not fall off.
"Come back here!" I giggled a little bit at Hiccup's attempt to get her attention, but she seemed more focused on arriving to our destination than on listening to him.
"Come!" she climbed over a rock, how on earth did she manage to do that? I had tripped like five times already! The floor was really unsteady.
"You can't just say something like that and run off" funny, that was exactly what I did when I told him about the pirates "You're my mother?!" he shouted, though I wasn't sure the woman was hearing "I mean, what the...? Do you- do you grasp how insane it sounds?" he looked back at me to make sure I was still following, I made a gesture for him to continue walking as I looked back to make sure our dragons were still following. They had it easy, they had paws and four legs (Well, two arms and two legs, but who counts, right?), while we had two and a half foot to walk through the rocky cave.
"Come!" said her mother "Quickly!" I was honestly getting tired of her repeating the same words over and over again.
"I have questions!" the woman climbed up a small ledge, and I started to seriously question how long she had been living there if she could climb up rocks so easily. Hiccup jumped, trying to climb up, but failing. I held back my giggles when Toothless boosted him up, and then came right after him.
I managed to jump, and Hiccup helped me up before continuing to follow Valka. I didn't bother to look back at Thunderlight, 'cause he had been climbing rocks for two years. There were a lot in Haustchet.
"Where have you been all this time?!" he yelled to her "What-what have you been doing? But they-they said you were dead! Everyone thinks you've been eaten by-by..." silence was all I could hear. I frowned, as I reached the end of the crevice and stood in completely different place from the previous cave.
It was amazing.
Around us, more than a thousand dragons were flying in the sky. Cute baby Gronckles were playing in the extremely green grass while some dragons flew around them.
I looked up to enjoy the wonder of it all, but my eyes stood on his mother, who was sitting on an orange four-wing dragon. He was hanging from a rock like a bat, and his head was turning in an unusual 360 grades way, I had never seen one like it before.
Hiccup kept looking around us and didn't notice.
"Hiccup" I whispered, nudging him slightly with my elbow and motioning towards his mother. He leaned back slightly because of suddenly finding her there.
"This is where you've been for twenty years?" he looked around and then back at her. She gave a small nod, smiling slightly "You-you've been rescuing them" she nodded again, still not saying anything "Unbelievable" I smiled sweetly at him. It had to be a shock to find out that your mother, whom you thought dead, was actually still alive and saving the one thing you were especially good with: Dragons.
What I wouldn't have given for my mother to be there right now (Biological, not adoptive), though I didn't know what she would say if she saw me being friends with a dragon. She was one of the best dragon killing Vikings in the whole of Berk, even Stoick the Vast himself admitted it. I didn't know how she would feel. What I did know, though, was that I could really use her advice in that moment, but I was certain she was watching over me from the Valhalla, and so was my dad.
My eyes filled with tears at the memory of my mother, but I didn't let them fall. That wasn't the time to be sad; Hiccup had finally met her mother! I should be happy for him, right?
Keeping that thought in mind, I focused back on the conversation developing in front of me.
"You're not upset?" asked her mother curiously.
"What? No. I-I don't know. I...It's a bit much to get my head around, to be frank" I smiled understandingly, I would have said the same thing in his position "It's not everyday you find out your mother is some kind of crazy, feral, vigilante dragon lady!" I chuckled, that was kinda similar to the reaction he had when I came back.
"Oh" she hooked her staff on the dragon's claws and came down, sliding through his wing "Well, at least I'm not boring, right?" I smiled, that was true. I could never get bored in a place like that, but, then again, my idea of fun was way different from people's usual idea of fun.
A dragon got closer to Hiccup.
"Well, I suppose there is that-" he put his hand on the dragon's snout, who had been nudging him "...One specific thing" I felt something in my leg, I looked down and saw a baby Terrible Terror rubbing against it. I giggled and knelt down, rubbing his head slightly, he purred and then ran off. It was really cute to see.
"Do-do you like it?" I heard Valka asked.
"It's amazing" I said, standing up and looking around a bit before turning towards them. They were both looking at me in amusement, and soon enough I realized why "I'm sorry" I said, covering my face with both my hands in embarrassment "You were talking to him" I looked at Valka apologetically, but she just chuckled.
"To both of you, actually" I smiled a little bit "What's your name?" she asked kindly.
"Alexa, but most people call me Lexa" she nodded.
"It's nice to meet you"
"Nice to meet you, too" I looked at Hiccup, who was still smiling at me like that "Erase that smile from your face, Hiccup" he raised his hands in redemption.
"W-what smile?" he asked innocently, and I just rolled my eyes. I saw Valka smiling as if she knew something we didn't, before turning back at Toothless. One of the dragons got closer and sniffed underneath his tail, he snarled and the dragons backed off, making us chuckle.
"C-can I?" she asked, approaching Toothless and looking at Hiccup, who nodded "Oh, he's beautiful!" she said, touching the spikes alongside his head. The Night Fury purred happily and rubbed his face against hers "Oh, incredible! He might very well be the last of his kind" Toothless purred and layed upside down "And look!" she touched underneath his chin "He's your age!" how did she knew that? I wanted to learn too!
"Wow" muttered Hiccup.
"No wonder you get along so well!" I wanted to to know how old Thunderlight was! Though, of course, I wasn't going to ask. I had embarrassed myself enough already.
Toothless then retracted his teeth, and she gasped in amazement.
"And retractable teeth!" she grabbed his jaw gently, and then rubbed his tongue softly. That was kind of disgusting "How did you manage?" no, I was not going to answer for Hiccup again if that's what you're wondering.
"I found him in the woods" he said, starting to explain the whole story "He was...Shot down and wounded" his mother made a hatred face, the same face I would have done if I didn't know it had been Hiccup who had done it.
"This Snafflefang lost his leg to one of Dragon Bludvist's iron traps" I frowned angrily at the mention of Drago Bludvist, that guy could get on my nerves every time he was mentioned, and I hadn't even met him in person, yet. If I ever did, it wouldn't be pretty. I could guarantee you that "This Raincutter had her wing sliced by razor netting" she said, lifting a really damaged wing from one of the dragons. I looked at it sadly.
Who could do such horrible things? Back when there were still dragon raids on Berk, not even the Vikings were that barbaric! And they had been fighting dragons for years! Compared to the trappers and Drago Bludvist, the Vikings were sweet, lovely angels "And this, oh, poor Hobblegrunt was blinded by a tree snare, and then left to die alone and scared" my eyes filled with tears when I saw the poor creature with his eyes completely white.
Then, Valka's eyes went over Thunderlight's back, all the way to his tail. I looked in that direction and saw what she was staring at.
"Did the dragon trappers do that?" asked Valka, looking at my dragon's prosthetic tail. I thought it was really nice of her to try to include me in their conversation; otherwise, I wouldn't have spoken a single word.
"No, actually...Is a long story" I said. Telling her exactly what happened would lead to me re-telling my five year story, and that was not something I wanted to do, especially considering that we had a fight with Hiccup because of that a couple of days ago "To sum up: half of his tail got burned, I met a blacksmith who made a new one for him"
"How did he burn it?" she asked, grabbing it and taking a look at it.
"He-" my gaze stood over Hiccup, making me remember how guilty he had felt. He smiled at me, not showing it, but his eyes said that he still had a little bit of guilt left. I turned back to Valka "He saved me from a fire" I wasn't going to put Hiccup in that position again, not in front of his mother.
I looked at him after that. He vocalized 'Thank you,' and I replied with 'You're welcome'
"And what about this?" asked Valka. We approached her, and saw she was holding Toothless' artificial tail "Did Drago or his trappers do this, too?" I smiled in amusement at Hiccup, knowing exactly what had happened; he just scratched the back of his neck nervously.
"Oh, hah, yeah" I giggled slightly as his mother gave us a curious look "Well, crazy thing is...I'm actually the one who shot him down" Toothless nudged him, and he petted him "Hey, it's-it's okay, though! He got me back, right, bud? You couldn't save all of me, could you? You just had to make it even!" I chuckled at their relationship, they were so close and so adorable "So, peg leg!" he gestured towards his foot happily. Toothless did something that made Hiccup sit on his back as the Viking laughed. I giggled, but in a slow voice so Thunderlight wouldn't hear me. He was behind me, playing some kind of tag game, and Thunderlight was the one trying to tag the other dragons (Mostly Gronckles and Terrible Terrors) I smiled at them, and turned back towards the scene.
Suddenly, one of the Gronckles ran really close behind me. He bumped into me, I stumbled and fell down....Right on top of Hiccup. Speaking of embarrassment, could things get any worse?
"Ouch" he mumbled. We stared at each other's eyes, before realizing Valka was right behind us, with that smile of hers.
"You deserved that" I said, referring to some hours before when he sunk me in the lake with him. I got off him and stuck my hand out to help him up. When he grabbed it, I felt a spark on my body.
Ugh, the gods hated me.