eleven

ALORA WATCHED AS HICCUP EXPLAINED WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM LAST NIGHT. To be quite frank, what happened was crazy. They saw another Fury. A female Fury. She knew how much that meant to Toothless. She knew that meant they could repopulate the Furies.

But that also meant they were in danger. The last male and female Fury? People would want their hands on them.

She smiled as she saw Toothless staring up into the sky. He came back and nudged Hiccup. She laughed as he was salivating all over him.

“Bud, what’s gotten into you?” he asked. “What is all this slobbering and panting?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Alora said, helping Astrid carry her buckets. “He’s in love.”

“Trust me,” Hiccup whispered. “Relationships are nothing but pain and misery.”

Alora smacked his back.

“Right. Super hearing,” he winced. “A-And see?”

Toothless ignored him.

“Am I not enough?” he asked.

The Night Fury pushed past him.

“I think that’s a no,” Tuffnut said.

“I can’t believe Toothless has a girlfriend!” Alora exclaimed.

“Are-Are you fangirling right now?”

“It’s just so sweet!” Alora said. “I mean, look!”

Toothless stood in front of a wall and danced with his shadow.

“Okay, that’s just sad,” Tuffnut said. “And weird.”

“Yeah, you better do something,” Ruffnut said.

“Seriously? I’d rather shovel poop all day than to see that,” Snotlout added.

“Okay! Okay,” Hiccup said. “Let’s head back to the woods and see if we can find her.”

Toothless stopped licking the wall and perked up at his words.

“Good idea!” Tuffnut said.

“Uh. . .”

“Shh,” Tuffnut said. “It’s boy talk!”

Alora shrugged her shoulders and went to talk with Astrid.

“So.”

“So?”

“Is it me or am I seeing white?”

“Oh, not you too!”

“Look, all I’m saying is you two have literally waited so long and have been through so much," Astrid said. "When you left, Hiccup was a mess. It was so bad that Toothless couldn't even get him out of bed."

Alora frowned.

"And you spent days crying, drawing and dreaming about waking up on the Edge. So what's the hesitation?"

The Kryptonian sighed.

"Kids."

Astrid raised an eyebrow.

"You don't want to have kids."

"No, I do."

"Well I'm sure Hiccup wouldn't mind that. I mean, the Haddock bloodline needs to continue—"

"I want a big family."

Astrid’s eyes widened.

"O-Okay. How big, like two to three?"

"Four to six."

Astrid coughed.

"Plus, there's a possibility that. . .you know. . .they'll have powers," she said, lowering her voice on the last part.

"So you're scared that Hiccup isn't going to like the fact that the kids are going to be half alien?" Astrid said, putting a hand on her hip. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"Well, no—"

"Aly, he loves you. He loves you so much. He loves you because of you, not because you're a flying woman from another planet that's from another world. That was a bonus."

Alora laughed.

"And if you're that concerned, you should be talking to him about this. Not me."

"I know, I know. You're right," she said. "You're always right."

"Damn straight."

"I really need to watch my mouth."

"Well no matter how hard you try, it's bound to come out again. Especially with little ones running about."

Alora chuckled and placed what she was holding down on the table.

"I'll be back for a second."

Astrid narrowed her eyebrows in concern.

"Okay."

One. Two. One, two. One. Two. One, two.

Winn Schott watched as the nineteen-year-old punched the heavy duty bag in front of her. She was angry. Sad. And had all these pent up emotions that she couldn’t explain.

"You want to talk about it?" Winn asked.

"No," Alora replied. “I’d rather not."

"Then, I'll talk," Winn said. "Your mother was the most heartfelt person I’d ever met."

Alora punched harder.

"She was confident, even in the most dire situations she never crumbled. And she never crawled."

Alora felt her fists tighten.

"She was like a literal angel."

Alora swung harder.

"But she had flaws."

She stopped.

"Sometimes she didn't think things through. Sometimes she let her emotions get the best of her. And sometimes, she was so stubborn that she’d make the situation worse than it already was, but guess what? She'd always find a way to make things right."

Alora turned around to face the man.

"What happened to you back there?" Winn asked. "In this, 'mysterious' and 'magical' place that you so desperately want to go back to."

". . . Good things."

"Yeah, like what?"

She smiled, reminiscing.

"Astrid."

"'Astrid'? Who's Astrid?"

". . . She's my best friend."

Winn nodded his head. Now he was getting somewhere.

"Tell me about this Astrid."

"She's crazy," Alora laughed. "She's stubborn. She hates it when Snotlout's right. She can't stand the twins."

""S-Snotlout'? 'Twins'?"

"She loves Stormfly and. . ." she paused. "And she weirdly likes sunflowers."

Winn felt someone tap his shoulder. It was Brainy.

"My turn."

He shook his head, confused at his words.

"Who's the person that you keep trying to draw?" he asked, holding up a rough draft.

"GIVE ME THAT!" Alora rushed and took the drawing. "And for your information, it's not a person! It's an animal!"

"Oh. I’m sorry, I couldn't tell with all those scribbles."

Winn glared at Brainy.

"Did I say something wrong?"

Alora sketched a drawing of Hiccup sleeping on Toothless when they were teenagers. The drawing looked like it had been transferred straight out of her memory and onto parchment in front of her.

"Whoa," Alex said. "He's cute."

Alora blushed as she finished her sketch of Hiccup.

"It’s not great."

"But it's a start," she told the teenager. "Who is he?"

Sadness and longing washed upon her.

"Someone I know."

That was all she ever said about him. Alora never talked about the mysterious brunette boy. It took her a while, but she eventually mentioned the names of the other teens that she drew. But never his.

What the adults found weird were not the teenagers, but the 'animals' behind them.

"You like dragons?" Lena asked, looking at the drawing of the familiar red Monstrous Nightmare.

"I love them," Alora said. "They’re so majestic."

"Well because they're described that way in mythology," Brainy said.

"Their breath is disgusting, no matter how many times you brush their teeth," she laughed, causing the adults to look at her.

"Should we be concerned?" J'onn J'onzz asked.

"She's fine," Brainy responded. "She's merely fantasizing. It's a common thing amongst adolescents."

But Nia Nal knew it was something else.

"What else?" Nia asked, sitting down beside her. “What else do you remember?"

Alora closed her eyes.

"I remember feeling the wind in my hair," she said. "When I looked down, all I saw were the clouds and the rocks of the Archipelago. I could feel the low growls from underneath me. When I reached out, I could almost feel the clouds as my fingers danced above the surface."

She opened her eyes.

"He told me that you never forget your first flight."

"I don't think she's fantasizing," J’onn J’onzz said.

"We went so fast," she told them. "His wings would cut through the sea and he would part the waves with his speed. His strikes were precise. His double-barrel rolls were so smooth, I could hardly comprehend it. We went through the little cracks through the rocks. And dodged each sea stack."

The adults listened closely and carefully to her words.

"Where were you going?" Nia asked.

"His village."

"'Village'?" Alex asked. "Who's village?"

When she didn’t say anything, Alex tried a different tactic.

"Could you describe the village?"

Alora smiled and closed her eyes again.

"It was a small island. Nothing much to it. They had little houses built all around. They’ve been living there for generations, yet every building was brand-new. They fished and sang old songs all throughout the night. The people weren't too friendly to newcomers, but they later accepted me. They had trees lined up past and little caves hidden around. The sea was stretched out as far as the human eye could see. But amongst the other islands I'd seen, there was something different about it."

"What? What was it?" Nia asked.

A small smirk formed on her face.

"While most people had small animals for pets. . ."

They anticipated her next words.

". . . They had dragons."