𖣯 ✹ 🌷(úlfheðnar) ꏍ ！┈─❟
╰───►chapter twenty-seven; hiccup
❝ losing mother! ❞

    HICCUP could feel his heart racing.

     Everything around him narrowed in onto a single view-point; this strange who stared up at him behind their wooden mask━hunched and crouched as if scared he was just a figment of their imagination; something they wanted, but knew they'll never have. 

      The dragon's hearty breaths of fire, still blazing in illuminated darkness seemed to match the pace of his heart that pounded in his ears━the only thing he seemed to hear. The one thing that kept Hiccup focused; that kept him into reality from the thoughts that swarmed his head of why this stranger knew his name, was Yrsa's hand clutching his upper right arm tight━as if not sure whether to get ready for a fight or to wait ... maybe she was just as frozen with her shock. Hiccup knew he was.

     He managed to let out a strained, "Uh ...?" 

     How do they know him? Who were they? 

     Thin fingers reached up to the strange mask and lifted it up. A chin was revealed; sharp, but soft; tuffs of brown-auburn hair glowing copper in the fire curled around ears and down into a long braid. Finally, the mask was removed and Hiccup could see wide, light-green eyes; staring at him in tearful shock━the face of a woman. Forty, perhaps, but she seemed far younger with a long, but small and striking high cheekbones. 

     Hiccup had no idea who she was. But she watched him like he was some long lost treasure she was scared to believe was actually here, standing in front of her. 

     Now that the mask was gone, held in her trembling hands, her voice was clear; round and low━but it sent a jolt to Hiccup's chest. It was strange, like hearing her breathless: "C━could it be?" sparked some strange, old memory even he didn't knew he held. But some part of him recognised it ... and it sent his heart tumbling and falling. 

     He was glad when Yrsa's fingers slipped down into his, becuase he needed the comfort━he needed to cling onto her hand to know he wasn't alone. 

      The Rogue Dragon Rider lifted her dark brows, voice suddenly hoarse as if she wanted to cry. She started to stand back up, almost as if it was a stranger to act like a human again. "After ... after all these years?" She stepped towards him and Hiccup shuffled back further, and she froze. "How is this possible?"

     "Uh," Hiccup swallowed the fearful lump in his throat, "s━should I..." his lips were parched and his tongue dry, as if telling him something he already knew and yet couldn't seem to understand. "Should I know you?"

     The strange woman's face fell. Eyes falling, she was suddenly overcome with shame. "No," she murmured. "You were only a babe..."    

      There was a twist in his chest; his stomach was rising up to meet it━everything about him seemed to know; to the point his knees trembled. But he didn't. Who was she━?

     The woman met his gaze again, hesitant in her next words. "But a mother never forgets."

      Yrsa's gasp was in the back of his mind. Hiccup━at first━didn't think he heard her right. But then her words flooded him; like a wave that crashed over him and made him stumble. The feelings that had been twisting and churning beforehand━warning him grew overbearing. He wanted to vomit. He didn't believe it━he didn't━who was this woman to tell him he was his mother?! Hiccup shook his head, feeling the lump come back; aching and making it hard for him to breathe. His mother was dead. She had been taken by dragons. Eaten━she was dead. Dead. 

     And yet she recognised him; this woman with her light-green eyes and aurburn hair more like his than his fathers; with her high cheekbones and the look in her eyes━he knew she wasn't lying, and that struck him worse that the first initial hit. A horrifying shock that made his breath hitch into a strangled gasp━

     "Shh!" she held her hand out, strembling. "Shh!"

     Hiccup was stunned into silence. His ... his mother peered at him out of the corner of her gaze, glancing down at Toothless who was slowly waking, and then Helrose who stirred; they drifted past Yrsa who was mouth-agape and finally back to him ... 

      A small, mischievous smile appeared on her lips, "Come."

     And like that, she was off running through a small break in the crowd of dragons. 

𖣯 ✹ 🌷(úlfheðnar) ꏍ ！┈─❟

    IT WAS amazing that Hiccup was able to run after her. His legs felt like jelly━he was scared that they'd collapse at any second. He'd hit the ground, and he'd shake, and find himself unable to move, and he'd start to cry in the sheer shock of it all. It didn't make sense. None of this made sense━his mother was dead. Twenty years, she was dead. He mourned her━a woman he never remembered. He wished she was around when he saw his father stare at the fire in grief, when he felt so alone and broken, thinking he was just a miserable, dissapointing burden to his father━wondering if she was like him, if he was like her. And━and she was here? Alive, this entire time━?

      Toothless, Yrsa and Helrose scrambled after him, and while some part of him felt bad, he was unable to even register their feet behind. The only thing that coursed through him was the need to catch up to this stranger━his mother━and ask why. Ask: How? He didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to feel. Was he supposed to be angry? Was he supposed to be shocked? The only thing he did feel was his jelly-legs and his racing heart and his trembling fingers━even his metal leg felt intangible, ready to dissipate and he'd fall right to the ground.

     His mother━Valka, they all said her name was. Gorgeous Valka. Poor Valka. Valka who suffered a horrible fate. The chief's dead wife. Hiccup's dead mother. She climbed over rocks and into jagged, narrow tunnels that Helrose could only just fit into. They were diving deeper into the ice-mountain; through dark crevices with no sign of stopping anytime soon. 

     "H━hold on!" Hiccup cried after her, his voice a strangled, desperate sound he didn't even realise he could manage. "Wait just a minute!"

     "This way," she replied, leaping up onto rocks with her strange staff and skidding down slopes to avoid pools of chilled water. 

     "Come back here!" he clambered the way she went in a less graceful way, grasping onto small ledges and pulling himself over with clumsy grunts. 

     "Come!"

     "You can't just say something like that a━and run off!" Hiccup jumped over a boulder and ducked under a stalactite, his chest heaving. He felt light headed. "You're my mother?!" Slipping around a corner into a slightly larger cavern, Hiccup threw his hands around, "I mean, what the━? Do you ... do you grasp how insane it sounds?!"

     She just ran up a steep slope of rock, using her staff to hook the edge and jump over. She sent them a brief smile, "Come quickly." She disappeared into the light on the other side.

     "I have questions!" Hiccup tried to follow after her, but the top of the slope was too tall. He jumped, trying to grasp it. He slid down and with a furious grunt, tried again. "Where have you━?" he slipped, "━been all this time?!"

     Yrsa clambered up it easily, clinging onto the top and grasping his hand to help up him with Toothless and Helrose pushing him from behind. She let go as he tumbled over the tip, rolling across the rocks and scrambling back to his feet. "What━what have you been doing?!"

     He went back to chasing her through the narrow rocky corridors with the others trailing behind. "But they━they said you were dead! Everyone thinks you were eaten by ..."

     Hiccup's voice fell away as they reached the exit of the narrow passage. 

     Yrsa hit his back, startled at his sudden halt━until she saw what he was staring at, too.

     He couldn't believe his eyes.

     The inside of the mountain seemed to have been completely hollowed out. Caverns upon caverns climbed up the edges, rocks covered in bright green moss amongst gigantic shards of ice. A sheer castle of glistening hideaways, nooks and crannies as big as the glaciers back at Berk. Light streamed down through cracks at the tip, cascading down onto the ice-castle like waterfalls of sun and enveloping the entire hidden splendor in a godly, almost fairy-tale glimmer.

     Hiccup lost his breath for a second, feet shuffling forward on the moss-covered rocks of the ledge they had emerged out onto. Wildlife flourished like it was summer, spring, autumn and winter all at once━vines, leaves, ferns and trees grew at all angles; roots wrapped around walkways of stone, some completely green with vegetation so they looked like someone had picked up a forest from a tropical land and placed it in a jigsaw of climates━climates fit for each dragon within its midst. 

     And there were many.

     Hundreds, even thousands. 

      He could barely hear himself think over their roars, squawks and bellows; they swooped around ledges, dived into the waters below that nestled the home of many Tidal Class species, spun in packs in the sunlight and slept in the caves. A group of baby Gronckles wrestled to Hiccup's left. A green Windgnasher caught him off guard in the tropical glory to his right. Seashockers leapt up in pods only just a lake away from nesting Scauldrons. The green above to the East shimmered and a Changewing scurried along to find a new place to hide, blending in perfectly to her surroundings. A mother Scuttleclaw was watching her babies hatch in the safety of a ice cavern. A pair of Deadly Nadders were jumping around in a mating dance. A tornado at the far west showed a male Devilish Dervish trying to establish his dominance over a younger. Hiccup couldn't even count half of the dragons; he couldn't name some━some even he hasn't seen before. Strange sets of small dragons with bloated bellies and thin legs and no wings. A dragon like a Deadly Nadder except more slender with a thicker, heavy tail. A Boulder Class-looking dragon who seemed to be made of glowing algae ... so many dragons━all of them living in harmony in sanctuary. 

     "Oh, my gods..." breathed Yrsa, eyes wide and her shoulders slumped. 

     She made it to his side, words lost from her tongue. They had seen some strange and wonderful places, but none like this━none as vast and breathtaking. None as groundbreaking━

     Toothless broke into a prowl, growling upwards and Hiccup jumped. He followed his gaze and stumbled closer to the side of his dragon with Yrsa. Helrose joined them, dipping her head low in a menacing snarl.

     The Stormcutter they had seen before being taken peered at them, head turning almost completely upside down in a coocoon of his large, double wings. Within, settling against his hind leg, Hiccup's mother watched them, hesitant.

     Hiccup glanced at Yrsa, feeling his throat suddenly dry all over again. She pursed her lips and gave him a gentle nod: a you can do this.

      So, with a deep and hoarse breath━still trying to catch up like the rest of him, he glanced nervously at his mother. Hiccup shuffled. "T━This is where you've been for twenty years?"

     She gave him a nod. 

     "You━" there was a flutter to Hiccup's heart with a fresh realisation, "━you've been rescuing them ..." just like me ...

     (Just like him).

     Valka gave a second, slow and hesitant nod. But her eyes glittered this time, a little more confident than last.

      Behind Hiccup, the green Windgnasher approached them, sniffing curiously. She tilted her head at Yrsa, finding something interesting about her scent and Hiccup's bethrothed shuffled back, startled. She, Toothless and Helrose were soon occupied with this very friendly dragon, recoiling away and trying to avoid the uncomfortable positions she explored with her good sense of smell. (Including one that made Yrsa blush and rush to the otherside of Helrose).

     Hiccup was still trying to comprehend all of this━he didn't think he could. "U━unbelievable ..." 

     Valka titled her head with her Stormcutter, surprised. "You're not upset?"

     "What?" If he was to be honest, he didn't know. Some part of him wanted to be angry; his mother never returned. She had stayed here, alive, while he tried to push through life with his stressed father. She could've come back━she had abandoned him. And yet━Hiccup didn't feel as furious as he thought he would. Maybe it was the shock of finding her again, alive, in this vast and breathtaking place that made his head a little muddled. "No. I━I━I don't know. I ..." he slumped. "It's━it's a bit much to get my head around, to be frank. It's━it's not every day you find out your mother is some kind of crazy, feral, vigilante dragon lady!"

     Surprisingly, his mother chuckled at his choice of (nasty) words. Her Stormcutter raised one of his four wings and she hoisted her staff around the talon, letting herself be gracefully lowered to his other wings. "Well ..." she slid down the slope of the wing, landing onto the ground softly. "A━at least I'm not boring, right?" she chuckled nervously━Hiccup found himself flinching slightly at how similar it sounded to his own. 

      Hiccup didn't meet her gaze, scratching the scruff of his beard. He wanted to be angry. He should be angry. Helrose noticed his stance and she left Yrsa with Toothless and the curious Windgnasher to peer at him, worried. His lips quirked with a little bit of relief and gratitude, meeting her quivering nostrils with a gentle brush of his knuckles. It helped him mutter: "Well ... I suppose there is that ... one specific ... thing ..."

     Valka approached him like a wary dragon━she was more like them than human; twenty years among these creatures, and you adapt. The way she shuffled, it seemed like she was rusty━even her voice was hoarse, not used to speaking to someone else. "Do━do you like it?"

     Hiccup forced himself to focus on something else. Like the Thunderclaw joining the curious Windgnasher sniffing at Yrsa and Toothless. Or the Raincutter who shuffled over━a lot of dragons had come to see the strange newcomers and their dragons. "I ... I ..." Hiccup rubbed Helrose's snout, trying to keep himself calm. "I don't have the words."

     The dragons surrounded Toothless and Yrsa━far from aggressive, but instead calm and curious. Toothless peered around, eyes wide, flaps on his crown quivering. He wrapped his tail around Yrsa who hunched up, a little overwhelmed. Helrose tilted her head, checking whether they were okay.  One Snifflehunch dipped his head under Toothless's tail, following a scent that made the Night Fury screech and jump away. Valka laughed━hearing it made some tension fall, and Hiccup started to feel his legs better again. Toothless huffed an annoyed growl, sending the dragons away as he kept Yrsa by his wing. She met Hiccup's gaze━flustered and bewildered. It would've made him chuckle if he wasn't standing beside his long-lost mother he had spent his entire life believing to be dead.

     Helrose jumped away from Hiccup when the Raincutter lowered his head beside her. She huffed a breath of steam from her nostrils and the fellow Sharp Class dragon dipped his head, continuing to peer at her. She held up her head and walked off back to Yrsa, snobbish and elegant.

     Valka watched them. She glanced back and forth, careful not to overstep. Maybe part of the reason why Hiccup wasn't angry was because she was just as nervous━and if not scared━as he was. He believed it was why he nodded to let her know she could walk up to their dragons.

      As soon as she saw the confirmation, her face lit up and she set down her staff. She crouched and inched up smoothly to Toothless with a gush of, "Oh, he's beautiful!"

     Yrsa shuffled around to Hiccup, setting a hand on his back. Together, they watched Valka chuckle as she trailed her finger up Toothless's snout. He grinned, happy with the attention. Hiccup's heart was light, amused at his best friend who seemed determined to show off.

     "Oh, incredible," went on Valka, continuing to chuckle as Toothless nuzzled his head against her cheek and chest. "He might very well be the last of his kind." He wrapped around her, exposing his underbelly with a happy wag of his tail. Valka gasped. "Oh ... and look!" she pointed out the smaller flaps that started to edge along his jaw. "He's your age!"

     Hiccup's eyes widened. He stared at his best friend, breathless in his awe, "Wow..." Toothless was his age? He was fifteen when they first found each other? He glanced briefly at Yrsa who grinned at this information. 

    "No wonder you get along so well!" his mother dipped her head with Toothless. Then, he opened his mouth and retracted his teeth. She gasped. "Oh! And retractable teeth?" with no fear, she inspected his gums with her head fully in his mouth. Yrsa let out a laugh, and Hiccup flushed━but he didn't realise he was smiling until he felt the ache of his cheeks.

     His mother was like him. His mother━who he longed to meet━had been like him. He was like her. He was like her. 

     Helrose was upset she wasn't getting attention and she moodily pushed herself in next to Toothless, nudging Valka out of his mouth. "Oh━" she scrunched her nose at the Devilish Dervish, clutching her snout as well. "And yes, you too! You are gorgeous! Look at these scales━" she traced the purple blemishes, "━what a beautiful pattern!" 

     Yrsa straightened her back slightly, looking just as smug as her dragon at this comment. Then, Valka turned back to her. She caught sight of how close she was to Hiccup and her eyes widened. 

      "And who are you?" she asked, bright and excited. 

     Hiccup and Yrsa both went red. They glanced at each other. He chuckled nervously, tugging at his ear. "Uh━this━this is Yrsa ... she's, um━we're━she's my betrothed..."

     There was a falter in Valka's smile━a realisation of just how much she missed; how long she's been gone. But as quick as it was there, she pushed it aside and walked up to Yrsa. Before she could say anything, her hands were held and she was pulled forward. She glanced back at Hiccup like, help, please━

     He just smiled at her, feeling something warm in his chest he couldn't exactly explain. It was different than anything else he's felt before. Hiccup remembered the moment he realised he felt something for her. He remembered the moment he stopped to look at her gorgeous dark hair and the way her eyes brightened when she smiled. He remembered the moment he realised he was in love with her. The moment he knew he wanted to marry her and spend the rest of his life with the girl who he used to mutter as crazy under his breath. But this feeling━it was so warm it swelled his heart in his chest. It grew as he saw Valka cup her cheeks and brush her bangs out of her eyes, and how Yrsa hunched and blushed and stammered, unsure on what to do. 

      It was bright, and proud, and loving━so loving he was drowning in it. 

     "She's beautiful," stated Valka. Yrsa went even brighter in her blush.

      Yeah, Hiccup thought to himself, gazing at the dip of her head into hunched shoulders at being complimented. Yeah, she is. 

      Valka's hands dropped to Yrsa's shoulders and she smirked at Hiccup, "How did you manage?"

     His smile dropped at the comment and both Valka and Yrsa laughed at the look on his face. 

      "He found me in a tree," explained Yrsa simply. 

     Valka stared at her in shock. "What? How? Who put you there?"

     "Hiccup."

      Valka glanced at him again and Hiccup chuckled to say, it's a long story... The nerves he held before seemed to fall back slightly in seeing the sight before him. Instead, he just felt warmth; loving warmth. And no, he wasn't angry. Even if he wanted to be, he couldn't be. Instead, Hiccup felt this new happiness blossom:

      His mother was alive.

      He had found her. 

      And it was a blissfull, exciting━shocking and scary; but most importantly, perhaps the best miracle to ever happen in Hiccup's life. 

𖣯 ✹ 🌷(úlfheðnar) ꏍ ！┈─❟

      a/n: um ... this isn't really edited (when is a chapter ever, lol, i just get too excited to publish. i'm impatient!).

      i hated how i ended this chapter, but otherwise it would stretch to being way too long for the rest of the book. writing hiccup's emotions through this was hard, but i hope i did okay. sorry if there are mistakes; hope you guys enjoyed this!!!