I Hear Him Scream, Ch8 Part 5

We ran.

We ran through the cool, damp forest, fear clutching our hearts, breath coming in and out harshly. I led the group and made sure to look over my shoulder every couple minutes to make sure everyone was still there. Once or twice, we had to stop to let someone catch up, but besides that we were almost constantly on the move. I was fine with it, but the others weren’t as physically trained as I was. The mud was hard to get your footing on, vines and branches wrapped around you or slapped you, you had to be a skilled jumper to move quickly. All in all, a very hard escape.

Back when we had first fled, we’d nearly pummeled straight into the hunting party. I’d skidded to a stop and bolted in the opposite direction as quietly as I could, cursing Hiccup for never telling us just how big the group was. I’d been under the impression that it was just Chief Stoick and a few other stragglers.

I burst through a bush and stumbled to a halt. Ruffnut stopped at my side, panting and sweaty. Her brother, Snotlout, and Fishlegs all preferred to stay behind me. We were standing on the cliff where we’d decided to confront Hiccup. I could just barely see the village and some smoke trails from here.

“What now?” Tuffnut barely got out. “You can’t be thinking that we’re putting that net back. I’m definitely not.”

I nodded in agreement. I wasn’t exactly sure why I’d taken the net. It was more out of spite than anything. I’d been so angry, but as that damned Night Fury demonstrated, any harm to Hiccup wouldn’t go unpunished. Those two had grown dangerously close in the past week. It worried me. I’d never seen a dragon act so protective over anything before. This added onto what I’d suspected, but hadn’t wanted to say anything about.

Hiccup didn’t seem to have noticed, but he acted very much like a dragon in our meeting. He pawed and stomped on the ground, went into defensive positions, and moved the weird things coming out of his face in several imitations of the Night Fury, to name a few. When he realized what he was doing, he’d stopped.

But the last thing I expected to see was Hiccup crying, or cowering away from Snotlout when he’d said what could be perceived as hurtful things. The thick-skulled teenager meant them as insults and nothing else; he was just too shallow to realize the depth of his words. Strangely, though, his position on Hiccup changed from day to day, and when the seven of us all met together, he usually went back into “I hate Hiccup” mode. Fishlegs had confronted Snotlout on it, but all he’d gotten was an earful of irrelevant ranting.

Slowly, unwillingly, I realized that I may have to consider that Hiccup really had switched sides. I didn’t believe the “I borrowed it” story. At all. For all I knew, Hiccup had taken it and several other things, but only got away with the net when his father got to him. On the opposite end, though, he could be telling the truth. It all boiled down to who he was now. Hiccup isn’t the same person as before. Is he more Viking or dragon now?

All I knew is that I would never trust his word again. He’d proven himself disloyal. A traitor.

My internal ramblings were cut short by Snotlout speaking up as loudly as he could. “I think we should get rid of it,” he announced. “Burn it or rip it to pieces or something.” Tuffnut wheezed out an agreement, hunched over with his palms on his knees. Fishlegs simply nodded, worse off than anyone else.

Ruffnut and I only looked at him. I was mad at him, and, by default, so was my best friend. Earlier this week I’d finally told Snotlout that I didn’t like like him. He’d been upset, then furious (he kept on insisting that it wasn’t at me), and then proclaimed that he was going to ‘win me back’. The annoying lovebird had been flirting with me even more than usual, never letting up even when I flat-out ignored him. I knew he saw the hints and ignored them. It was so aggravating.

Nothing was worse than admitting that Snotlout was actually right. Unfortunately, he was. Hiding the net would be pointless; we had no need for it. If we took it back, Chief Stoick would notice and interrogate every villager until he found us. So the only other option was to get rid of it. Wiping the sweat off of my brow, I said, “Okay. But let’s just throw it off the cliff.”

Snotlout straightened and gave me a cockeyed, dreamy grin. “Oh, yeah! You’re so smart. You’re super smart! I mean—” Fishlegs interrupted him when he attempted to lean on him, looking a little too pale, and the dark brown-haired brute elbowed him away with a scowl. Fishlegs fell to the ground with a squeak and Ruffnut tensed besides me. I frowned, but said nothing else. It didn’t really matter to me how those two acted unless it had a significant outcome, so to speak.

The five of us all made our way to the cliff, Ruffnut handing me the net as we walked. Standing on the edge and staring straight down, it was like we were as high as the clouds. The rocks resting at the bottom looked like tiny, insignificant pebbles. It was a terrible distortion; I knew those rocks could easily destroy a ship if it was unfortunate enough to sail into them. Large waves crashed up onto the cliff. Sea foam reached up and soaked me. I closed my eyes to enjoy it.

It was strange that, not even an hour ago, Hiccup had been holding this net. I opened my eyes and looked down at it, wondering for the first time how scared and horrible he had felt. I had felt sorry for him for a split second during our meeting and then hadn’t given it any other thought. What I’d really been focusing on was the human-turned-dragon’s allegiance.

Holding my arms out, I studied the net one last time. There was a brown, circular scale with a point on it. It flashed red in the weakening sunlight.

I let go of it. Ever so slowly, it grew smaller and smaller, until it disappeared into a little white smudge that could easily be mistaken for sea foam. A strong burst of wind slammed into our sides and the net flung east. For a second, it looked like it was a demonic, clawed hand pointing towards the village, but that was just a fluke. The stolen good splashed into the water and sunk like a stone, never to be seen again. Unless a fisher got it. A fisher fishing a fishing net! I smirked at the thought. That would be surprising…and slightly annoying.

Movement flickered in the corner of my eye. I turned around and watched the village as a small crowd emerged from the forest and were immediately surrounded by curious villagers. Even from this distance, they looked greatly disappointed. A couple of them made angry gestures. I felt my eyebrows knit together. Chief Stoick still hadn’t won over the entire village. The newcomers could have easily left the hunting party out of spite towards him.                          

“Looks like Hiccup and the Night Fury got away,” Ruffnut commented.

“Yeah,” I said distractedly, still watching the groups of people all around the center of the village.

Snotlout crossed his arms with a huff. “I can’t believe you all believed him,” he repeated crossly. “Especially you!” He rounded on Tuffnut, who leaned back and raised his hands in surprise.

“He said he was borrowing it!” Tuffnut countered. “Fishlegs and Ruffnut were fine with it. Chill out.” As he said this, he waved dismissively at Snotlout, who looked like he was boiling with anger.

Snotlout’s palms fisted. “No! It’s like you’d rather—“

“Enough!” I interjected, pushing Snotlout and Tuffnut away from each other. “Both of you!” When they settled down, I ground out, “Look. Hiccup broke our deal, there’s no doubt about that. And we all seem to have different opinions,” I briefly glanced over at Fishlegs and Ruffnut and went on, “but right now is not the time to talk about it. We should be down there in the village, not standing up here near the forest! Especially when the hunting party comes back and realizes that another food basket is gone—it doesn’t matter that it was empty in the first place. It would be very suspicious if we were out here standing by the forest that Hiccup and the Night Fury live in.”

Fishlegs nodded in agreement. “She’s right. We should get going and decide what to do with Hiccup later.”

“Decide what to do?!” Snotlout nearly shrieked. I held my forehead in my palm, shaking my head. He’d just been about to agree with me, too! “Hiccup stole! I could understand last time, sorta, but this time he just went against everything and did what he wanted because he was hungry! And you’re defending him? I can’t believe all of you!”

“Snotlout!” Tuffnut tried to interrupt him. His friend ignored him, turned on his heel, and began to storm away. “Where are you going?!”

“To the village!” Snotlout snarled. His voice cracked harshly. “Leave me alone!”

I frowned and exchanged a worried glance with Ruffnut. “Stop! We’re not all disagreeing with you. Snotlout—“

He turned around and glared at us. “Thank you, Astrid,” he said pointedly, somehow realizing before even Ruffnut what my opinion was. “I won’t tell anyone, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he said icily. I winced; I’d just been about to tell him not to speak to anyone. Of course he wouldn’t. Snotlout knew that telling anyone else about Hiccup make us look like traitors. I held my gaze with him, suddenly wondering what he must be feeling right now, until he turned and stalked down the path to the village.

We waited a few minutes before following him. Nobody said anything.

The forest around us was dead silent.

~~~

So maybe I lied.

You know what? Who cares! I can lie if I want to! And I have every right!

Hiccup is a traitor. I don’t see why the others haven’t seen that already. Even though she’s a total babe, Astrid is still sticking to the ‘wait until we know for sure if Hiccup is still Hiccup’ plan and it’s driving me mad, even if she is finally starting to agree with me! How can they not see the truth in front of their faces?! If it ran up and smacked them upside the head, they still wouldn’t know!

Of course, now all of them are mad at me. Even Tuffnut. For some reason I can’t be by myself to think. Oh, and apparently I’m not allowed to be angry anymore.

Why can’t I? That’s what I want to know! My cousin betrays his entire tribe and what do my best friends and one of the best Vikings ever say? ‘Oh, he’s still him, though, so we can’t rat him out yet’! ‘He’s got his reasons’! ‘Wouldn’t you do the same?’!

I just don’t get it! What’s wrong with them?! At first, I thought the same things. I was still angry, yeah, but I knew that Hiccup had only stolen to feed himself. Then he had to go and make friends with the Night Fury—the very thing that ruined his life—and even begin to defend it! No amount of apologizing can fix that! It destroyed his life!

The worst part about it, though, is the fact that Hiccup thinks that everything he’s done is justified. And so does Fishlegs, who still clings onto their little friendship they had when they were younger. Whenever Fishlegs makes his mind up on something, then Ruffnut soon makes the same decision, which leads Tuffnut to do the same thing, and it leaves Astrid and me all by ourselves. Except this time, Astrid hasn’t stuck by my side!

First she kisses me, then she avoids me for a couple days, and then she tells me she acted on an impulse and didn’t mean to do it. Obviously I’m not being good enough for her, so I work to make myself better! Now Astrid’s back to avoiding me. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that she was mad at me. But, of course, she isn’t. Though it does seem like she’s disagreeing with me on purpose a lot…

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down. It was a lot harder than usual, but worth it since I wasn’t scowling at thin air anymore. The few people still wandering around in the night hours had been giving me strange looks.

Still, I did question why Hiccup would change sides so easily! Everyone knows he’s the forgiving type; if he wasn’t, he probably would have snapped under the pressure of being the village idiot and done something permanent everyone—including me—would have horribly regretted. In the few times that we did hang out Hiccup had proven to be much more than I’d ever thought he was. He listened and was thoughtful and even helped me with a few things that didn’t involve brute strength. But he couldn’t just come up to me all buddy-buddy when he acted weird on purpose all of the time. I get it that he wants attention, but why can’t he work out like normal people?

Though…maybe I was wrong about that. Just a couple months ago, something about him had seemed different, almost. I had been walking with Tuffnut and Ruffnut, and Hiccup had been going up this big hill looking really upset and nervous. He’d been holding his hand protectively over his arm, in the exact spot where I’d given him a good ‘ole Viking greeting. I remember seeing a sickening, yellowish color peeking around his frail hand and realizing that a simple punch to me could possibly mean broken bones to fragile, small Hiccup.

That realization had nearly made me stop in fear. To cover it up, I’d made fun of him. In response, he’d looked away, peering up at us like a wary animal would a hunter, as if expecting to be hurt. Then I’d fallen. It wasn’t Tuffnut or Ruffnut who launched to my aid, though, but Hiccup! He’d looked so worried, and even when he’d slipped in the mud and dragged us both down, he kept a surprisingly strong grip on my shoulders—the kind that my father used to do when I’d been scared and he was talking sense into me.

I had wanted to apologize, but I was too embarrassed. So all I did was pull him up and half-carry him up the hill, making sure “Hiccup the Useless” wouldn’t get hurt from me for the second time.

If I hadn’t acted so aloof and actually tried to connect with him, would he have still turned?

For some reason, I couldn’t wrap my mind around that. Hiccup turning on us. Hiccup, the Chief’s son and my cousin. That was something else to think about. It seemed like I was the only person who understood the severity of it.

It was awful, thinking about him and realizing I would never see him again.

Normally, someone in my place would be happy. It meant that I was now next in line to be Chief when Chief Stoick stepped down. For some reason, though, I just felt…empty. Like I’d been given a party on the same day someone I’d known died. Which happened to Hiccup.

I missed Hiccup—the real Hiccup. I want my Hiccup back. The Hiccup that would make sure you wouldn’t fall a heart-dropping distance even right after you’d made fun of him and beat him up the night before. Not this warped, villainous shell of him that’s been brainwashed! It’s not fair!

For a second, a little over a week ago, I’d thought that it really was him. I couldn’t handle it and had run away like an idiot, too overwhelmed to do anything. If I had acted differently then, would things still be the same? Again, I thought, was I the reason he had turned? If I hadn’t been so mean to him, would he have been less anxious to be a real Viking and actually succeeded? And never made that bola slinger?

I had to stop abruptly, fisting my open palm (the other was holding a weakly-flickering torch) and clenching my teeth.

Fiercely rubbing my eyes, I began to make my way up the familiar, muddy hill that led to the storage shed. It was a treacherous walk based on the steepness alone. Add in slippery mud, strong wind, and complete and utter darkness you’ve got yourself one heck of a job. Maybe add in some emotional distractions that make you space out.

When I finally reached the top, I hesitated. My body was shaking from the cold and it was hard to see anything in front of me. Do I really want to do this? I wondered, glancing over my shoulder. The village was hidden in a gray-green myriad of rain, hail, and mist. Only the tallest buildings could be seen. It would be so easy to just turn around and run home, tell my parents I’d just been hanging out with Tuffnut, and lock myself in the basement to work out.

Scowling, I whipped around. I am not a quitter!

I will admit that marching down the slope was not a shining moment of smartness.

“Ugh!” I managed to stop my tumble halfway down, covered in mud and feeling like an idiot. No Hiccup to catch me here. I slipped the rest of the way down, managing to not fall again. Standing at the base, I stood still for a couple of seconds to try and get my bearings.

Two dogs in the forest started, yapping up a storm and snarling! I jumped, yelped and ran until I realized that the noises had abruptly stopped.

Grumbling to myself, I passed the storage shed, which usually had guards posted at it. They were gone, probably heading towards their houses. Most of the food being held in there had been taken out for safekeeping, cooking, or selling. The food that Astrid and the rest of us had stuffed in their basket was actually stolen from all of our families. I just hope my parents didn’t notice.

I made the mistake of glancing down and halted. There were footprints in the dirt—dragon footprints. The edges were runny. Unable to move, I stared at them until the breeze disturbed the water inside of them enough to spill them over. The fire on my torch nearly went out.

Gritting my teeth, I sloshed through them. Just more proof that Hiccup was gone.

I was unable to stop a groan when I got to the second, smaller hill in my path. At least it was less steep.

Somehow, climbing it was even worse than the previous. I was shivering uncontrollably, my teeth were chattering, and those stupid dogs were starting to howl. At one point, my torch nearly went out, almost abandoning me in complete darkness! Thoroughly spooked—I mean, fed up—I ran the rest of the way down and kept up my sprint, trying my best to ignore the wolves or whatever they were. Thor, it was creepy!

When I saw my destination come into view, and picked up my pace double-time. The torch went out with a quiet hiss, almost as if it were sighing in grave acceptance.

By the time I’d made it, my lungs were burning and I could barely see straight. A huge headache was coming onto me. I couldn’t help but feel intimidated, looking up at the massive house standing judgmentally before me, heart tightening with nervousness and fear. Not that I was afraid for me! I was afraid for the others.

Astrid is going to be pissed, I noticed with a grim smile. But I’m the only one who has the guts to do this!

Taking a deep breath and steeling myself, I straightened my posture and took one more moment to ready myself. Then I knocked on the door three times.

 No answer.

Frowning, I waited a couple more moments, shifting uncomfortably. I couldn’t hear any shifting inside, but there was a light coming out from under the door, which meant that the fireplace was lit! Nobody would leave something like that unattended, even with the safety curtain added to it. Old Viking houses were very…uh…I think the word for it is firey. They blow up real easy. This house was one of the only buildings that had survived since the first generation of our awesomely amazing people.

Growing impatient, I knocked hard on the door. Then again. Then again—

“Woah!” I gasped when the door suddenly swept open and I ended up accidentally pummeling someone with a hard punch and falling into them. I backed up immediately, my heart dropping to my stomach and blushing fiercely. “Oh-my-gods! I’m sorry!”

Uncle Stoick’s eyebrows raised in surprise at seeing me. I suddenly felt puny, having to crane my neck to look up at him and rubbing my hand. Did he sleep in chainmail or something?! I bet he hadn’t even felt it!

He wordlessly gestured me to come in, which I thankfully obliged. I sauntered over to a comfy-looking chair by the fireplace and plopped into it, smiling widely at him. “Hey, Uncle!” I greeted, trying to subtly scoot the chair towards the warm fireplace. He forced the door shut and walked up to the chair, hands on his hips and a disapproving frown plastered across his face.

Eyebrows furrowed, Uncle Stoick said, “Snotlout, what are you doing here? It’s the middle of the night!” He gave me a fierce, protective glare and I shrunk away guiltily. “Your parents must be worried sick—especially your father. You know how Spitelout is about you putting yourself in danger.”

I grimaced, mind flashing back to the numerous, stupid punishments I’d been given. My Dad was really a hard-ass sometimes. I know what I’m doing all the time, but noo, he has to go and get mad at me when I do something ‘idiotic’. I’d just gotten over my most recent grounding. Really, I am perfectly aware of how to get out of a flaming building! And it made me look so brave! Which I am!

My father’s brother shoved me out of my internal rant by grabbing me with his enormous hand and pulling me to my feet. I yelped in surprise, feeling like I’d been dwarfed, and dug my feet into the ground. “Woah! Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you back to your house,” Uncle Stoick said bluntly. “I don’t know what got into you to come here, but you’re going right back!”

AaaaOOOOOOO!

I froze in my tracks. Had those dogs followed me? “Uh, are you sure about that?” I asked warily, leaning back towards the center of the room and as far away from the door as I could get. “I kind of, you know, came here for a reason and stuff. And they sound kind-of angry…”

For a second, he looked like he was going to tell me to toughen up and deal with the wolves anyways. He cut himself off short just as he was about to speak, giving me a worried look that made his eyes look sad. Running his free hand through his hair, Uncle Stoick let out a defeated sigh and released me. “Fine,” he said, “but make it quick.” Ignoring his stern look, I broke out into an ear-to-ear grin and ran back over to the fireplace, standing as close to it as I could.

“Thanks, Uncle!” I said genuinely, leaning against the stone wall next to my new favorite spot.

Still looking displeased, Uncle Stoick began to pace in front of me. “Snotlout, you never answered my question! Why are you here again? Is there something that pressing that needs my attention right now? You were a fool to even think about traveling at this hour!” He scolded. My smile disappeared.

Shuffling my feet and avoiding eye contact, I let out a lame, stuttered excuse that didn’t even sound like words. Now that I was actually doing what I planned to do, I felt like I wanted to just turn around and go home!

It suddenly became clear to me why Astrid had wanted to keep quiet.

At my silence, he pressed, “Well?”

Grimacing, I forced myself to look up at my uncle’s eyes. “Well…um…this is a little hard to explain. Hehe,” I laughed nervously.

Uncle Stoick rolled his eyes. “Just spit it out. It can’t be that hard!” He put his hands on his hips again and narrowed his eyes, probably expecting a request for more dragon training hours or one of his swords. I considered just going with that. Would it be better to keep him the dark?

You came here for a reason, I small part of me pressed, and now you’re bailing? How…lame. And you call yourself brave?!

Gulping, I straightened my back and tried to keep my nervousness out of my face. “It’s…uh, really important, but I want you to know that I was completely against this the entire time!” I rushed, eyes widening and holding out my hands. “I tried to convince them from doing it but they were like well it’s probably not what you think! and I was like no it isn’t, it’s exactly what I think! and they were like—“

“Snotlout!” Uncle Stoick brought a hand to his forehead and wore an expression that made me feel very little and troublesome. “Just get to the point!”

I flinched at the aggravated tone. “Well, it’s not like we’re short on time…,” I muttered. Uncle’s eyes widened slightly and I rushed to continue, “Anyways!  Haha, I’m good at jokes, aren’t I, Uncle?” At his unamused look, I deflated and said lamely, “Right.”

Alright, back to this conversation. Ugh.

It’s easy, I encouraged myself, just say it and you’ll be done with it. I did.

“It’s about Hiccup.”

The change in him was faster than any lightning I’d seen in my entire life. Uncle Stoick stopped pacing and seemed to seize up in the spot he was standing in. His muscles tensed and his eyes turned blank for a split second, hurt flooding them even after he snapped himself out of his reverie. It almost looked like a cloud had been dropped over him, like some god had come along and sucked some of his life out of him. I suddenly found myself looking at an aged, more solemn person than the sleepy, irritated man who had answered the door.

I cursed the Night Fury.

The silence stretched on long enough for me to give up on a response. I was almost getting ready to make an excuse to leave when Uncle Stoick spoke to me in a scarily calm voice that I’d never heard him speak in before.

“Has something happened?”

I shook my head, which graced my pained relative with some relief. “Well…n-no, but things have happened…and I know more about them. A lot more. All of us do,” I confessed, staring at the ground.

I could see him pushing the pieces together, breaking apart a puzzle and fitting it back together correctly. My Uncle advanced on me, a dangerous glint in his eye. “What do you mean, ‘all of us’?”

“Me, Astrid, Tuffnut, Ruffnut, and Fishlegs,” I nearly whimpered. My shoes suddenly seemed very interesting. Hey, look, a string is coming out of the inside. Gotta have that fixed. A chill went down my back as Uncle Stoick came closer, looking more like an angry Monstrous Nightmare than a person.

“And what exactly do you know about Hiccup that I don’t?” He growled.

I risked a glance up at him and wished I could disappear. The uncle I’d grown up with since I was a baby was staring down at me like I was the source of every problem Berk had experienced in the past weeks. “Um…”

The Chief suddenly grew furious. “Say it now!”

I told him everything.