Chapter Text
“Let me get this straight,” Astrid repeated, her arms folded. “Catia just gave you Toothless and all of our gold back?”
“Yes,” Hiccup answered again, sighing. “She just gave them to me.”
“She didn’t make any deals or treaties?” Fishlegs put in.
“No. All she asked was that I tell no one where she was. That’s it. She’s so scared of people knowing where she is that she was willing to give me all this to keep her location a secret. I can’t imagine being willing to give up all that gold just to stay hidden.” Hiccup shook his head and took another sip of water from his cup as he leaned back on the table.
“I can,” Heather muttered under her breath, running her fingers over her axe.
“What did you say?” Astrid asked, not quite hearing what she had said.
“I can imagine paying that much to stay hidden,” Heather repeated, setting her axe down and resting her hands in her lap, staring sadly at the floor. “I know what it’s like to be all on your own. The last thing you want is more enemies. The best way to avoid that is to stay hidden at all cost.”
Astrid put an arm around her friend’s shoulder, seeing the sorrow in Heather’s eyes. “You didn’t try to make enemies, Heather. Catia is different. She wants something out of us.”
“Astrid, I’ve been in her shoes. It isn’t easy to watch your own back. I needed support, and so does she. I needed somewhere safe, and so does she.”
“Hold on a minute, Heather,” Hiccup jumped in. “What are you saying here?”
“We can’t just leave her there!” Heather replied passionately. “She’ll never make it on her own. If you guys hadn’t brought me here, I could’ve been killed, or worse. I was headed down the dangerous road of solitude, and believe me, it’s hard to turn around. I almost forgot how to trust people, and I think Catia already has. We have to help her!”
“Heather, she doesn’t trust us,” Astrid replied, hoping that she would understand how unrealistic her notions were. “She would never let us help her. There is nothing we can do.”
“You didn’t give up on me. We have to do the same for Catia.” Heather crossed her arms stubbornly. “We have to at least try.”
“I think we will try in vain,” Hiccup told her simply. “We understand that you want to help, Heather. But I really don’t think that she will agree to anything we offer her.”
“We have to do something! Even if it doesn’t work, we can’t abandon her.”
“It’s not abandonment if we weren’t involved to begin with,” Hiccup said, slowly getting annoyed with Heather’s urge to help Catia. “This could put us all in danger. I don’t want to sound insensitive, but she’s not some lost puppy that we can bring under our wings. She’s threatened to kill us on multiple occasions.”
“So?” Heather went on, pleading with her friends to do something. “I stole from you guys. I gave the book of dragons to Alvin. I lied and spied on you. I refused your help. I actually tried to prevent you from helping me. I pretended to work against you. But I’m still here. You still treat me like I’m your friend, like all the awful stuff I’ve done doesn’t matter. The support I had from all of you is the only reason I’m still here. Please understand that we can’t just forget about this. Catia needs our help.”
“Heather’s right,” Astrid said finally. “About a week ago I considered Catia my friend. Friends don’t turn on each other. Just because something went wrong does not mean that she’s downright evil. Maybe me have to work a little bit to get the sweet Catia we knew back, but she’s in there somewhere. We just have to give her reason to show.”
“Exactly what are the two of you suggesting?” Hiccup asked, crossing his arms and eyeing them, knowing that they could easily get carried away with their “help.”
“Let’s invite her to spend some time at Dragon’s Edge,” Heather suggested, “like you guys did with me.”
“Maybe she’ll open up a bit,” Astrid continued for her friend. “Besides, she’s a great Healer, and with as often as we get hurt, it would be good to have her around.”
“For all we now she could be working for Viggo,” Snotlout pointed out, only for the sake of being a part of the conversation. “She’d probably kill us in our sleep.”
“She doesn’t work for Viggo,” Heather assured. “She stole from him, and gave what she stole to us. And if she’s can out smart Viggo enough to steal from him, don’t you think that could help us? We need her strategies and she needs our support.”
“How do you propose we ‘invite’ her?” Hiccup asked skeptically.
“Heather and I will go,” Astrid answered confidently. “We’ll offer her a peace treaty and protection from Viggo in exchange for her help.”
“If she’s smart, she’ll agree,” Heather finished. “We’re her best option.”
“I can’t believe I’m going to agree to this,” Hiccup sighed, shaking his head at what felt like a rash decision. “But I’d much rather her a friend than an enemy. Go ahead and see if she’ll listen to anything we have to say.”
Astrid and Heather jumped up, beaming, and rushed out the door. Hiccup frowned as he saw how easily Heather could outrun Astrid, who still walked with a slight limp. Would the knee injury every heal? Shouldn’t the limp be gone? It had been more than three months since the incident. Perhaps the limp was fine, after all, she had been severely wounded, but it still worried him.
Astrid never complained about it, though he had seen her numbing the area on numerous occasions. He had only a few times asked her about the injury; he felt in was her business and he didn’t need to know unless she told him. Every since his awful behavior when he rescued her he had tried to give her space.
Guilt wrapped around his stomach at the thought of the event, and he cringed as the vivid image of Astrid’s shocked and betrayed expression clawed its way to the forefront of his mind. Neither had spoken of the incident again, but Hiccup recalled it daily. He slowly walked out on the deck of the clubhouse, just in time to see Heather and Astrid mounting their dragons to leave.
“Be careful!” he called after the girls as they speed off, only leaving him with a brief smile and wave in reply.
. . .
Astrid and Heather slowly approached Catia’s lonely island, watching somewhat nervously as her hut came into view. Astrid turned to her friend, envying the determined, fearless expression set on her face. Astrid wasn’t truly scared, just nervous. But if given the chance to turn back, she just might take it. She wasn’t looking forward to spending another night in chains.
“You think she’ll kill us?” Astrid asked Heather, flying a little closer to her.
“She might try,” Heather replied shrugging. “But I doubt she can outfight both of us.”
“She can outfight Stoick,” Astrid reminded.
“She caught him by surprise. We’ll be fine.” Heather reassured, slowing Windshear and preparing to land. Both girls touched down on the sandy beach in front of Catia’s shack, and with a quick glance at each other, they started toward it.
Catia seemed to have vanished. There was no sign of her in the little shack. The fire clearly hadn’t burned for days, there was no food or water, and the whole place seemed completely abandoned. Exchanging glances once again, the left the vacant hut and searched for her elsewhere.
The wandered through the forest, searching for some sign of human inhabitation. Every indication of Catia’s presence was gone.
“There’s no trace of her anywhere,” Astrid muttered as she and Heather climbed up a pile of boulders.
“We’ll find her,” Heather encouraged, brushing her hands of and preparing to climb up more rocks.
“The ghosts will be out soon,” Astrid commented, hoping Heather would agree to leave and come back later.
Heather laughed. “Ghosts?”
“Yeah, at around dusk the start moaning. We should probably leave.”
Heather laughed harder. “Astrid, you know there is no such thing as ghosts. You sound like Snotlout—worried about ghosts!”
Astrid folded her arms somewhat embarrassed. “I know what I heard Heather, the stone said there were ghosts on this island and I heard the moaning. If we wait long enough you’ll hear it too.”
“Stop being ridiculous.”
“I’m not being ridiculous! There are ghosts here!”
“Listen Astrid, we came here to find Catia, not ghosts. Quite worrying about a few noises and help me look.”
“You’re never going to find me if you keep arguing,” a voice from above them call.
Both looked up, surprised to find Catia watching them from the rocks above. She looked as if she had been there for a while, seated on a large bolder, fiddling with her hair.
She climbed down off her perch and eyed them warily. “What do you want?” she asked dubiously, moving her hand dangerously close to the dagger in her belt. Her tone and commanding presence quickly silenced Heather.
“We want your help,” Astrid began smoothly and seriously. “We are both enemies of Viggo. You obviously know how to fight him well, but you need back up. We need someone who knows how to battle him and win, and we can offer you back up.”
Catia eyed her skeptically. “Why do you want my help? Don’t you have someone else?”
“Yes, but we need as many allies as we can get. Viggo is not a small enemy.”
“I have no reason to trust you, therefore I won’t.” Catia decided firmly, turning to leave.
“Wait!” Heather called after her, having finally found her tongue. “Your right. You don’t have a reason to trust us.”
Her curiosity peeked by Heather’s objection, Catia looked back over her shoulder, ceasing to climb up the rocky terrain.
“For all you know we might be enemies, ready to turn you over to Viggo,” she went on. “You don’t know anything about us, I know. But if you just give us a chance, you’ll know that we are not enemies. Want to your help and we want to help you.”
Catia remained on the rocks, her expression softening as she weighed out her options. “You have one week,” she said suddenly. “One week to prove that I can trust you.”