Chapter Eleven: Last Straw

Hiccup felt like his insides had evaporated completely. There was no way. No way his baby could be dead. This had to be a trick. It couldn't be her skirt. It couldn't... it wasn't supposed to end this way. He vaguely heard a cry come from next to him, saw a figure rushing toward the skirt... picking it up... the blood was on her hands now. The world was beginning to spin. This couldn't be happening... not his baby... not his Addie...

He felt arms grabbing him, holding him up. Leading him to a nearby bench. He didn't care who it was, he could only continue to stare at his daughter's skirt in the hands of his wife. She was emitting a strange noise, her breathing labored; he watched her rock back and forth with the skirt in her hands, blood dripping from between her fingers. Addie's blood.

He could hear his own labored breathing now. His heart pounding in his ears. But he couldn't let the reality wash over him, not for a second. If he accepted it, he wouldn't be able to handle it.

There was a distant voice, a form in front of him. He felt large hands on both of his shoulders but he couldn't focus on anything except the skirt. The only remnant of his baby girl.

"Hiccup..." he heard, feeling the hands shaking his shoulders. "Hiccup, she's not dead!"

His eyes snapped down and he found himself face to face with his father. "H-how do you..."

Stoick pointed to the wall behind them. Out of the corner of his eye, Hiccup could see Fishlegs pointing to it, directing Astrid to look at it too. A message was written in blood, clearly visible from this angle but impossible to see if one was only walking into the Great Hall.

SCARED YOU, DIDN'T I?

Underneath the message was a mangled corpse. If it weren't for the feathers, Hiccup wouldn't have known what it had been in life. The dead chicken lay in a pool of its own blood. The sight nearly made him vomit. It looked like Trista had torn the chicken to shreds with her bare hands. He felt his body shake, his heartbeat obscuring most noises as it continued to race. Even over the noise of his heart, he could hear his wife gasping, see her throw the bloody skirt to the ground and bolt over to the message. He couldn't move. He felt his father shaking him again, trying to bring him back to reality but he couldn't do it. Yes, his Addie appeared to still be alive but a woman who would do something this sick and twisted would never let her live. He felt like he was on a search for his little girl's body. He could almost see it sprawled out in front of him, her bright green eyes staring at nothing, glazed over...

"Hiccup, you have to get a grip. This is what she wanted." came the garbled voice of his father. "She's trying to distract you, to make you lose focus. Do not let her succeed."

Reality was beginning to set in little by little. He looked down at Stoick, who was still shaking his shoulders.

"She's going to kill her." he muttered, his voice trembling with each syllable. "Addie's as good as dead..."

"No she's not." Stoick wrenched Hiccup's body forward, forcing him to stare into his eyes. "Listen to me, Hiccup. Do not give up on her! You didn't give up when she was born, don't you give up now!"

The memory of his quick actions on that tiny island three and a half years ago gave Hiccup the same sort of out-of-body experience that had seized him back then. A part of his brain was wired never to let himself give up on his children. Whether they were suffocating in his arms or dangling off a cliff or being kept by a madwoman, nothing was going to stop him from doing everything in his power to protect them. It was an integral part of him ever since he had found out they existed, a part that kicked in when Astrid had been taken, when Finn had nearly fallen off the tiny ledge into the rocks below... the protection of his family was in his hands. And if his little girl needed him, he was going to do everything he could to make sure he was there for her.

A sudden feeling took over, starting in his chest and working its way out until he was rigid in his seat. He stood up and pointed to the closest fire pit. Toothless shot a plasma blast into it, causing the room to be filled with odd moving shadows. Hiccup then walked over and picked up the bloody skirt. He could feel the blood dripping off of his fingers and onto the ground but he still walked it over to the fire and threw it in. For a moment, he watched it burn, feeling somewhat satisfied.

"This is the last straw." he growled, turning around to face the others. "We are going to end this."

The rest of the group, who had all arrived, nodded, looks of determination on each of their faces. Hiccup stomped over to the message, to the dead chicken, and found a stack of papers nearby with the same smudged handwriting as all the clues. He placed them on the table and opened the first.

Fear not, Addie is not dead. I make no promises about the future but for now, she is very much alive. Whether or not she'll stay that way depends on you.

I've changed the rules. No more rhyming. It was exhausting anyway. I waited until I knew how many of you were on the hunt for little Addie before planning this part of your journey. Why else would I need a whole night? I've created a sort of puzzle out of seven pieces and have hidden them in places special to each one of you. You have exactly twenty-four hours to find them and put them together. I suspected that the uproar would be wonderful with the discovery of that lovely little skirt so I suppose that is when the time starts. I've been keeping an eye on you (but don't try to find me, you'll only waste your time) so I'll know when the time begins.

You know, on that first day, Addie insisted that you would come for her. She was quite adamant. I think it was around dusk of last night that she started to lose faith. She's been awfully quiet as of late. This might be because I've made sure she's learned that bad things happen when she makes too much noise. But I'm sure she's wondering why you've been so late to our little party. I wonder... if she heard her daddy's emotional outburst last night, would she still doubt your devotion? I think I speak for both of us when I say that it isn't polite to keep us waiting.

Everything you need is on the other papers. Have a good time!

"Have a good time..." Hiccup snarled. "She's still awfully flippant about this. Like Addie's life means nothing to her." he threw the note to the ground. "So let's show her who she's messing with."

Every piece of paper had the first letter of the names of each person in the group. Hiccup handed them out, trying not to rip them in his anger. He finally looked at his own paper, one marked with a large, fancy looking H.

Do you remember what was on the very first note? Now do you remember where you left it?

"On the very first note?" he muttered. "What's she talking about? The one with the child's drawing?"

The others were muttering to themselves as they read their clues, each as cryptic as his. Finally they looked up at each other. No one had any idea where to start.

"Maybe we should read them all out loud." Fishlegs finally suggested. "I'll start. Mine says Remember when you nearly made yourself sick... and emerged stronger than ever?"

Everyone stopped for a moment to think about this. After a short pause, Tuffnut decided to read his.

"Mine is weird. If you let yourself get trapped, be sure to carry a torch. What's that supposed to mean?" Tuffnut looked on the back of the paper but this was the only thing written on it. "Well mine's impossible."

"Mine's more impossible!" Ruffnut countered. "Remember when your fiance threw you to the fishes? Fishlegs has never thrown me to the fishes!"

Tuffnut had a different idea. "Maybe it's saying he threw you at himself! Ooh what if it's the place where you two first..."

"Finish that sentence and I will kill you!" Ruffnut threatened, her fist drawn back.

"Enough! This is serious!" Stoick boomed. "It's so rare for you to show emotion. This place might be the only one that breaks your heart." he shut his eyes for a few seconds, trying to think of a place where he might have had his heart broken...

"At least you aren't left handed. Well. That's helpful." Gobber rolled his eyes. "It's not talking about a place, it's stating a fact."

Astrid took a deep breath and read hers in a slightly shaky voice. "Your daughter sure gave Fishlegs and you a good scare! I don't remember that ever happening."

Hiccup exhaled loudly, so many thoughts running through his mind. There were just too many notes, too many options of where each note could be. "I can't do this. We need to split up." he finally growled, trying to keep from tearing up his own message. "I'm sure we'll save time that way."

Stoick nodded. "Gobber and I can search for ours. And then split the rest by couples; but Tuffnut. I suppose you can come along with us."

Hiccup studied his note as Tuffnut began to whine, not wanting to travel with the older men. "Do you remember what was on the very first note? Now do you remember where you left it?" he mused. He closed his eyes, trying to remember the very first note...

Of course. The very first note was the one Trista had left on his baby's bed... the assumed note from Dagur the Deranged.

"What do you mean 'what was on it'?" Hiccup growled, interrupting the banter around him.

Stoick cautiously stepped toward him, "What?"

Hiccup shook his head. "I'm just trying to figure this out." What was on the note? "Wait." His eyes lit up and he turned to Astrid. "On the very first note, Trista signed it with the Berserker seal."

"Hiccup, she's not there." Astrid reached out to him, but he stepped away.

"No, that's not what I'm saying!" he gave her a pointed look, his eyes alert. The others waited with bated breath to hear what he'd say next. "She signed that first note with the Berserkers' seal." Hiccup looked through the group. "What is their seal?"

"A Skrill. So?" Gobber crossed his arms. The others looked similarly confused.

"My note says 'Do you remember what was on the very first note? Now do you remember where you left it?'" Hiccup recited. "There was a Skrill on that first note. That second part, do I remember where I left it?" His friends and family looked mostly still confused. "Don't you guys see? She put my piece of... whatever this is, on the glacier where the Skrill was reburied!"

"Oh!" A few of them nodded in understanding.

Hiccup turned back to the note. "Now... where is that?"

"Ten miles west of here." Tuffnut replied without hesitation. The group looked at him in surprise, but he shrugged. "I go there sometimes to chill out. Heh, get it? Chill out? At a glacier?"

"Yes Tuffnut, please spare us your jokes." Hiccup muttered irritably, rolling up his note and placing it in his belt. "Change of plans. Ruff and Tuff, you're with me. We're going to get my piece on the glacier, then we'll find yours. Fishlegs, you help Astrid with hers."

Fishlegs nodded resolutely. Hiccup lightly squeezed Astrid's arm for a second before saying, "Be careful" and walking to the Great Hall doors. Astrid blinked after him, her aching heart wishing that she had gotten more than just a cautious warning from her husband. "Ruff, Tuff! Let's go!" Hiccup's shout from the doorway jerked her out of her stupor.

The twins ran out instantly, not wishing to anger the highly stressed father further. Ruffnut returned for an instant to kiss Fishlegs on the cheek before running back out.

Astrid sighed, turning to Fishlegs. "All right, let's figure these out."

Stoick laid a hand on her shoulder for a moment. "Keep your chin up. We'll find her soon."

Astrid nodded tersely as her father-in-law walked out of the Hall with Gobber. When they were alone, she glanced down at her hands. The chicken's drying blood coated them, even crusting underneath her fingernails. Her hands shook when she realized that she could feel the thick, sticky bodily fluid slowly drying on her flesh, contaminating it... what if it had been her baby's blood?

Fishlegs held her arm gently. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up. Then we'll look at your note."

Astrid nodded, following him outside. She turned to the sentry standing outside the door. "Can you clean up the mess in there?"

The man nodded. "Yes ma'am. Right away."

She nodded her thanks and led Fishlegs down the stairs. He was amazed at how well she was holding up outwardly but one look at her eyes, he could tell she was only hours from breaking, maybe less than that. He just hoped it wouldn't be as explosive as Hiccup's breakdown had been. But he would comfort her no matter what.

The duo walked to the nearest well, where Astrid silently hauled up some water and she washed her hands until they were white again. They sat beside each other in silence for a moment before they couldn't delay the inevitable any longer, and pulled out their notes.

After a few seconds, Fishlegs put his back in his pocket. "Let's focus on yours first. That way we don't overwhelm each other."

Astrid nodded silently and read hers aloud again. "'Your daughter sure gave you and Fishlegs a good scare!' I still have no idea what this is talking about."

Fishlegs turned the paper over in his hand for a moment, deep in thought. Astrid tried to think over the past three years when she, Adrianna and Fishlegs were together. What had the little girl done to scare them out of their wits?

"What if she wasn't technically born yet?" Fishlegs asked suddenly. Astrid furrowed her brow, so he continued. "Where else would it be? That spot where you went into labor!"

"Of course..." Astrid whispered. "She must have been watching us when... when it happened." The thought sent shivers down her spine.

"Well..." Fishlegs stood, carefully lifting her up by the arm. "I suppose we know where to look then."

The two friends walked to their dragons standing nearby and silently mounted them. Within minutes they were landing at Hiccup and Astrid's favorite romantic spot. Astrid stared at what she knew to be an empty plot of dirt underneath the snow and between trees, overlooking the cliff face. Her soul twisted inside her, making her feel thoroughly disgusted. Trista had even corrupted this wonderful spot that held so many memories for her and her husband.

But she didn't linger on the thought, or in her saddle. She leaped down and jogged to the spot where a single note lay in the dirt.

Fishlegs stood beside her as she opened the note, and read: Dig.

A shovel was propped up against the closest tree. Astrid reached for it but Fishlegs gently blocked her with his arm.

"Let me." he said, grabbing the shovel. Astrid opened her mouth but he shook his head. "Your hands are shaking."

Astrid looked down and noticed that her friend was correct. She hadn't even realized she had been trembling. She took a deep, shaky breath and sat down, one foot dangling off the edge and the other tucked under her as she watched Fishlegs dig slightly behind the cliff. They were silent for a while, the only sounds being the ones made by the shovel as Fishlegs dug deep into the dirt.

"I can't believe it's been three years." Astrid said, looking out at the ocean below.

"Yeah. Neither can I." Fishlegs replied, grunting as he reached a rock in the dirt.

"I remember it vividly. Like it happened yesterday. Sometimes when I sit here on a day like that day, I can kind of feel it. That twinge of anger at Hiccup. The sudden pains in my abdomen. That moment of terror when I realized what was happening." Astrid took a deep breath. "That was the most painful thing I've ever done. But if it meant getting Anna back, I'd do it again. I wouldn't even have to think about it."

Fishlegs took a break from shoveling for just a moment, wiping the sweat off his brow. "Right after Finn was born, I looked at you. Just your face, I didn't look anywhere else. And when Ruff held him up, you looked so surprised. Almost like you hadn't known you were going to have a baby at all. And then she handed him to you and your face... you looked terrified. And then after a second or two, it was like something clicked. And I watched you light up as you continued to hold him. You looked so happy. It was like you became a mom in those few seconds. You haven't really changed since."

He continued to dig and Astrid thought back to that day. The moment Finn was in her arms. That rush of love for her tiny son that she hadn't felt moments before. She had been so convinced she wouldn't love him that she never considered the possibility that she would when he was in her arms. She remembered the moment Adrianna was born, how she had been waiting for her to cry only to hear nothing. She had watched helplessly as Hiccup took their baby daughter into his arms and begged her to live. But the moment she remembered most clearly was the instant she heard Adrianna wail. She had felt her heart open up and envelop both her babies in a love every bit as strong as she had for Hiccup yet completely different, both from him and from each other.

She looked down at her shirt, which had bloodstains on it that she knew would never wash out, and felt her vision become blurry as her eyes stung. She took a deep, shaky breath and tried to force the tears back. Now wasn't a good time to get emotional.

"She drives me nuts sometimes." she said after a few seconds of silence. "All that crying for no apparent reason. And all those outhouse training accidents. So much about raising her makes me want to pull my hair out. And then there are the days when I want to hug her close and not let go because she picked me flowers or told me she loved me. Or just because she's my little girl." she wiped more tears off her face and sniffed loudly.

"I... I found it." Fishlegs said in a low voice, picking up a piece of wood with writing on the back. "I think it's a piece of some kind of puzzle. I guess she meant a literal puzzle in the note."

Astrid silently nodded and stood up to inspect it. Fishlegs appeared to be correct. She wondered if the others would find something similar

Xxx

The cemetery was quiet. Not that it was ever loud. But the eerie silence seemed to permeate even the inside of Stoick and Gobber's ears. They had decided to look for Stoick's piece first. Stoick knew that his clue could only be referring to one place but he didn't want to think about digging anything from his wife's grave. He prayed that it wouldn't be necessary.

Sure enough, there was a note on top of Valhallarama's grave. Its instruction to dig pointed to a part to the left of the grave so that he would not disturb her. He wasn't sure whether or not to thank his sister for not forcing him to dig up his wife. He grabbed the shovel and got to work.

"Been a long time since I came to see you, Val." he said, gently patting the grave with his hand before continuing. "I wish you could have met your grandchildren. I told you all about them last time I was here. Finn would have made you laugh and Adrianna..." he sighed deeply but didn't stop digging. "Hiccup's out of his mind with worry. I think all of us are on edge. I'm just sorry I didn't tell him about Trista sooner. You would have known what to do. You would have pushed me to tell him and then all this wouldn't have happened. The irony is that I told you the full story the day we found out Hiccup was on the way. So I could protect him. And yet I couldn't bring myself to do so when I found out he was going to be a father." Stoick gripped the shovel so hard, it nearly snapped in half. "If my granddaughter dies, it will be my fault. I can't let that happen." he finally found the wooden piece deep in the dirt. He picked it up and clutched it in his hand. "I miss you so much." he said, gently patting the grave one last time.

He stood up and walked over to Gobber, who was patiently waiting at the edge of the cemetery. Gobber smiled grimly as he approached; his eyes flitted to the puzzle piece in his hand.

"Well I guess that's that. We should find my piece now." he said in an incredibly fake cheerful voice.

"Right." Stoick's fingers closed around the puzzle piece. "Listen, Gobber..." Gobber turned around. "Thank you for doing this. You didn't have to."

"Family isn't just about blood, you know." Gobber replied quite seriously.

Stoick smiled at his friend. For years he had wondered what it would have been like if his little brother hadn't died. But having Gobber as a friend made him feel like he hadn't missed out on the experience at all. And his best friend was right. Family went much deeper than blood relations.