Chapter Text
Valka Haddock had come into port with just a basket of belongings, asking for a home among the Hooligan tribe. Stoick was young - not yet the chief - and had fallen in love with Valka. She was a free spirit, she built her small hut, and she didn't take lip from anyone. Spitelout was utterly shocked when she had snappy rebuttals for his every comment - when she outsmarted his battle tactics in the arena. She earned her name, Valka the Cunning, in that ring, sparing with the others and winning.
But her past was a dangerous one. No one knew the reason why Night Furies were slowly no longer being seen. Stoick didn't even know the haunting secret of her bloodline. The one that was passed along to Hiccup, their darling premature son. Valka feigned worry about his health, but Stoick assured her that he would be the strongest around.
She doesn't tell Stoick she was also premature, that all in her family are. Rather than a human pregnancy, her people reflect the 6 months a dragon - Night Furies specifically - is gravid for before they lay their eggs. Some are earlier than that, and that is cause for worry. For her people, Hiccup was perfectly healthy in his early birth. His soul reflected her own, that of her people. The last of her people now lay in her arms, unknown of the prophecy on his head. She leans over and kisses his forehead, smiling.
In a soft whisper, she speaks their gentle language, “sleep as humans, rise as dragons. With scales of oil and ink, eyes of fern and sky.” His green eyes focus on her blue ones and he coons, almost in agreement. She shushes him gently, the raid outside making her heart hurt. Hiccup can obviously feel it as well - the queen's oppressive grip on their dragon souls. She tried to urge him to sleep - his dragon form would not manifest until his first birthday, another month away. Still, his head had been warm in preparation for the first transformation, Just as Valka has always been warmer than the other Berkians.
The pair were shocked as a large Stormcutter climbs through their roof. Valka sighs gently, showing him no fear or weapon. Just a mother and her child.
“If you take me,” she says gently. “You must take him as well,” she reveals her crying son to the dragon. The dragon seemed curious, sniffing them - Valka does not flinch at his warm breath, having been alone for so long in her nature. He gives a soft mrrr in question at their scent - dark with human and spiced with dragon. Stoick breaks into the door, raising his axe.
With gentleness, the large dragon sweeps Valka and Hiccup under his wing. Protective. Valka looks at her husband's betrayed face as she gently climbs upon the dragon, ducking her head.
“We cannot stay, Stoick. You would stifle him and his nature - just as mine has been. Mourn us, if you must - do not send for us. From this moment, we have died as a casualty of your war.” She places Hiccup secure in her fur wrap - the dragon was getting ansty. Once the baby was secured, she rubs the dragon’s neck. “Take us.” She leans herself low to his neck, holding on. The dragon roars as he takes off. Hiccup seems calmed by the wind rushing around them, just as Valka was. She sits up, only looking back once at her husband. The roof of the hut goes up like kindling by his torch flame. Her heart swells - he agrees. He won’t try to get them back.
The large beast continues flying well into the dawn until Valka asks for them to stop so she can feed the baby. While she does that, the dragon flies off to get some food. She offers her palm, a show of trust.
“Cloudjumper,” she breathed as he presses his scaled nose to her palm. “Is that your name?” He dips his head. “I am Valka, this is Hiccup.”
The baby gurgles happily, reaching for his face. The dragon offers his sharp talon for the baby to play with. Valka smiles softly. She always knew that she was right - dragons aren't cruel creatures.
She listens to the dragons chittering, nodding. Her dragon speech is slow, but she can understand him. “We should fly.”
“Let’s go,” she agrees, climbing back up. He waits until she pats his neck again to ensure that Hiccup remains safe and with his mother.
On another day of flying, Cloudjumper takes them to a mountain. He flies them inside and allows Valka a moment to survey her new home. A large lake takes its space in the dip of the cave, with layers of stone making steps almost. She dips her hand into the water, which was nicely warmed, and then places it on her tongue to figure out what type of water it is. Fresh, like ice runoff. Safe for drinking with no extra steps required. A few trickles of ice melt glides down into the lake, cool to the touch. The light comes from ice caps on holes in the roof of a cavern, dimmed and hazy. She inhales softly, nodding to herself as Hiccup slumbers in the fur wrap.
Cloudjumper urges her towards the nest against one wall, haloed in the hazy light of a hole. Inside sleep a dark grey dragon - his colors will darken as he ages. Valka sits next to the baby dragon and places Hiccup next to him. The baby dragon coons sleepily and wraps his wing over the baby, cementing her hypothesis about the baby dragon. Hiccup’s soul brother.
Valka smiles at Cloudjumper before she jumps up and hugs him strongly, rumbling her thanks in dragon speech. Her sudden connection with the Stromcutter makes her miss her own soul sister, Nemphoura. Every Dragonwalker is born with a soul twin, a dragon who hatches the same day as them. They will be raised together, take their first flight together, hunt and fish together, bare their children together, and live together in harmony until they would eventually die together in the same grove they were born in. Their families will always be connected by soul siblings, soul parents, and soul families - walkers and dragons. Meaning that this young Night Fury is in fact Nemphoura’s child. She is dead, Valka remembers the breaking of her soul when she felt her sister being killed. She privately wonders how the Stormcutter came into possession of the small dragon.
She gently brushes a piece of twig that was too close to the babies away and gazes at her darling son - sons now. Cloudjumper nudges her to lay beside her sons, and then he wraps himself around them, cocooning them in warmth and darkness. Valka falls asleep the easiest than she has in so many years.