Valka

War. All she could see was war. Flames were lapping around her on every side. There was blood. There was battle. There was hurt.

Valka tried to make her way through the village, now teeming with battling dragons and Vikings. It was chaos. She could barely make out her own hands.

This is my chance, she reminded herself. I have to try.

The scream of a dragon caused Valka to whip her head around. A Monstrous Nightmare had crashed to the ground, and standing over it was a big brute of a Viking wielding a sharp, heavy, double-sided axe.

"Stop!" cried Valka desperately, running toward him and grasping his wrist. "You'll only make it worse!"

The Viking shoved her away, but the moment of distraction was enough for the dragon to get up and fly away. The villager shot Valka a glare, but spared not a moment longer for her. He rushed off back into the heat of the battle, leaving Valka staring after him.

The sound of a devastating crack sounded behind Valka. She turned to see her own house's roof split in two. Climbing inside was a giant, four-winged dragon.

Panic flooded Valka's brain. "Hiccup!" she gasped, sprinting towards the house in hopes of saving her young son.

Valka burst through the still-intact door and grabbed a spare knife hanging from the wall. She didn't want to hurt a dragon, but if it meant saving her son, she would do it.

But then she caught sight of the dragon.

It was leaning over Hiccup's cradle, staring at the child. And Hiccup wasn't crying. Rather, he was laughing, trying to grasp the claw the dragon offered him. It hadn't noticed Valka yet.

Before it could, though, it was struck by a heavy axe grazing its tail. The dragon recoiled, and Valka saw its claw slice across her son's chin, leaving a deep cut. Hiccup immediately started to cry.

"Hiccup! Valka!" Stoick the Vast charged into the house. Enraged, the dragon let out a tongue of fire, setting the floor between it and Stoick aflame. Giving them a last snarl, it snatched Hiccup up in its giant claws and took to the air, leaving Stoick and Valka standing in the burning house, both in shock.

"No! Hiccup!" cried Valka. She ran outside, quickly followed by her husband.

"SON!" Stoick roared, staring helplessly after Hiccup, whose terrified cries were fading by the second.

A tear rolled down Valka's cheek. She wrapped her arms around Stoick and sobbed into his shoulder. He returned her embrace, and they held it for what could have been a century or a second. Their only son, Hiccup, was gone. Forever.

The whole village was heartbroken to hear of the loss of Hiccup. Many tried to offer their condolences, but it did nothing for Valka. No apology could ever replace her son.

If only Stoick had left that dragon alone, she thought to herself furiously while sitting by the fire one night, unable to sleep. My son would still be here.

Valka sighed, staring blankly into the dancing flames. No. It wasn't fair to blame Stoick. He was as devastated as her that Hiccup was gone.

"Val."

Valka turned her head to see Stoick at the foot of the stairs. He came over and sat next to her, resting his large hand on her small one.

"It'll be alright, Val," he said, though the break in his voice suggested he was trying to convince himself as much as her. "We can—there will be other heirs. We'll still have children." Valka could tell his heart wasn't in the statement.

"But we won't have Hiccup."

Stoick fell quiet, and they sat there together by the fire for the whole night, neither of them saying a word, neither of their eyes dry.