Starlight, Star Bright - The Story of a Fool, Through an Even Bigger Fool's Eyes

What with a stranger washing up on Berk and taking a special interest in his son and news of Outcast activity reaching his ears, Stoick the Vast is uncharacteristically uneasy. Sequel to 'To Be Loved the Way You Love Me'.

Chapter 32: It's Okay

A/N: THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER. THERE ARE TO BE NO MORE CHAPTERS AFTER THIS. HOWEVER, THERE WILL BE A THIRD STORY TO COME.

Thank you guys for all your support. 248 reviews, 117 favorites, 154 follows...this all means a lot to me. And even the people who didn't review or follow, or show their support to me in any visible way, even if you just read it and enjoyed it, thank you. And if you read it, and didn't enjoy it, please review to tell me why. I'll be happy to know that you care enough to try and help me become a better writer. Thank you all so much for helping me continue with this story, even when I hit some pretty bad points with it. And I will be posting the sequel to this story soon.

"I crashed onto Berk on purpose," Humongous began hesitantly, putting my sword in the belt at his waist. "I was sent there to find you and to bring you back home to your real father."

"Wait, Stoick the Vast sent you on a mission to retrieve me?" My eyes must have been wide as saucers.

"No." Humongous shook his head with a sigh, rubbing his hand along his temple. "Alvin did. Alvin wanted you back, so he lied to me and told me to bring you back. He told me you were his son, and not Stoick's. He told me that Stoick abused you, actually, and treated you cruelly and for awhile, I believed it. After all, Stoick had never even spoken of you, and I'd never seen you before. I thought that maybe he kept you locked up—

"Maybe he keeps you locked up." Something bitter flickered in Humongous' blue eyes when I shuddered.

Humongous didn't notice anything amiss, and continued to speak. And I didn't dare interrupt him, trying to listen and turn the memory over in my mind.

"And when I met you for the first time, you just looked so shy. And you were so quiet around me, Hiccup. I was afraid that you'd been taught to be quiet, and to shut up, and I knew then that Alvin was right about getting you out of there. The moment I saw you and Stoick together, I knew it would have been very easy for him to hit you. You could hide it by saying you were clumsy, because you had a prosthetic, after all. And he was so much bigger than you…he could have killed you and never noticed. I'm afraid that I may have suggested your abuse too strongly when I was there…"

He fell silent for a few moments, staring down at his feet in deep thought. "But mentioning it just made him furious, so I dropped the subject for fear that he had figured out what I'd really come for. I couldn't risk him finding out, because I wanted to get you transported to Outcast Island safely. So I tried not to talk about it too much around him. And that day, he cast me as your shadow. Things were actually falling into place better than I – or Alvin – could have even thought."

"I thought you said Stoick loved me," I broke in.

"I was beginning to have doubts about his abuse myself," Humongous admitted, scratching the back of his neck uncomfortably. "But Alvin described his wrongs against you in such perfect detail that I knew nobody could be making something like that up. He spoke of how Stoick the Vast denied you food and rest some days as a way to punish you. And he said Stoick used to whip you until you had blacked out from it. People who hurt others with no reason is one thing, but people who hurt children for no reason…I didn't begin thinking deeply about my mission until I was placed as your shadow. You seemed relatively happy under Stoick's care. You got hurt often, and I noticed unexplained scars and bruises, but you didn't seem like someone who was being mistreated."

Rage choked me, turning my vision red. "Denied me food and rest? Whipped me until I'd blacked out? I have no memory of Stoick the Vast doing that to me, but Alvin did that to me all the time."

Humongous' blue eyes narrowed. "I should have seen that," he hissed. "I'll make this up to you, Hiccup, I swear I will. Even if you hate me for eternity, I will be getting my revenge on Alvin – for both you and myself."

"I don't hate you." I was reluctant to admit to myself that this was the truth. "I'm angry at you for believing what Alvin told you, but I'm angrier with him for lying to you in the first place. Now, I don't know if Stoick really did abuse me or not, and I don't know if I ever will remember that. If I'm depending on him to fill in the gaps, he certainly wouldn't be likely to fill me in on that, would he? No, if he really was abusing me in any way, I'll have to find out for myself."

"I don't know if he was," Humongous admitted reluctantly. "But you're not going to have to figure it out alone, Hiccup. I know you're angry with me, and you have every right to be. You have every right to hate me, in fact. But the thing is, I can't let you get hurt again because I've done nothing. So I'll be going with you this time, back to Berk, and I'll be looking after you there, and making sure you're okay. Okay?"

I nodded wordlessly.

"Are you ready to go back to it yet?" Humongous asked, picking up his sword again and inspecting the blade carefully.

I took a sip of water and gave my head a small shake. "No, I think my arms are going to fall off if I try to lift that sword again. I'm resting for a bit."

"Oh. Right." Humongous nodded. "Sorry, am I working you too hard?"

"No." These had to be some of the strangest circumstances I had ever found myself in. I had been sword-fighting on and off for the past three days while we tried to locate Berk, but the closer we went, dark clouds began to form on the horizon. It seemed that a storm had just come and gone over this island, because there had been some heavy rain, but luckily no thunder or lightning. I was still kind of damp from the rainwater, but sword fighting had all but dried me off the closer we got to Berk.

On the outside, I was completely calm. I didn't care that we were approaching a familiar island or that I was about to meet my real father for the second time, only I didn't remember meeting him the first and, oh yeah, as far as Humongous knew, he really loved me but he could also be abusing me on the days he didn't love me. Nope, I was completely calm, or at least, I hoped I looked like it.

On the inside, I was a nervous wreck. I was hoping that this didn't show, but it was clear it did when Humongous put a large hand over my small one, and whispered, "Are you alright?"

I nodded.

"It's okay to be scared."

"I know," I muttered between tightly gritted teeth, my hands shaking beneath his.

He gave them a small, reassuring squeeze. "We're very near the island now. Are you ready?"

I took a deep breath, looked out over the horizon, the sunrise spilling yellow light all across the sky, and nodded.

THE END