Omphalos (Hiccelsa)

Chapter 23

Chaos.

Elsa pressed her fingers hard to her temples and tried to imagine herself in a different, better place before this utter madness began. When did it start? What the catalyst for such a catastrophe and bedlam? How did she think that she would be okay going into this without any armor or weaponry?

Motherhood.

She shivered at the thought. Balancing four children at once, as she had come to realize in the two months since gaining three extras, was utter craziness. Hardly ten A.M and she and Hiccup already had a headache.

"Elsa! ELSAAAAA! Calder is holding Hubert by his tail and he won't give him back!"

"He likes it! Ophelia is over-reacting! Besides, she took my shoes and threw them out the window!" Calder called back up from the tree-house loft, and Ophelia continued to wail for her aunt and now adopted mother. Rika was sobbing loudly from her crib, unrelenting. And Ull was outside painting messy handprints from the soft red mud all along Toothless's black flank, where they dried and stood out in pretty pastels. Toothless was at the point where he was growling at the child, who did not understand his grows to be a small warning, and continued to slap his dirty fingers on the black scales.

"I'll take the older two, you take the younger two." Hiccup said.

"Deal." Elsa agreed wearily, and they both got up from the table. Elsa first made a beeline to save poor Toothless and scooped up the child in her arms, who angrily waved back at the dragon, getting the red mud all over Elsa's white dress.

"You need a bath, mister." Elsa gave a long sigh, running a finger through his clay-laden hair. He hissed and struggled in her arms. She firmly set him down on the front porch, "Don't move." She instructed firmly, and Ull gave a grumpy nod.

Elsa went inside to find Rika's face purple from her yowling, and she bounced the baby a bit, then set the two-month old over her shoulders. She patted Rika's back for a moment, feeling a tiny tremor run through the miniature body. This was right before Rika expelled the milk she had taken only a few hours ago down on Elsa's shirt and onto the floor. Cussing inaudibly, Elsa carried Rika to the kitchen to clean her face up, and glanced over to the porch to tell Ull she'd have his bath ready in a moment…to find him gone. Giving a long sigh, she looked up to the stairs, hoping that Hiccup would be done in a moment to help her.

Hiccup, after they had split their two ways, had started climbing up the stairs.

"I'm coming up you two!" He warned, and immediately, he heard scuffling from the room above. Strangely, it had come to be that he found himself the one the pair were more afraid of, instead of Elsa, who they usually went to in an attempt to avoid Hiccup's anger. Even hearing their 'father' come up the stairs sent the pair into frenzy.

When Hiccup arrived up the ladder, Calder was still holding Hubert by the tale but frantically trying to shove him back into Ophelia's arms. Ophelia, though, was swatting him away and halfway leaning over the edge, her fingers reaching for a single shoe still stuck in the tree branches, the second sitting in a pile of red mud at the bottom of the house.

As soon as Hiccup appeared, both shrunk and stopped their activities, looking at Hiccup with wide, puppy-dog eyes.

"Calder, give Ophelia her dragon back." Hiccup said sternly. Wordlessly, and never breaking eye contact with Hiccup, Calder dropped the dragon into Ophelia's lap. Hubert scuttled to lay himself in a ring around Ophelia's neck, and shivered, giving an anxious puff of breath. Hiccup was frankly surprise the nervous thing hadn't died of a heart attack yet.

"Now, Ophelia, what in Odin's name compelled you to throw Calder's shoes?" He asked.

Ophelia turned red in the face, and scowled. "He called Hubert a pest." She harrumphed.