The Strength of the Princess (HTTYD)

Digging Deeper

Chapter 5: Digging Deeper

The following day, Eira roamed the village herself in search of Snotlout. She did not know where to look as they had not made plans to meet up. She felt awkward about asking the other dragon riders after their praise of her tactics. This was something she had to figure out on her own.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she spotted him at the armory. "Hey, Snotlout!"

The viking turned from what he was working on to look at her. She swore she saw him smile, but all emotion quickly left his face. "Oh, it's you, Eira."

Eira's own smile faded as she stopped beside him. Now that she was here, she was not quite sure where to begin. "So, about yesterday..."

"It's fine," he said curtly. "Don't worry about it."

Eira furrowed her eyebrows. "Really?"

"Of course! You think you could hurt me? I'm fine!"

Eira frowned. He did not look fine to her, but she did not know if pushing him would help. "Then would you like to train together today? Or we can just hang out."

Snotlout shook his head. "Can't. I'm busy working."

"Maybe I could just-"

"Go find someone else to bother, Eira. I'm done here." He turned his back here and continued with his work.

His words struck her, and she had no comeback. "O-okay. Have a good day, Snotlout." There was nothing else to do, so she turned and left.

Clearly he was not over what she had done. But if he did not want to talk about it, how could she fix it? Maybe there was something she could do to prove she was serious. After all, it was actions, not words, that had gotten her into this mes in the first place. She decided to think it over with Swiftwings.

***

Snotlout had not been working long when he heard someone approach again. Assuming it was Eira, he did not bother to face the person. "I told you, I'm busy."

"This will only take a minute."

Snotlout turned in surprise to see Hiccup standing there. He quickly recovered and frowned. "I don't want to talk to you either."

"I ran into Eira earlier," Hiccup said, rudely ignoring him. "She seemed pretty distressed. You know she didn't mean to make you upset, right?"

Snotlout returned to the ax he had been working on. "Of course. I'm not mad."

"Really? You could have fooled me. Ever since she arrived, you've been eager to spend time with her, but now you're suddenly too busy?"

A wave of irritation rolled through Snotlout, and he tightly gripped the handle of the ax. "I'm playing hard to get."

"That's not really your style."

Snotlout set down the ax and shot Hiccup a glare. "What do you know? This is your fault, anyway. You're the one who came up with that stupid competition."

Hiccup blinked. "I can pair Eira with someone else if you can't handle it."

Snotlout shook his head. "No, I can handle it. I'll figure it out."

"If you're sure." Hiccup turned as if to leave, but he paused and looked back at the other viking. "Just don't be too hard on her. She's a good person, and she cares about you."

Snotlout grunted in response. He waited until Hiccup's footsteps faded, and then he let out a long sigh. He did not know whether to believe him or not, but it did not matter. It was too late.