Marked - An Eret [Son of Eret] Love Story (HTTYD)

16. Liberation

Upon arriving back to Berk, Aria let Midnight roam free for the rest of the night as she went to find her love. She spotted him near his hut with Skullcrusher and smiled. "Eret!" She called, jogging over to him.

"Aria," Eret greeted with a warm smile. He hugged her tightly when she met him and asked, "how was the night fly?"

Aria sighed and looked up into his hazel eyes, "relaxing."

"Well, good," Eret told her, "because your brother has something big planned tomorrow. So relax while you can."

Rolling her eyes, Aria groaned, "of course he does. Ever since he's become Chief.." She trailed off with a sigh shaking her head.

Eret frowned a bit. It was no secret to him that Aria missed spending time with her brother. Now he was always busy with the village. Of course, it was great that he was bettering life for everyone on Berk, including the dragons. But Aria missed when they were just fifteen and seventeen, new dragon riders who had no worries in the world. There were no wars, no fighting, just pure freedom to fly where ever they wanted.

"I know, Aria," Eret sympathized. He smiled a bit and tried to cheer her up, "but the world won't stop moving forward; we have to move with it."

Aria looked up at him as he put an arm around her back. "And more good will always come, I know," she finished for him, "one day, I'll miss these days, too."

"So, what are you gonna do about it?" Eret asked with a grin.

A smirk of her own growing, Aria turned toward him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She felt him lift her feet from the ground, pulling her up to reach his lips. With her feet hovering inches off the grass, Aria let her lips collide with Eret's. Her heart felt as if it had flown right out of her chest when Eret deepened the kiss. She opened her mouth timidly and accepted the new form of passion.

When she finally pulled away, Eret swung her legs up and put an arm under her knees. Aria laughed a bit and finally replied to his earlier question, "I'm going to enjoy it."

• • •

"I'm sure you're all wondering why I called you here today," Hiccup began. He stood before all of the other dragon riders with a serious look on his face.

"Well, yeah," Snotlout spoke the obvious.

Hiccup ignored the smart remark and went on. "Six months ago, we took down Drago," he told them, "but trapper ships are being spotted increasingly often lately. I want to lead a mission tonight and free all of the dragons on their ships."

There was excitement in the riders' eyes; it had been too long since they got some action. "Wait, how many ships are we talking?" Aria questioned suspiciously.

With a nervous smile, Hiccup answered, "uh..four or five."

"Four or five?" Tuff exclaimed with a wild grin, "oh, Thor, could this day get any better?"

Astrid rolled her eyes at the twin and looked to her betrothed, "Hiccup, isn't this a bit of a jump back into things?"

"I don't think so," Snotlout spoke before Hiccup could, "we've been training, right? Let's do this!"

"I agree, it's a jump," the chief admitted, "but those dragons don't deserve what's happening to them."

Eret's face hardened as he agreed, "Hiccup's right. The dragon trappers are merciless; we should liberate every dragon we can."

Finally, the group came to an agreement: that night, they would free the dragons. And the mission went without fail. Of course, it wasn't as stealthy as they would've liked. The twins were to blame for that, since they bickered the whole time. But in the end, every dragon was freed and brought back to Berk. Little did they know just what they were getting themselves into.

• • •

Three more months had passed. Hiccup led numerous missions to liberate dragons, and Berk was becoming quite a colorful island. Not to mention crowded. Aria even moved back in with Hiccup, donating her hut as a dragon den.

Now, she stood behind her brother, watching him put together a suit of scaled armor for her. When he originally asked her to collect Midnight's shed scales for him, she thought he was losing his mind. But after seeing the beautiful battle armor he made, she couldn't contain her excitement.

"Alright, and one more sheet for the back..." Hiccup muttered to himself as he took the last scales from Aria. After putting everything into place, Toothless meld it into place with his plasma blast.

Aria grinned and gasped, "it looks amazing, Hiccup! Thank you." She hugged him so tight that he couldn't breath.

When she let him go, Hiccup chuckled and gave her the armor. "Why don't you try it on?" He suggested, recovering from the death grip of a hug.

Without hesitation, Aria raced to her room and got dressed. It was elegant yet fierce, blue and black just like Midnight, with hints of silvery white. (Looks like Astrid's but different colors.) She couldn't wait to show it off to everyone.