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[a_real_viking]

Around now, back on Berk, it would have been time to start harvesting whatever the rough earth had let them grow. It wouldn't have been much, a lot of small, scrubby plants, and none of them tasty, but it would have kept them alive, and that was always worth being thankful for. The affair would have been pretty plain, a slightly larger bonfire, a

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[other_valentine]

It was by coincidence that Hester was walking through the jungle when she spotted the campfire. Curiosity led her to it, and there stood Hiccup and Toothless.

Hester knew nothing of Hiccup's religion, and she was not very religious herself (apart from a few prayers spoken when death seemed imminent), but she knew a ritual when she saw one. She stood back and watched in respectful silence.

Still, when he was done, she couldn't resist chiding him a little. "Very nice," she said. "It still seems like bit of a waste of good fruit, though."

[a_real_viking]

"I figured seasonal fruit basket would get me in less trouble than freshly-killed goat, at least," Hiccup explained, adding another branch to the fire.

"We'd normally have a festival at home. Or, well, what passed for one here."

[other_valentine]

Hester nodded. "It is good to keep up with such things. If you have them."

[a_real_viking]

Hiccup laughed and shrugs before picking up a mango. "I don't really know if the gods are listening. It's, you know, just in case?"

[talented_liar]

Loki was merely passing by, and probably would not have stopped at all if it hadn't been for the boy's rather lackluster speech. Of course, he would be calling on his father and brother. Jealousy flared hot and fierce in his heart. It was always Odin and Thor in the old days. No one ever called on Loki to help solve their problems.

He pushed the jealousy down for the time being and casually wandered closer to the fire, giving the resident dragon only the briefest of glances. "Why call on them? Do you think they honestly care?"

[a_real_viking]

As he spoke, Toothless' eyes followed Loki, his long, flat ears perked up.

Hiccup turned a banana over thoughtfully before sitting on the ground. "I don't really know. They don't seem to do a whole lot but I figure I should, just in case not doing anything is their idea of not ruining our lives."

[talented_liar]

Loki came closer to the makeshift offering, grabbing a piece of fruit from the basket. It was nice to see runes again, even if the occasion was less than ideal and none of the boy's carefully drawn stones happened to mention him.

"Well, I'll be certain to tell Thor about the gesture, though I can't guarantee he has done anything to deserve it," Loki said, taking a careful bite out of the fruit. It was for the gods, he was allowed to. "He has no power over this place's chaos. Whatever turned you to a girl, changed him into a child as well."

[a_real_viking]

Hiccup was about to make some kind of protest when the other man grabbed the fruit. He may have been planning to take the fruit with him after, but it was still all...ceremonial at the moment. Then he made those comments that gave a sense that he knew the gods, that he was one. Hiccup wondered if he should have upgraded to a goat.

"The gods are...here?"

[just_hormones]

"Oooh, did someone say offering?" Aphrodite's voice can be heard right before she comes into view, breezing in in all her pink and lacy glory, a dazzling smile on her face. She sweeps over to examine what's laid out, her practiced eye well used to quickly assessing a follower's gifts.

"Sweet, no dead things, that's a point in your favor, kid," she says with an approving nod. "I so know the pickings are pretty slim around here, so definite A for effort."

[a_real_viking]

Hiccup had come to expect the unexpected in this place; sometimes it seemed like the only certainty they had. With the nature of the island in mind, it really shouldn't have surprised him when a woman came up and inspected his offering with the air of someone who was used to receiving them, who might very well have been a god.

"We usually do goats, but I think if I ran off with one and threw it on a pyre, the council would have a problem with it."

[just_hormones]

"Ugh, what is it with you mortals and killing things to give us?" Aphrodite says, and she can practically smell the fish in her temple. "Well, I guess it appeals to some of us, I suppose my brother likes dead stuff or whatever. But sorry to tell you, sweet pea, gods are far and few between here, and I don't know about Thor, but I'd much rather have flowers or pretty jewelry over an animal carcass."

[a_real_viking]

The fact that they may have been sacrificing the wrong things had never occurred to Hiccup and he looked at her, eyebrows raised. "I mean, we thought you liked them. No one was stepping in and telling us otherwise, so we figured why mess with it?"

At the mention of jewelry, Hiccup reached into his pocket and reached for a ring he'd made out of a spare, twisted nail, polished until it was supple and bright as some other, nobler metal. "How about this?"