AN: First time writing anything of this sorts but I just had to get it out of my head.
PS; I don't own anything, Cressida Cowell and DreamWorks own HTTYD and my mind just played with the possibilities.
Welcome to Berk, we are 12 days not of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. We have hunting, fishing and a charming view of the sunset; the biggest deterrent to our tourism industry is the regular attacks from a group of large flying reptiles.
My name is Hiccup, great name I know, and for that past 5 years I have attempted to act out my plan to end the war. You see ever since my mother died in a raid both my dad and I have wished for an end to this war. However where he sees the need to end the dragons as a race, I only wish to end the fighting.
During the first year of my attempts I have noted something peculiar about the dragons, any time a dragon receives a major blow to the head it will, as long as it wasn't killed, look around like their confused to what is going on. Usually they're killed by one of Vikings, except this one nightmare that fought back and escaped with only a large scar over its left shoulder. My plan, should I ever go through, consists of capturing a dragon, preferably the scarred nightmare, somewhere outside the village where I can study just how intelligent they are and work on a way to cooperate.
On this lovely autumn day I'm taking advantage of the clear weather to test out my latest attempt of a mechanical bola launcher. Setting up behind the forge a nicely sized tree is far enough away for the bola to spin up properly but close enough so I don't need to aim. Loading the rope and balls into the chamber and grunting in the effort to draw the bowstring I ready myself to test the core part of my plan.
Aiming at the tree I pull the trigger and CRACK. The chamber splits and the bola launches out the side and before I can react the result of the failed launch is a 4 foot hole in a nearby home.
Cringing I look over the remains of the launcher, the tension had been too high leaving the left-hand side of the barrel in splinters and the string broken, sighing I turn around to pack up and see the noise has attracted an audience and at the front with a stern glare is our chief and my father, stoic the vast.
"Hi dad" I grin sheepishly trying to ignore his scowl. "Hiccup, how many times have I told you to test your inventions outside the village?" I look away and shrug my shoulders before looking back. "Um, one of the axles on my cart is broken so I couldn't get my toolkit into the forest." "Do you realize how much damage you are doing?" he accuses. "It's just one house." My retort just seems to make him angrier. "One house that you have damaged 8 times in the last week, we can't keep wasting time and resources that we need to prepare for the dragons." He sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose before continuing "I expect that house to be repaired by tonight, understood?" agreeing to the punishment and thankful for getting off lightly I nod my head and go back into the forge for my tools.
The repair itself was easy to complete with the use of a portable crane to fit and seal a pre-made panel. With that out of the way I use the last few hours of the day replacing the broken axle on my large four wheeled pedal cart, as I'm not going to get away with testing in town again, and leave the launcher for tomorrow.
Walking into the great hall I stop by my father's table to let him know the house has been repaired and proceed towards an empty corner of the hall picking up a plate of fish and cabbage preparing to spend some time alone with my mind. Halfway through my meal I notice the village teens have entered the hall and are making their way towards my table.
Before I could decide if leaving would be a good idea Snotlout is slamming his mug on the other side of the table, Astrid swings her axe claiming the seat opposite me before leaving for her food and the twins are fighting over who sits at the table's end. Fishlegs is the only one who acknowledges my presence and tries to start a conversion "so, I heard that you made another hole in Acks house, isn't this the 7th time this week?" "Actually it's the 8th" when he looks at me confused as to how I add "a couple of days ago the crane fell into the house just after I finished repairing it." The atmosphere becomes awkward as Astrid returns, not looking happy to share the table, I abandon the rest of my meal before anything can start and leave for home. Arriving, I add a log to the hearth and head upstairs to retire for the night.
I wake to the sound of the great horn signifying a dragon raid. Heading downstairs I catch my dad grabbing his hammer by the door "Hiccup stay here" he orders before running out. Heading to the door I open it to see a monstrous nightmare about to flame in my direction. Slamming the door I feel the heat of the blast start to seep through before fading, I reopen the door to find the dragon had left and part of the porch is on fire, quickly grabbing the pail left by the hearth I rush out and douse the flames before they can spread.
Looking around at the ensuring battle I spot the scarred nightmare holding lookout above the battle before swooping onto the northern catapult. Thinking this could be the raid I step off the porch before remembering the accident with the bola launcher. Sighing I decide it would be better to do as told and stay indoors, closing the door I see the nightmare jump away as night fury fire decimated the catapult.
After a while when the sun was starting to rise the sounds of battle faded. Only to be replaced by stoic calling my name and for me to come out. Making my way down the walkway I see dad in the middle of town with a disappointed look on his face. Deducting I couldn't be in trouble as I did as he ordered I made my way with my head up. As I approach I notice that his mood doesn't shift and start to get a bit nervous.
"Where were you during the raid hiccup?" he sternly asks, "I was at home" "no you weren't, Horak saw you exit the house with a bucket early in the raid. So where were you?" I stopped and stared at stoic trying to understand why he had just called me a liar. "Don't try to blame me for the damage, I left the house to stop a fire on the front porch from spreading. I don't know, about you but I don't like sitting in burning buildings." Stoic stops and looks around at burned buildings. "Fine, but we will continue this once the village is in order and the town meeting is over; just go back to the house." He looks to Gobber "make sure he stays there" with that he turns to start a proper inspection of the damage and I start my walk back towards the house.
Halfway up the slope I start arguing with Gobber, "I really didn't leave the house" "of course hiccup" "it's like he never listens to anything I say." "Well, it runs in the family" "and when he does, it's with this disappointed scowl, like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich" we reach the front door, I turn around take a breath and prepare to impersonate my father, "excuse me barmaid, I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring, I order an extra-large boy with meaty arms, this, this is a talking fishbone." This apparently stumps Gobber as he takes a second to respond "you've got this all wrong, it's not so much what you look like, it's what's inside that he can't stand." I stop and stare at the unintentional insult before thanking him and turning for the door, I'm stopped from closing the door by a Gobber grabbing my shoulder. "Sorry kid but I'm staying with you till the meeting" "don't you have work at the forge?" "Nothing that can't wait till tomorrow, the town has enough nails to rebuild itself twice and we still have that surplus of weapons available."
Inside we sit down at the table and spend the time going over the blueprints for my latest inventions. A possible use for the steam engine, how to get the tension correct in the bola launcher and my new designs for wrist mounted crossbow, Gobber complains it would be useless against dragons but I only intend it for smaller targets. At around noon stoic stops by to collect Gobber for the town meeting and promising to have that talk then he returns.
When he returns I'm sitting on the porch watching the sun set and I notice he has that look in his eye indicating he has an idea in his head. Leading me inside stoic turns and claps his hands "Hiccup, I believe it's time for you to learn to fight dragons." I wonder where this has come from as I have made it clear before I want nothing to do with killing dragons. Being confused I can only respond, "What?" "Dragon training, you start in the morning" he lifts an axe from its stand and hands it to me "you will need this" "but I have never wanted to fight dragons" "of course you do, all Vikings fight dragons" I swing the axe hard into the floor sticking it there and yell "I WILL NOT GO TO DRAGON TRAINING" "YES YOU WILL, YOU LIVE UNDER MY ROOF AND IN MY VILLAGE, YOU WILL LIVE BY MY RULES" stoic takes a breath before continuing "and by my rules all teens will be attending dragon training from tomorrow at noon. Deal?" looking up, I stifle a laugh as his face is as red as his beard before I decide it's time to concede "deal." He reaches into his room to collect a basket. "Good, train hard and I'll be back, probably." As he leaves the house I reply. "And I'll be here, maybe" but my thoughts then go to his remark about his village his rules and I mumble "maybe not."
Movie timeline comparison - hiccup has shot down a night fury, released said night fury and has relented to join dragon training.
I know it isn't used in this chapter but for future reference;
"This is Norse"
'This is Thought''
"{This is Dragonese}"