*SPOILERS for How To Train Your Dragon 2*
Author's Note: I've had the first few chapters of this written up and sitting in my folders for a few weeks now, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to post them since I haven't finished this story yet and I wasn't sure if I would be able to finish it. However, the new season of Race to the Edge has got me all riled up and inspired again and it seemed like the right time to post what I have and see what kind of a response I get. This is my version of what life might have been like after the events of the second movie. I have tried to keep the hopeful spirit of the movies intact, while also taking a more realistic route as far as how the characters would have reacted to such life-altering events. I hope you enjoy! And please drop me a line to let me know what you think and if you would be interested in more of these semi-connected one-shots.
First Day
Berk and its people were used to rebuilding. Granted, it had been a long time since they had suffered this badly from a dragon raid, and repairing damage done by ice breath was a first for all of them. Nonetheless, everyone knew their role in helping to repair after an event of mass destruction, which meant that Hiccup was not in as tight a situation as he might have been had he just become chief of a different people. Astrid got to work almost immediately and without having to be told on digging out, rebuilding and restocking Mead Hall, since that would be the most practical place to put up both dragons and Vikings who were homeless for the time being. Fishlegs and Valka bonded within minutes of working together, unsurprisingly. They were taking care of the injured dragons, while Gothi helped with the injured Vikings. Snotlout had bullied/challenged Eret son of Eret into taking a recon flight with him around the island along with the A-team. They were keeping a lookout for any signs of Drago's fleet or Drago himself, while simultaneously enjoying themselves wholeheartedly as they watched Eret struggle to keep up with them on the back of Skullcrusher. The twins… well the twins were doing what they did best: blowing things up. Fortunately, there was an abundance of very breakable ice covering various parts of the island that really did need to be got rid of. The entire village was bursting with activity. Even the little ones had their assigned jobs well in hand, supplying water and food to the laboring workers and dragons.
That wasn't to say Hiccup didn't have his hands full. He had plenty to do, between directing different aspects of the work and helping in the actual reconstruction anywhere he could. He had also won a race, successfully delivered his first real, morale-building speech to the entire tribe, and defeated a crazed, power-hungry lunatic and a dragon king. All before tea time.
After all that insanity, Hiccup had gladly transitioned back into a role that he was much more comfortable with: that of directing and helping in good old fashioned work. In fact, he was immeasurably grateful for the amount of work there was to be done that first day. He was always at his best when he was busy and building, and any distraction from the enormity of the events which had transpired within the last few hours felt heaven sent. Hiccup bounced around from one end of the village to the other all afternoon. Since Toothless seemed just as reluctant to leave his side as Hiccup was to leave his, they stuck together throughout the day, flying back and forth between one project and the next, delivering supplies, checking on status' and giving directions as necessary. As they day started to wind down though, and the red of an approaching sunset crept into the sky, Hiccup found himself being drawn back towards Gobber's forge. His mother and Fishlegs had been there most of the day, helping to unload the armored dragons before they tended to their wounds, but they had moved their operation closer to Mead Hall as the repairs on that building neared completion. So, when Toothless landed gracefully outside of the old forge, Gobber seemed to be running the place all on his own. A fact which was quickly confirmed when the old blacksmith stuck his head out of the doorway just long enough to bellow,
"'Bout time you showed up!" He ducked back inside just as quickly as he had appeared, but his thundering voice could still be heard loud and clear by the two friends as he went on. "Just because you've gone and become chief of the whole village don' think tha means you kin get out of workin' here! Ahm get'n too old to run this whole place by meself!"
"Sorry, got held up," Hiccup joked and followed his grumpy friend into the building. He turned back as a loud crash behind him brought his attention back to Toothless. The dragon was staring apologetically at the contents of a small shelf which were now strewn across the floor. Gobber gave an irritated but dismissive huff and went back to work. Hiccup walked back over to his best friend's side.
"Why don't you go take care of whatever new "alpha duties" you have to do, bud? If being an alpha is anything like being a chief then I'm sure you've got plenty to do," he smiled and placed his hand on the dragon's head. Toothless whined reluctantly and blinked up at his rider. "It's all right bud," he said as he patted Toothless on the side of the head. "There's not really much you can do here, but I should help Gobber for a while. That'll keep me busy." He smiled. Toothless nudged his hand gently and gave him a questioning look.
"I'll be fine Toothless," Hiccup reassured him and then turned to duck back into the forge where he smoothly and swiftly donned his leather apron and fell to work with the ease of someone who has done this a thousand times. Toothless lingered for a few more seconds, sniffing indecisively and watching Hiccup with an attentive gaze. But finally, he seemed to make up his mind, turned and sped swiftly away in the direction of Mead Hall. Hiccup looked up once he was gone, and suppressed a shudder, instead pressing his lips into a tight line and going back to work with renewed vigor. Gobber watched him sadly out of the corner of his eye, but the old warrior knew better than most the usefulness and necessity of work to occupy a mind that isn't ready to think about tragic events just yet. He gave Hiccup what he knew he needed most, hard work and space, but was also alert and at the ready for any change in the boy's mood.
Hiccup kept the forge lit, pounded dragon armor into useful sheets which he then supplied to Gobber for filling the orders that were coming in from across the village, and made as many rivets, nails, hammers and other small but necessary tools for reconstruction as he could. His mind was racing with lists, lists of specialty items that he would have to make himself in order to repair his various inventions and machines across the island, lists of improvements that he could make to those same inventions, and even a few new ideas that he found himself getting excited about implementing. That was always the best part about a catastrophic event: it provided a blank slate that could be built upon almost from scratch. With so many of these busy thoughts running through his brain he barely noticed the passage of time.
The sun seemed to grow distant as it sunk lazily into still, cold sea. It took with it the warm glow of day, and the space left behind filled with icy blue clouds that blocked out the light of twinkling stars. Eventually, the mounting darkness swallowed up even the light of the moon, which had been fighting valiantly to shed some illumination on the world below. Torches lit up, one after the other, around the island, and the metal clinks of hammers, the wooden thunks of axes and the chaotic bursts of dragon fire explosions from across Berk died away to be replaced by a general din of activity and community coming from the direction of Mead Hall.
Hiccup failed to notice when the number of requests and visits they were getting from the villagers died down, having become absorbed in the backlog of a list they already had to work on. It wasn't until Gobber spoke up that he really looked around him for the first time since he'd arrived at the forge.
"Weeell, I'm off to the Hall for some dinner," he announced suddenly, and the loud metal clank of his metal tongs being tossed aside nearly caused Hiccup to drop a red-hot metal rod on his good foot. "This Viking warrior-esque figure doesn't come about by chance you know. It takes hard work!" he boasted, jovially patting his overlarge and soot stained stomach with his good hand. "You should come too. When's the last time you had somethin' t'eat? Eh?"
"I don't know," Hiccup replied with a dismissive shrug, carefully placing the rod into a clamp. "But I'm not hungry yet, and I really need to finish this before the metal cools. I'll meet you up there as soon as I'm done." Gobber opened his mouth to protest, but Hiccup cut him off before he could get a word out. "And tell Toothless to come find me if you see him, I need to check his harness. It took a beating today. Probably needs some work."
"Alrigh', ah'll tell 'im. But if I know tha' dragon, he'll be back here pullin' your stubborn self up to the Hall himself before I even get up there," he said as he limped over to his interchangeable hand station and switched out his hammering attachment for his mead goblet, since that would be much more useful for eating and, more importantly, drinking than a hammer would be.
Hiccup grinned absentmindedly and muttered a distracted, "Thanks Gobber," before going back to his work. Gobber hobbled out of the forge and called out,
"Come on Grump, you big lazy butt! Wake up and give us a ride to the Hall. You know," he told Hiccup over his shoulder as the enormous dragon drug himself sleepily out of the building only to collapse again at Gobber's feet, "I'm starting to think tha' maybe it wasn't such a good idea to build the forge so far away from everythin' else on the the island. And by everythin' else, I mean the food. Grump agrees! It's an unreasonable amount of distance for an old boiler like myself to have to walk or fly just to get his well-earned meals."
"We could move it closer to the Hall," Hiccup mused. "The water tower was completely destroyed and I was thinking of rebuilding it higher up on the mountain so that we can use it for more fire prevention. That would clear up enough space for a new forge. But then we'd have to figure out how to get water to the tower, since moving it higher up would put it farther away from all of the rivers and streams."
"Never mind Hiccup!" Gobber interrupted him. "It's a matter for another day, and besides," he added, a laughing tone making its way into his voice, "You've got more important things to worry about now than an old man's lazy dragon." Hiccup's movements slowed to a stop,
"Yeah, I suppose I do," he muttered, trailing off into silence, but before Gobber could think of the right thing to say, Hiccup raised his head to meet Gobber's gaze and smiled fondly as he recited, "But no task is too small when it comes to serving your people, right?" Gobber felt his heart clench and the prickle of sudden tears welling up in his eyes.
"Aye lad," he nodded. "Couldn't have said it better myself." Hiccup smiled out of the corner of his mouth and went back to work.
"I'll think of something, don't worry. Go have dinner, I'll be up soon." The old smith mounted his slumbering dragon and took off towards Mead Hall with a heart that was both heavy and hopeful. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that that boy would make a fine chief, but his very bones ached at the thought of never seeing his best friend again. Still, there were many more friends still around him, and a few new ones to add to the list. And besides, there were much more important matters to attend to at the moment, like finding some proper ale to fill up his mug-hand with and a chicken or two to fill his other.