Hello my loyal readers! And by loyal I mean those patient enough to put up with me. Anyway, I've read over some of my previous work and decided "Jeez I can do better than that" or "I kinda wish I did this part a different way." So I have decided to do a complete overhaul of my longer running stories with minor and major tweaks. Also, flashbacks and inner dialogue will be given a tilt. Fair warning. Hope you enjoy!
"This is Berk. It's a rock sitting in the middle of nowhere and is home to a group of very charming people, if you get my drift. Life can be good or bad but it's still home. The biggest problem is the pests. Sure you got mice and mosquitos, but here on Berk, we got dragons. Not that this stopped my tribe from putting down roots here. We're vikings, or in other words, we have stubborness issues. My name's Hiccup. Don't laugh please, it's emberassing enough as it is. Anyway, my tribe generally spends one or two nights a week dealing with dragon attacks. The best of us are celebrated for the number of dragon heads we have mounted on our walls. I want to be one of the people, but unfortunately I'm stuck making sure that the weapons these people use are able to do the job. Oh sure I get a shot from time to time, but it usually blows up in my face, both physically and metaphorically. I'm the oddball, the screwup and the shrimp all wrapped up in one guy, so naturally my tribe looks at me with disdain and mockery. Also, did I mention I'm the chief's son? Yeah, that really weighs on my shoulders just as much as my dad's. Anyway, I'd best stop having this inner monologue before a gronkle blasts me into valhalla and back."
Hiccup looked up from his station at the forge and watched as several vikings flailed past him, screaming bloody murder. He ducked a fireball from a Gronkle and turned his eyes back to the sword he was sharpening while another Viking charged the flying rock.
"Hey Hiccup, you got any bola materials over there!?" A voice shouted from the other side of the shop. Hiccup looked back to see his friend and partner in the forge, Razorre.
"There's some to my left, second shelf!" Hiccup called back. Hiccup finished with the sword and carried it back to Gobber. Gobber grabbed it and tossed it to a viking outside. Razorre darted past him and grabbed the bola parts he needed. Hiccup watched as Razorre began to assemble a bola with speed born from years of practice. He was like Hiccup in a way. He was rather scrawny for his age and preferred to think his way out instead of punching his way out. He did however make up for this by being wickedly fast. Ever since he was little he could outsprint anyone, which was a sore spot for both Snotlout and Astrid, because Snotlout usually won at any sport and Astrid hated losing repeatedly in the same person. Razorre also had black hair and electric blue eyes. He lived in a spare room in Gobber's house.
"I still don't know how you make those so fast."
Razorre smirked at Hiccup.
"Lots of practice young apprentice. Lots of practice."
"Hey, I was Gobber's apprentice before you!"
Gobber slammed his good hand down on the table and rounded on them.
"Would you two stop bickering and get back ta work?!"
Both Hiccup and Razorre muttered fine. They both resented the fact that they weren't allowed out to fight dragons because they were small. They had been stuck in the weapons shop since they were little, while the other teens were making sure that Berk didn't burn to the ground. Snotlout and the twins loved rubbing it in. Astrid just looked at them in contempt. Fishlegs was Fishlegs, nothing else. They were both looking for ways to circumvent that problem of being in a confined space full of metal and weapons forever, but so far, Hiccup was the only one making notable progress, if underappretiated progress. Hiccup took a long look at his bola launcher, wishing for a chance to give it a trial run. Razorre caught Hiccup staring at the machine and motioned to him that he was about to make a distraction. He reached down and pulled a small metal ball from under the table. He then took and and hucked it through the air and right into the eye of a Monstrous Nightmare, which immediately began attacking the shop. Gobber immediately vaulted out the window and began a deluge of insults at the enraged dragon. Hiccup, seeing the distraction in motion, immediately grabbed his contraption and charged out the front door. Razorre, in the meanwhile began sharpening an axe and whistling Berk's viking song, hoping Hiccup didn't make a fool of himself. Again.
Hiccup was running through the village like a maniac. He eventually reached a good spot to open up the bola launcher and began looking for a target. Razorre in the meantime was done sharpening the axe and was trying to build more bolas when he heard an unfamiliar dragon cry. He looked out to see a shadow hurtle overhead. Short seconds later, several bolts of lightning shot down and struck several nearby vikings. They yelled, convulsed, then dropped. Some of them had some ridiculous expressions on their faces. Then he saw it. A Skrill. The dragon had a triangular head and bared a slight resemblance to a Nadder. It began firing lightning bolts wherever it looked. Then he saw something. A viking was hiding in it's blind spot, sword raised to strike, when suddenly a bolt of lightning changed direction and struck the sword tip, creating another goofy expression. The hilarity stopped however, when Razorre noticed that the Skrill was closing on Fishlegs.
Hiccup scanned the skies carefully, searching for something to shoot out of the sky. He silently repeated the prayer to down a dragon. Suddenly, he spotted the silliouet of a dragon about to make a pass. He could feel it. this was the shot. He pulled the trigger and launched the bola. The force of the impact through him back though, but he still heard the snap that indicated the dragon was hit.
"I hit it... OH YES I HIT IT! Did ANYBODY see that?!"
Hiccup heard a loud crunch and saw an angry Nightmare behind him.
"Except for you."
Razorre vaulted the shop window and sprinted without hesitation towards Fishlegs, who was cowering in fear. Just befor the Skrill unleashed a lightning blast Razorre full on collided with Fishlegs, pushing out of the line of fire. Razorre wasn't so lucky. He was knocked ten feet by the blast and was knocked unconcious. Gobber noticed this and bellowed a horrendous warcry as he hobbled into battle. The dragon turned and snarled at him, but realized that it was out of charge. Short seconds later, several bola wrapped around is legs, wings and neck, causing it to plummet to the ground. One of the villagers picked up Razorre and carried him back into the weapons shop. Gobber turned to see Hiccup running for his life as a Nightmare closed in on him from behind. Gobber shook his head and started after the boy when Stoick leapt out of nowhere and engaged the Nightmare with his bare hands. After a thorough beating, the Nightmare ran off, leaving Hiccup to deal with Stoick.
"It's not like the last few times dad, I mean I really actually hit it. It went down just of raven point. lets get a..."
"STOP! Your so wrapped up in this that you haven't even noticed that Razorre's been injured!" Hiccup stopped dead.
"Wait what?! What happened?"
Gobber hobbled up beside Hiccup.
"He got blasted by a Skrill while trying to make sure that Fishlegs didn't get blasted. He'll be fine. Gothi's fixin' 'im up as we speak. I'm still going to need you to pull double duty in the shop for a while though."
Hiccup didn't even argue, which opened up a long speech from Stoick about winter and feeding the village and Hiccup's inventions causing all sorts of disasters.
"Oh, and somebody drag that Skrill to the kill ring!"
Finally, after a Stoick had gotten it out of his system and made sure that the Skrill was unconscious, Gobber was told to escort Hiccup back to his house. On the way, the twins and Snotlout decided some prodding was neseccery. The twins' made no sense, but Snotlout went one to far.
"Seriously, I have never seen such a big screwup. You should go ask Gothi to try and fix you like your friend."
Gobber decided that this warranted a helmet being slammed over his head and a kick to the groin with his pegleg. This brought some chuckles out of everyone. Hiccup kept his head low, still trying to get over the shock of his friend being hurt, as well as wondering where the dragon he shot down was now.
"Why was a Skrill here? We never see them around Berk."
Gobber shook his head.
"Don' ask me laddie. I wouldn' know. We can' hope to understand everything about dragons. Just kill 'em."
Eventually the reached the chief's house, after a rather frustrating discussion about Hiccup and Razorre's dragon fighting problem, and Hiccup went inside without a word. Gobber exhaled exasperatedly and walked off towards the meade hall for the village gathering. Unbeknownst to him, Hiccup had snuck out the back door.
Several minutes after the meeting in the meade hall, Gobber walked back to his weapon shop. He hobbled up the stairs to check on his second apprentice. Gothi was still inside.
"How ya doing kid?"
Razorre was lying on a blanket and had bandages wrapped around his forhead, torso, and his right arm. He opened his eyes and winced.
"Been better. Remind me to never do that again. How long am I going to be stuck here?"
Gothi grabbed her staff and began sketching in some sand she had scattered on the floor.
"Aha, aheh, hmmm... She says that you'll be on your feet in a waffle."
Gothi immediately clubbed Gobber with her staff.
"Ow, sorry. I meant week. You'll be on your feet in a week. She also says that you'll have to not push yourself to hard. No smithing and no heavy excersize like running for three days after that."
Razorre nodded and winced again.
"Well, I guess I'll just have to entertain myself for a week. Hey Gobber, do you know where Hiccup is?"
Gobber shrugged.
"Last I knew at his house, but he probably went off into the forest after I left."
Razorre nodded and shut his eyes. This was going to be a very long week. Gothi tossed another blanket over him, packed up her things and left, leaving Razorre alone with his thoughts.