The Gift Of Prophecy

"I can see the future sometimes, you know."

Hiccup sounded absolutely convinced when he said those words. It was all very strange- Hiccup didn't believe in the supernatural, and he didn't joke around a lot, so there was no plausible explanation as to why he'd say something like that. Astrid wasn't sure where this was going so she decided to play along.

"And how does it feel like when you see the future? Like, how do you know that it's the future?

"Oh, It's hard to explain", Hiccup said absolutely seriously. "It's sort of like when you look out a glass window. You can see what's outside very clearly, and most of the time that's what you see. But, if you concentrate very hard and if the background is dark enough, you can see your reflection. The background is what everyone sees all the time- me, you, Gobber. If I concentrate sometimes I can see- more clearly or less- another layer. Like, I look at my dad and I see him but older and on a dragon. I look at Gobber and I see him plucking dragon teeth. Those kinds of things."

Needless to say, Astrid was very surprised to hear Hiccup talking about fortune telling so seriously. She didn't want to hurt his feelings by saying what he believed in was crap, so she decided to just ask some more questions.

"So, how do you know if it's the distant future or something that will happen in five minutes?"

"Well, the images are a lot smaller and more faded with less color. Also, they can change. Once I saw this image of us in the dragon training arena and Snotlout was talking. Then you punched him in the face. But then it all went back somehow and I saw you just standing there not punching anyone. Then Snotlout talked some more and it started alternating between you punching him on the face or kicking him. Eventually it was just you kicking him. It's weird because a week later we were all in the arena in the exact same positions as in my vision. Then Snotlout started being obnoxious, as usual, and you kicked him. It's weird- you always punch him but this time you kicked him. Guess the future can change."

"Okay. One last question- where did you get the idea to start fortune telling?"

"Oh, I just talked to my grandpa Old Wrinkly. He does fortunetelling and he thought that maybe I could try as well. He says maybe it runs in the family but I think anyone can do fortunetelling. You just have to try."

'Well, that clears things up' Astrid thought. Hiccup loved his grandpa and would believe anything the old man told him- even fortunetelling.

Just out of curiosity though- "What do you see in my future, Hiccup?"

Hiccup looked at Astrid carefully, then closed his eyes. After a moment he opened the and said: "It's sort of muddy but I see you when you're older and you have paint on your face- blue and orange in a pattern".

"Okaaaay…"

Astrid left soon after that- she had to feed her dragon. However, she kept thinking about what Hiccup had said. Face paint- why on earth would she have face paint?