PROLOGUE :
A fifteen-year-old Viking teenager named Rodêne recalls his past. He had a troubled childhood, often finding himself too awkward to fit in anywhere. Despite this, he found a wonderful friend, and was quite happy. Unfortunately, the land they lived in, the island of Lelondell, would always be in constant danger from fire-breathing dragons. Rodêne had initially been a soft-hearted, kind « weakling », but eventually he grew up to be a complicated teenage swordsman who hated dragons with a burning passion. Things eventually began to fall apart for him, and one day, he was whisked away from everything he knew, to a place where he is now. A place where he feels frozen and lost. Eventually, he realises bit by bit what went wrong and discovers the reasons behind the Dragon-Viking war. Can he forgive others ? Can he forgive everything ? Can he forgive himself ? Can he save himself ?
A combination of an original story and a fanfiction. Set in the expanded universe of HTTYD. Original characters first, canon characters later. Friendship, slice-of-life, adventure, romance.
Note : Even if you don't know or like How To Train Your Dragon, you can still read my story, because it is very different.
Predominantly FIRST‑PERSON POINT OF VIEW & PRESENT TENSE ↓
❅―――――«‹‹ ››»―――――❅
1. Imprisoned in Time
❅―――――«‹‹ ››»―――――❅
Darkness and loneliness surround me. I realise that my tears, and much of my fiery emotions, have subsided some time ago. Except that my guilt and remorse still stubbornly remain along with the shocking self‑realisation that I have jumped from a naive innocent child to a —
Cold ! The cold metal bars of the cage send a coldness through my bare elbow… and down my spine. I back away from it immediately, only to find myself knocking headfirst into the other end. [Clang !]
Apparently, the floor of my cage is tilting violently. The metal bars that I have knocked myself into now become the floor. My body rests onto the bars for a few painful seconds.
A hand of mine manages to grasp an icy metal bar as my little prison with four metal sides sway to and fro — and even up and down. The cage rights itself again. Luckily it's bolted to the wooden floor. The iron door of the cage is rattling itself like mad. The ship must be in a storm right now. Grumbling, I kick that annoying door in a vain attempt to quiet it down. The door rattles even harder.
« Stop making noise ! The pitch and roll of this ship are enough trouble already ! » I complain to the door, and just barely stopped myself from saying a forbidden word.
I'm going to kick that door hard enough to burst it open…
Okay, no. It would be futile. Instead, my shoe presses hard against the door, which minimizes the noise. Ha. This is equivalent to covering an annoying chatterbox's mouth with my hand, except that now I'm using my foot. Hmmm… The cage is about as long as I am tall, so…
Sandwiching myself in between, my hands clutch the bars above my head, and my feet ‹stand› on the bars. Finally. No more bumping around and I can lie in peace. Peace, even when it's stormy outside.
It's best not to even attempt to break out of prison. I don't even have a plan. If those thugs comprising of stony‑hearted men find out, it may even be suicidal. I have been captured by them and thrown into this metal chatterbox below deck on a ship that is now starting to make me seasick… What is going to happen to me is definitely not something good.
{sigh} Rodêne Statenson, a fifteen‑year‑old Viking boy quite tall for his age. Prefers to cease to exist if possible, wiped out from the memories of everyone once dear to him… so that he is missed by no one.
Stop. That thought feels unbearable. I probably shouldn't be so negative.
Okay, okay… try to think positive then. Why ? How did I end up here ? It's a long story. In fact : a very, very long sad story, in which I gradually mess up everything in every aspect of my life. Every aspect of my life ? Err, that's not positive. At all.
Something positive… Hmm. Okay. Self‑hating issues aside, I still like the way I look. I am always very particular on my outward appearance and how I present myself to others. If I had a mirror right now, I wouldn't mind distracting myself from my current terrible situation, by looking into it and staring at that dark black hair, black eyebrows, and those deep, melancholic black eyes and that permanent frown that destroy my handsome face. Right now, I am dressed in what I call my classic look : a pair of dark black trousers and dark‑brown soft‑soled leather boots. A very dark coat, brown and long, securely covers my dark navy‑blue tunic which is held together by a brown leather belt. {sigh} I wish that I had that precious coat right now when it's so… so cold around here. My classic look feels incomplete without it.
But I know myself. I know what's behind the handsome shell that is my body, and it is not pretty inside. Everything is broken within. I hate it. Everything has gone awfully wrong for me, and it's probably all my fault.
Stop, stop, stop, stop…
I like my attire to be dark and slightly intimidating. I dislike showing vulnerability. Unfortunately, I am weapon‑less now and therefore utterly defenceless and vulnerable to whatever life throws at me. Perhaps I would feel more secure if I had at least my sword with me, as much as it brings me dark thoughts. Thinking of the lack of my two belongings makes me think of… Lelondell.
Ah right. Lelondell. Such a beautiful name befitting such a proud kingdom. One part of me wishes to go back there but another part, well, not so much. It's the place in which should be called ‹my home› but it really doesn't feel like it. I wish I never ended up feeling this way.
My mind dwells a bit on the two people that I have been one of the few invisible anchors tying me to Lelondell.
Mom and Dad. That's all. No sister to annoy, no brother to play with.
My father, Lastern Statenson, is a six‑foot man in his early‑forties. His attire is simple yet practical, and he once said ‹Practicality equals ease and intelligence›. (Yes, really. Or maybe I heard it wrong.) A dark green tunic, a black belt, and a pair of a sturdy dark brown pants plus boots is enough for him. His muscular build welding a sword at all times sort of makes him more like a soldier than a farmer. One look at him would be enough to know that he is not the sort of person you would really want to mess with.
My mother, Héidie Néedelinne, is ten years younger than my father but, she looks younger than that. Once I joked about her being Dad's daughter instead of his wife, and then I got scolded for it. I am cringing now just thinking of that stupid remark of mine.
Well, Mom does somewhat have a young girlish appearance, but she is an organised, demure but proper woman. When she is not working in our barn, she'll always be tidying something around our cramped one‑story house. And that something is usually caused by Dad and me.
Another thing that I miss is my bedroom. Its safety, its comfort.
I try to picture in my mind the house in which I have grown up in. If I walk in through the front door, I'll find myself in a narrow interior with the fireplace, the narrow ‹meal table›, and the relatively large cooking area. If I turn left, I'll enter my room, which is one of the two separate rooms on the left part of the rather elongated house.
Ah my room. The enclosed space where I used to hide myself from the harsh confusing world, is now a reminder of my absence from the Statenson family.
My parents have probably found my sword stuck on the wall of my room, and I can almost see them going insane with worry on my whereabouts. They would never guess that I am far far away at sea against my will. And I will never see them again. It's all in the past.
I would love to believe that I will somehow be able to meet them all again in the future but right now, my future looks bleak.
I think of the time in my early childhood when I was sick constantly and had to cling to my mother like a pathetic mama's boy. I only remember sketches — although vivid ones — of those moments in my memory.
I think of the mornings I would experience in Lelondell. They are always something special, especially when it is still dark outside, and the coolness of the night is still present. I could smell the dampness and chilliness of the thick slightly foggy air and hear the strange noises of the crickets. I could run through the air of the morning, over the long grassy meadows where the cows grazed… that would give my body chills. I remember feeling cold quite often even with my long‑sleeved dark blue tunic and long dark black trousers, shirt with thick woollen layers, and thick long socks. Despite the freezing cold, some of the poorer Lelondells like me do not usually wear heavy furry overcoats except for when it gets really cold, like in the winter, or perhaps autumn, or the savage rainy weather season. My family and I would usually have our breakfast later in the morning when it wasn't that dark outside, and some of the dawn chores had been done around the house and around the barn. Come to think of it, the house is actually quite small compared to the size of the barn and the meadows.
I think of the time…
On and on and on my mind goes, exploring the past…
—‹‹››—
BACK IN TIME,
ABOUT 7 YEARS AGO…
❅―――――«‹‹ ››»―――――❅
Author's note :
Update : I prefer to post everything on another website called Archive of Our Own; it is more suitable for my story which requires heavy formatting : links, images, maps, non-breaking spaces, hair spaces, superscript, and of course, indentation and double/triple paragraph spacing. ArchiveofOurOwn{dot}org does not have a dedicated mobile app but the website works fine.
The version here on FanFiction{dot}net has the exact same content and formatting style, but it has slightly less elegance and clarity (or more specifically, certain punctuation marks can occasionally break off into another line in an unsightly manner due to non-breaking spaces not being supported here).
[31 December 2018]
[8 February 2019]
[13 May 2019]
❋ INTRODUCTION AND DISCLAIMER
This is a work of fanfiction, borrowing characters, themes, and settings from the How to Train Your Dragon world. The film is produced by DreamWorks Animation and it is based on the books written by Cressida Cowell. Images, links, etc belonging to their respective owners belong to their respective owners. With that said, there are some original characters and additions to the canon universe of HTTYD, that I have created, and these original characters and additions all belong to me. Any coincidental ties to real life events, people, objects, or entities are just… coincidences.
❋ This story is mainly written in English, and it is the « translation » of a fictional dialect of Old Icelandic West Norse. This Norse dialect is most probably the language of the world of How to Train Your Dragon.
❋ The dialogues of the characters may not be perfect in grammar, spelling, or pronunciation. If a character misspells a word, the misspelling is not always highlighted.
❋ « Lastern Statenson » is pronounced
« 'læstɜrn 'steɪtɪnsən » or « 'læstɜːn 'steɪtɪnsən » (in IPA phonetic symbols).
« less‑tern stay‑ten‑suhn »
❋ « Héidie Néedelinne » is pronounced by many Lelondells (including Lastern and Rodêne) as
« 'hejdi 'eɪdəlɪn » (IPA symbols)
« hey‑dee ney‑de‑leen »
Héidie says her own name as
« 'éi‑di néd(ə)‑linn » with the « H » silent (h aspiré) and other times, as
« héi‑di néd(ə)‑linn », with the « H » pronounced (h aspiré prononcé)
❋ Rodêne pronounces his name as
« ʁo.dɛn » or « ro.dɛn » (IPA symbols)
« Rodenn » or « ro-den ».
The last letter « e » is silent.
Not pronounced Row-deen or Raw-dean or Roh-dee-nee.
—
✽ (Note that the typographical style will be continually revised and perfected throughout the novel. Therefore, some of the details provided below do not apply for the SCEF 2.1 style introduced in chapter 9. Prior to chapter 9 is SEF 2.0)
I write my novel in my own style, which I call the SEF Style (now it's version 2.0). It is still based on Swiss, English, and French typographical styles.
I tried to fix the inconsistencies and issues with the SEF 1.0 by creating a new universal style that will look beautiful anywhere regardless if it's for a novel or for a quick reply in an online forum, but apparently if I do that, some types of quotation marks will be overused, reducing clarity, while others will not be used at all.
Therefore, I have decided to split the style into two versions : one solely for novels and any long text with a lot of quoted dialogue and the other more simplified one for everything else.
The version here on FanFiction{dot}net differs slightly in that non-breaking spaces — which are not supported here — are either replaced by normal breaking spaces, or omitted.
NORMAL VERSION
Quotation marks« ‹ " '
Quoting anything :
first level : « … » (French double angle guillemets, with non-breaking spaces or normal spaces)
second level : ‹…› (Swiss single angle guillemets)
third level : "…" (English double curly quote marks)
I use this style outside of my novel. Note that the [« »] can be used both for quoting normal speech and presenting irony and for anything else (which is bad for a novel because there is a lot of dialogue already enclosed in [« »]. [‹›] are used within [« »] and [""] are used within [‹›].
The use of different quotation marks for each level is to avoid a quotation mark being repeated in a manner that reduces clarity.
By the way, guillemet — not to be confused with guillemot — is pronounced as « gheey-mè » [ɡij.mɛ] in French without an « l » or a « t » sound. In English we can pronounce it as « gheey-meh » and in the plural, « gheey-mess ».
Or you can anglicise it and say « gheel(ə) mett(s) » or simply call them double angle quote marks.
VERSION FOR NOVELS
Quotation marks« ‹ " '
Quotingreal-time speech or dialogue (in this story) :
first level : « … » (French double angle guillemets, with non-breaking spaces or normal spaces)
second level : ‹…› (Swiss single angle guillemets)
third level : "…" (English double curly quote marks)
Quoting anything else :
first level : ‹…› (Swiss single angle guillemets)
second level : "…" (English double curly quote marks)
third level : '…' (English single curly quote marks)
any level : […] (Not quotation marks. Sometimes brackets are clearer than any kind of quotation marks)
Most of the time only the first and second levels will be used.
Using this version outside of novels you are writing can be confusing, because [‹›] will be used for reported speech. Because, unlike in novels, most dialogue in real life are not quoted at the moment they appear this makes the [« »] rare in real-life usage…?
In novels the [« »] are reserved for enclosing dialogue that is spoken at the same place in which the [« »] appear therefore, I call them real-time quotation marks.
However, [‹›] will be used for a real-time quotation within a real-time quotation, or for an unspoken quotation, and basically everything else. That means that within this story, they are the new main scare/irony quote marks.
As for the « hierarchy » : [""] are used within [‹›]… and [‹›] are used within [« »]. There is no fourth level for obvious reasons.
The use of different quotation marks for each level is solely to avoid a quotation mark being repeated in a manner that reduces clarity.
This distinction between dialogue and other quotations also exists in French novels. Quotations are enclosed within [« »] which is according to French typographical rules. Oddly, dialogue in novels is not clearly set apart from the main text with the use of em dashes [—] with no closing quote mark. Outside of French novels, dialogue is enclosed within [« »], or if they are unavailable (like on an AZERTY keyboard), [""] or [""].
SEF style (BOTH NORMAL VERSION & VERSION FOR NOVELS)
Font styling
Words may also be italicised or be in bold or CAPITAL letters, to show emphasis, intensity, clarity or level of politeness, etc. Thought is often in italics.
Spacing
Non-breaking space
(This is used instead of the narrow non-breaking space — which I recently learned that it is poorly supported in most software and even in fonts. It also tends to be confused with the thin space that one is a different thing entirely. Not only that, narrow non-breaking spaces also give a rather imbalanced and asymmetrical look.)
With a non-breaking space, the colon « : » now sits exactly in the middle between two letters or characters. This also means that the question mark or exclamation mark is right in the middle as well.
« The dragons ? They destroyed everything ! »
«°The·dragons°?·They·destroyed·everything°!°»
(Note : The degree sign [°] is temporarily used here below to represent the invisible non-breaking space in its place. The middle dot [·] represents the normal space.)
However, here on FanFiction{dot}net, the non-breaking spaces are automatically replaced by normal spaces so, the above sentence will become…
« The dragons ? They destroyed everything ! »
«·The·dragons·?·They·destroyed·everything·!·»
• There are always spaces (no matter if they are breaking or non-breaking) within the double angle guillemets : «°like this°» or «·like this·»
• No spaces within the single angle guillemets : ‹like this›
However, sometimes spaces may be added if the [‹›] are used to enclose a letter like û, like this :
‹û› (no spaces)
‹ û › (with non-breaking spaces or normal spaces)
• Before a colon °:· or ·:·
a semicolon °;· or ·;·
a question mark °?· or ·?·
and an exclamation mark °!· or ·!·
• Exception : no spaces between an interrobang and no spaces between an ellipsis and a question mark/exclamation mark and no spaces between a repeated question mark/exclamation mark
So, it's like this : …!?
And this : !
• Example of a word ending with [!?] enclosed in double angle guillemets :
«°Hello°!?°»
«·Hello·!?·»
(Wait, repeated question mark/exclamation marks are not allowed here !?)
• Occasionally added in certain places to improve clarity and to avoid text being broken off into another line (can't work here though)
• Sometimes, three consecutive non-breaking spaces or three consecutive normal spaces may be used to improve clarity (can't work here though)
Indentation
I now put six consecutive normal spaces before the second paragraph of a new section to indent it (because it's easy for me to do so on my improved QWERTY and BÉPO keyboard layouts).
Apostrophe
(Note : On FanFiction{dot}net, only the straight apostrophe is available and shown.
I previously preferred the straight typewriter apostrophe ['] rather than the curved one ['], because the curly apostrophes tend to conflict with the single curly quotation marks ['']
But then, we often have apostrophes at the very beginning of a word, or at the very end. For example, the sentence « 'Y a un garçon » (the proper contracted form of « Il y a un garçon », meaning « There is a boy ») and « the boys' game » (plural) and « rock 'n' roll ».
With the curly apostrophe — which is recommended anyway in English and French typography — they become :
« 'Y a un garçon »
« the boys' game »
« rock 'n' roll » (the apostrophes replace the « a » and « d »)
They resemble commas, but in mid-air.
Dashes and hyphens
hyphens [-]
• Follows the normal grammatical rules for the en dash
• no change
en dash [–]
• Follows the normal grammatical rules for the en dash
• To indicate stuttering (a part of a word being repeated due to the speaker's nervousness or due to other reasons)
• For a word deliberately broken down into syllables by the speaker
• For a hyphenated phrase that it not normally hyphenated
em dash [—] no spaces
• To indicate stammering (a word being repeated due to the speaker's nervousness or due to other reasons)
(Note : The middle dot [·] represents the normal space)
em dash [ — ]
(With a non-breaking space before an em dash and a normal space after it (so it's [°—·])
(Or with a normal space before an em dash and a normal space after it (so it's [·—·]
• Follows the normal rules for the em dash
• To indicate interruption. If part of a word is interrupted halfway, then there is no space between the em dash and the word
eg. : I thi—
(I think)
• If it ends with a [·»] or an exclamation mark [·!], then it should be [·—·»] and [·—·!]
• If it ends with a [°»] or an exclamation mark [°!], then it should be [°—°»] and [°—°!] ; and not [°—·°»] or [°—·°!]
The rules for the en dashes and em dashes might be changed in the future.
