Author's note: Ok, so, this is one of two AU's I've had in my head for a little while now. And, yes, I know, it's another "Hiccup runs away" story. BUT, I've got my own twists and turns, some of which have already been revealed in this chapter, that I hope will pull it off into another direction, and assist in making it different. Please let me know what you think, I genuinely want people's opinions… This is kind of a trial run…
I'll be posting the other one as well once I get it written out to see what people think, it's a bit darker, and I'm pretty excited to get that one going
Disclaimer: None of the How to Train Your Dragon characters belong to me! They all belong to the wonderful character design team at DreamWorks studios that worked on the movie. The characters you do not recognize from the show however, are all of my own creation, as well as the language that will appear in this story.
That is all! And I hope you enjoy!
Book of Dragons- Night Fury Entry
Legends tell of a beast of the darkness.
The Unholy Offspring of Lightning and Death Itself
Be wary of the shadows, for the danger is that which cannot be seen
It preys on the unworthy that cross its path
If the beast is seen or heard,
May the lives of the innocent be spared…
And the souls of the damned be reaped.
Lest the night release its fury upon the world…
Though the dangers of this dragon ring true, the legends are not entirely correct. The Night Fury is blessed with a caring and childish nature, with a strong instinct to protect its own. Once a bond is created with this dragon, you not only gain a powerful ally, but an extremely loyal companion, who will stay by your side through life and death, and even risk its own life for yours.
Their intelligence allows for deeper understanding and an even greater bond to be made, and as long as nothing causes a rift in the trust that is given, they will stand by you no matter what.
A little boy, about six years of age, ran through the woods as fast as his legs could carry him. A pack of wolves not too far behind him as he frantically jumped over fallen trees and rocks trying to get away. His lunges burned, desperate for oxygen, and his limbs cried out in pain, but he pushed through it as his young mind tried to figure a way out. He was covered in bruises, some not from the woods, and cuts from his previous fall down a steep slope, that were bleeding after being reopened when this pursuit began. He looked behind him to see how much time he had left before they closed in, and thus didn't see the shallow hole in his path, and he tripped and hit the dirt in front of him. Thoughts of this being his last living moment raced through his head as he curled up and waited for the pounce… that never came.
A large shadow passed over him and he heard a terrible roar, followed by yelps and thumps nearby, that lasted only moments, then silence. He didn't dare move, he laid, trying to catch his breath, afraid to look up from his curled up position on the forest floor. After a couple more seconds, the shadow fell over him again, followed by what sounded like deep, but quick, breathing of a large animal, close to his body, sniffing. He felt a light nudge on his back, and it made him curl up tighter for a moment, before finally mustering enough courage to look up, and froze.
The first thing he saw were wide red eyes with large pupils staring back at him, surrounded by white scales, slightly dirtied from the brief tussle, small at the creature's nose, that grew larger as they traveled up its head and down the attached neck.
'A dragon…' the boy thought fearfully. He was frozen in place with fear, too scared to realize that the dragon was making no move to harm him, or the fact that he'd never seen a dragon like this before. He laid there, terrified, and waiting for what he expected to be a much worse death than the wolves getting him. But nothing happened. The beast just sat there, looking at him, with wide eyes.
The longer the silence, the stillness, the more he was able to catch his breath, and begin to think more clearly, without daring take his eyes off of the dragon standing over him. He watched it, as it watched him in return, for what felt like hours, but in reality was only a minute, when finally it took a few steps, slowly, back from him, and stopped there. Still not taking his eyes off the dragon, he slowly sat up, his limbs in too much pain to support him for long enough to stand, and he waited for anymore movement. The dragon took one, slow step toward him, and he flinched back in response, causing it to withdraw, more stillness and silence following the movement. By this point his breathing had calmed slightly, but his heart still felt as if it would burst out of his chest as he heard it pulse in his ears. He finally took the opportunity to look at the rest of dragon instead of just its face.
It wasn't too large, significantly smaller than a Monstrous Nightmare, but still large enough to terribly intimidate the small boy. It had a slim build, with sleek scales matching the ones on its head, with folded leathery wings, and he wagered the thing's wingspan was ginormous. It had equally as white claws, rather large, and sharp looking from his angle, a long tail with two tailfins branching off of either side of the end of it. He followed the tail back up and saw it also had spines running along its back, and he followed them back up to the dragons rounded flat head, where his eyes were drawn to the two ruby colored irises, now mere inches in front of his face.
'When did it get so close?!' he thought with a start. His eyes couldn't leave the dragon's, and the longer he stared, the more entranced he felt by them, and the more he decided that they actually didn't look that menacing. The dilated pupils were staring at his own forest green eyes with equal curiosity. There was a sort of softness in the mix, he realized, calmness, and a little concern, almost like how a mother would look at their frightened child, trying to calm them. He hadn't realized the dragon had moved again, until he felt himself get picked up by the back of his tunic. He yelped in surprise as the fear came back to his being, and he curled up again and squeezed his eyes shut. That was, until he felt himself being placed back on the ground. His hands went down to steady himself, and he immediately realized at his touch, that it wasn't dirt under his palms, it was scales. His eyes shot open and he realized, stunned, that the dragon had placed him on its back, and was now walking through the forest at a slow, rocking pace.
He wasn't able to react beyond stunned silence, as he wondered where it was taking him, or where he even was. He had taken so many turns in his panic while running from the wolves that he hadn't a clue where he was. After a while of keeping as still and quiet as possible on the dragon's back, he became more aware of the familiar surrounding trees. He looked around in surprised as he realized where it was going with him. It stopped just inside the tree line, but still far enough back to not be seen by the village that was just on the other side, and it crouched low to the ground, and bent its neck around to look at him expectantly. It actually took him a moment to realize that it was waiting for him to get off, not being forceful, but waiting patiently.
He slowly turned his body and slid down its side and he landed on the ground with a grunt, now remembering how sore his whole body felt. He turned and looked at the dragon again, as he slowly backed away a few steps toward the village, then stopped. It watched his every move with the same gentleness it had in their previous staring contest. After a few moments of staring, it glanced to the village behind him, and back at him again.
'Go on…' he felt it was urging. And he looked back at the village behind him, lit up by the evening light. He hadn't realized how long he'd been out, or how dark it was getting. He looked back at the dragon, and saw that it had turned and was now walking away.
"Wait!" He cried out, startling both of them, and prompting the dragon to look back at him, waiting for him to continue. He didn't know why he called out to it, but felt compelled to say something.
"…Thank you," he heard himself say after a silent pause, again not sure why he was saying it, but was startled by the fact that it seemed to understand his words. It bowed its head to him, as if to say "you're welcome" and glanced at the village again, urging him to go home, before turning and walking back into the thick forest, this time with no interruptions, while the boy simply watched it go.
A young man lay in his bed, slowly waking up from his slumber, and allowing his mind to process the time of day. He laid for a few moments, blinking the sleep out of his eyes, before sitting up with a yawn, followed by a stretch. Looking around his room, it was just as messy as it had been the previous night. Books, general drawings and schematics for various inventions and structures scattered over the desk in the corner, crumpled and ripped parchment scattered on the floor around it, and the window on the other side of the room was open, allowing the crisp morning air to flood into the room, and a vacant slab of stone beneath it. He got out of bed and felt the cool wood under his feet as he walked over the window and blinked his eyes at the bright sunrise, lighting up the sky and prompting those to begin the day. He was at the top of a rather tall building, three floors, so his window looked over the village full of people busying themselves with their morning chores.
He stretched again, toned muscle rippling under tattooed skin. His left shoulder had a short sleeve of Celtic knot work surrounding a woven oak tree, placed over the curve of his shoulder. His right arm had the same, but with a Celtic shield knot as the center point. Both of these tattoos curved up to meet the woven rope that curved down from his shoulders and over his collar bone, as the decorative chain of a cloak would, that led down to the wingtips of a knot woven depiction of a Night Fury at full wingspan that sat at the center of his chest. His left wrist had a Celtic woven arrow, and his right had a woven dagger. If one looked closely enough, they'd see that some of these tattoos were covering scars of multiple shapes and sizes, obtained in many different ways over the years.
He walked over to his wardrobe and pulled out his clothes for the day. A light tan colored, loose fitting long sleeved tunic tucked into brown pants, with a wide belt over his midsection, made of a leather interior and dragon scales layered on the outside, to secure it in place. His pants were tucked into darker colored boots that came half way up his calves, and were tied snuggly with a thin but strong rope around the top halves of them. Once he was dressed, he finally left his bedroom while tussling his bedhead, attempting to tame his shaggy auburn hair as he walked down the stairs, one floor down, where he walked through the doorway of the kitchen/dining area directly in front of the staircase.
"Morning Hiccup!" He looked up to see a blond man standing in front of the window by the counter at the other end of the room, he wore a similar outfit to Hiccup, just with a green color scheme and the same dark brown boots and scaly belt. His shirt, however, was sleeveless, and he also chose to wear leather cuffs that ran half the length of his forearm from his wrists, made the same as the belt, covering the bottom half of a Chinese dragon tattoo on the left forearm, and a long-blade sword on the right. His left shoulder had a short sleeve knot work tattoo, same as Hiccup's, with a Celtic arrow as the center point. His other bicep was bare in comparison, holding only three Asian characters, the meanings of them being Courage, Honor and Change respectively. The remaining tattoo was hidden under his tunic, but you could see the tip of the tail of the Night Fury that circled around his neck, beginning at his collar bone, rounding his upper back, and back again over the other shoulder and stopping at the front.
"Mornin' brother!" Hiccup replied, now a little more awake. The brother he referred to was a boy he met on his travels, not too long after leaving his birth village. His name was Arman, and he was from a large island far south of where Hiccup came from. His own family had died in a fire when he was very young, so he was orphaned when hiccup met him. The two clicked instantly, it seemed, and have been connected at the hip ever since, and Arman joined him on his journey to nowhere in particular.
He had blond hair that reached his shoulders, usually, like today, tied back in a low ponytail with whatever he can find to tie it back with, and the hair too short to tie back fell to frame his face. He had strong features, with bright green eyes, just a couple shades lighter than Hiccup's own, and his build was similar to Hiccup's, and just as toned. He was about two inches taller than him when he stood up straight instead of leaning on the wall the way he was now.
"What's for breakfast?" Hiccup asked the blond as he came fully into the room and looked around at the empty, and clean kitchen with confusion.
"I don't know, whatever you can find," Arman replied.
"Are you serious? Wasn't it your turn to make breakfast?"
"Nope, it was yours, but you decided you needed a little more beauty sleep than everyone else."
"Oh shut up, I had a late night and you know it."
"And I didn't? I was with you, idiot!"
"Yeah, but I did more work than you did."
"And what's that supposed to mean exactly?"
"Nothing, ya lazy yak."
"If I'm a lazy yak, then you're a pile of –"and that was moment chosen by the dragon outside the window to interrupt.
"Ladies, you're both ugly, are we gonna get the day going or what?" the dragon said in his native language.
"OH! Shots fired!" Arman called out, putting his hands up in a surrender-like fashion, as Hiccup just laughed. The interrupting dragon was a Night Fury he'd known since they were both about 7. He was another one he called brother. They to, were extremely close.
"Look who's talking, Toothless," Hiccup jabbed. It was a nickname he'd given his dragon brother when they were young, just a sibling jab, due to his retractable teeth.
"Very funny, fishbone," the dragon jabbed back, using his own nickname for his human brother. Not many realize that the great variety of sounds they hear from dragons is actually a spoken language Hiccup called Draken, though difficult to pick up if you're naïve to the language's existence. Mind you, each dragon species has its own dialect of the language and thus different sounds make up their words, and to unpracticed ears, noise is all that's heard. But to someone who is familiar with hearing it, listening closely they'd realize that what they're hearing is syllables. And those syllables, to someone whom is aware of the language, and studies it, will realize that those syllables form coherent words, just not from a language easily recognized. To someone who was lucky enough to catch the words from the dragon, all they'd hear would be "Keh'ee ah-mah-neh, geh-teh-lah" which would mean nothing, if they don't speak the language.
Hiccup and Arman however, know this language very well, at least the Night Fury dialect, so they have no problem picking up the words with their own practiced ears. It's far easier to understand the words spoken when they come from a human's mouth than it is trying to decipher the syllables coming from the vocals of a dragon. For this reason they rarely speak it, reserving it for when it actually needs to be spoken. Their scaly companions understand human language perfectly well anyway, so they don't typically speak the dragons' language unless necessary.
"Fish-breath"
"Bean pole"
"Yak dung"
"Twig boy"
"Very mature you guys…" another voice, dragon, chimed in. The trio looked out the window and up at the roof to see Arman's own childhood companion, whom was also a Night Fury. Turned out that a certain part of the world actually had a healthy population of them spread out all over the place. They're so rare up north because they don't typically go up where it gets too cold, but occasionally you get ones that do, as the species was actually very solitary, only gathering together about once a year to mate, and then going off on their own again.
This dragon's name was Estekena, but most people in the village just call her Keh-Nah, for lack of being able to properly pronounce her real name. Her scales were lighter than her male counterpart, which made her markings slightly moreprominent, but still barely visible. She had tiger-like stripes all of the way down her body, and spots under her bright blue eyes. She was smaller than he, but not by much, and her tail fins were slimmer and longer, allowing for more speed than her counterpart while flying, but it also lessened her maneuverability when she was flying at high speed.
"Hey, how long have you been up there?" Arman asked
"Since Hiccup finally decided to get his lazy butt out of bed and walk downstairs…" This made Arman snicker, and Hiccup shoot a glare in his direction as a response. "Come on Neukete, we're supposed to be helping the fishing vessels this morning."
Neukete, or Keh-Teh to most, the previously named Toothless, just rolled his eyes at his surrogate sister.
"No one is going to die because we're not present, Keh-Nah. Relax," Keh-Teh replied.
"Nah, go on brother, you better get over there. Arman and I need to get to work anyway. I've got orders at the forge I gotta finish," Hiccup piped up. He then turned back to Arman, "That being said, where are Saoirse and Aodhan, and did they get breakfast?"
"I dropped them off at Meara's already, and yes, I made them breakfast before I took them over there. Now come on, we need to get a jump on the bridge project," Arman replied while beginning to walk toward the last flight of stairs.
"Wait, you made my kids breakfast and left me to fend for myself?"
"Yup. Got a problem?" Arman answered blankly.
"I thought you loved me, brother…" Hiccup said dramatically. "Yet here you are, leaving me to wither away!" He gestured wildly for emphasis.
"Awe, you're breaking my heart," Arman said mockingly, putting a hand over his heart. "Now let's go," then turning back toward the stairs.
"Feelin' the love, bro. You're such an ass," Hiccup jibed back, humor clear in his eyes.
"And that's our que," Keh-Nah said as she took off from the roof. "Let's go meet the fleet."
"Alright, Alright, I'm coming," Keh-Teh responded while grumbling to himself. "Seriously, I'm practically a soldier, not a fisher, why do I have to…" was all the fading speech that was heard as he flew off.
"What a baby," Hiccup said as he nabbed a piece of bread from the counter and then followed Arman down the spiral stairs to the ground floor and into the workshop. It was a rather large room, the entire bottom floor was a workshop/forge. Hiccup was the primary smith of the village when he wasn't away on another job. Half the room was his forge, tailored to his personal preferences, measurements and equipment, most of which built by himself and Arman. Hiccup had continued his study of the smithing practice, even after he left his village, that his previous mentor had begun with him, and had honed his skills to an exceptional level. The other half of the room was Arman's glass blowing shop, which was a profession he had been learning before joining his brother's travels. There was another door off to the side of the room that went up another set of spiral stairs to a woodworking area set up in a sort of building add-on room with a loft that was publically used.
They both walked over to the forge and began the preparations for the day of orders, heating everything up, Arman snagging a passing Nadder from outside to help heat the forge to the necessary temperature since their companions were out, and beginning to melt down the metal for the bridge. They had been asked to come up with a design for a bridge that would cross over a wide river running from a nearby mountain range and into a shallow canyon, connecting them to the neighboring village. Rather than following the long winding trail through the mountains that takes a full day on foot, the bridge would effectively cut travel time in half. The design they came up with was a sturdy design, making the walkway at the top of the bridge while all of the supports were underneath it and dug into the walls of the canyon. They decided to make it out of a mixture of elements, most of the supports beams being made out of wood with joint supports made out of their own mixture of metal that was able to withstand heat, water and other weather conditions without being damaged.
They had finished about a third of the required connection pieces when a burly man with dark red hair and bright green eyes walked into the forge.
"Mornin' boys! How's it goin' in 'ere? Need some help?" He asked.
"Hey Alastair! Nah, we've got it going pretty well here at the moment. But if you want to hook up a Gronkle to the kart out front there and take the finished pieces here to the river, that'd be great," Arman replied.
"How are things going down there, by the way?" Hiccup chimed in.
"Great, all of the beginning supports are in place, and we're ready to start the main construction. Just waitin' on the connection pieces."
"Perfect."
"Oh, before I forget. The chief wants you to keep an eye over the progress o' your bridge for a couple o' days. He jus' said somethin' came up tha' requires his attention."
"Uh-oh," Arman said jokingly, then turned to his brother and gave him a mock scolding look. "Hiccup, what did you do?"
"Me? If anything it'd be something you did," He shot back. "Did you blow up the western pastures again?"
"ONE TIME! That happened ONE TIME, and you won't let it die."
"Nope, I'll make sure you remember that one forever."
"Keep going and I'll reserve the right to bring up all of your mishaps."
"HA! Like what?" This made Arman straighten up and hold up a hand to count on his fingers as he listed.
"You blew up the great hall with Zippleback gas…"
"Now hold on, that was-"
"You took out half of the East docks when we lived in Spek…" Alastair chimed in.
"I was 13! And I had-"
"Then you took out a major trade route for Mon-" Arman continued.
"THAT was the dragon's fault, NOT mine-"
"THEN there was the time you-" Alastair began before getting cut off by Hiccup.
"OK, I GET IT!"
"Well, I'll ge' these loaded up an' down to the river now so we can keep the bridge goin'," Alastair said, chuckling as he walked out of the room to bring the kart around. Hiccup just nodded in response, and then sent a death glare at his brother, who responded by childishly sticking his tongue out, before continuing with their work.
Come evening, they had finished most of the required pieces for the bridge, stopping to take loads down to the river every now and then. Their dragon companions had joined them in the forge around noon, bearing freshly caught fish for lunch, and had basically just lazed around in the corner of the room, except to reheat the forge when needed. They had just begun to clean up the workshop and close up for the night when a little girl, about five years old, came bounding into the room, her long, curly red locks bouncing along the way.
"Daddy! Uncle Man! Miss Meara said to tell you that dinner's ready!" She shouted, despite the brothers being a mere 10 feet in front of her, effectively startling the two dragons awake. Her forest green eyes sparkling with the same energy her father's had at the same age.
"Thank you Saoirse!" Hiccup shouted back, just as playfully loud, earning a deadpanned look from Keh-Teh, and then watched as she gave everyone a giant grin and bounced back out of the room, her knee-length dark green dress rustling behind her.
"How does she have so much energy all the time?" Hiccup asked out loud to no one in particular.
"Because she's your offspring…" Keh-Teh replied almost instantly.
"I can only imagine when she gets older. All the trouble she'll get into, just like you," Arman chimed in.
"Yeah, don't make me think about that…" Hiccup replied as he finished putting everything away. "So Meara cooked dinner for everyone tonight, huh?"
"I guess so…" His brother responded. "I just hope she didn't cook her infamous pot of stew tonight."
"What you don't like sheep entrails?" Hiccup tossed out jokingly, referring to the previous stew meat mishap that wasn't even Meara's fault. The only response he got was an exaggerated gag from his brother, making him laugh.
"I threw up for three days after the last time I ate that stew," Arman said with a shiver.
"It wasn't even a half an hour, and you were fine after you got it out of your system," Hiccup supplied.
"THREE DAYS I TELL YOU!" Arman shot back dramatically, throwing his arms into the air, seemingly not having heard Hiccup's comment. Hiccup just rolled his eyes and threw an arm over Arman's shoulders as they all walked out the door and over to their neighbor's house.
Walking through the front door, they were immediately greeted by a scent Arman knew all too well, and he stopped with wide eyes and paled. Hiccup, picking up on the same thing his brother did, suddenly sported a wicked smirk and bit back a laugh. The dragons snorted and walked over the corner of the room to lay down by the fire that was keeping dinner warm, Alastair revealing himself from the side room with bowls in hand, tossing them some fish in passing.
"Hey Meara! Smell's great! What's cookin'!" he shouted from the front door, already knowing the answer, but just wanting to mess with his brother.
"Sheep stew!" was the smiley response they received from the elder woman in front of the cooking pot on the other side of the room.
"Get it while it's hot!" Alastair chimed in. Hiccup snickered and walked fully into the room after shutting the front door.
"Bon appetit, brother," he said mockingly as he passed, just loud enough for Arman to be only one to hear, still snickering as he went.
Sitting at the table, everyone was enjoying the stew and chowing down. All except Arman, who just sat there, staring at his bowl in dread.
"What's wrong, dear? Are you not going to eat? I made plenty!" Meara inquired. She's about twice their age with long, dark brown hair, pulled back into a braid that fell over her shoulder, and blue eyes, currently showing her concern for Arman's lack of appetite. She had been a family friend since before Hiccup and his brother were even born, having actually grown up with Alastair. Aodhan, being just as mischievous as his uncles, and being well aware of Arman's current issue, looked straight at him with the most innocent blue eyes he could muster, his auburn locks framing his rounded face only adding to the exaggerated effect, picked up his bowl and slurped loudly, earning a scolding look from Meara.
"I uh…I'm not hungry… I'm actually not feeling too well at the moment," he responded as he pushed his bowl away a couple inches, green faced. The motion earned a snort from Hiccup that he managed to cover with a fake cough. Aodhan was less successful at hiding his laugh, causing Meara to look at Hiccup expectantly while Alastair just continued eating with an amused gleam in his eye. Hiccup noticed this after a second and cleared his throat.
"Don't do that NEE-teh-MEH, it's rude," he managed to say half-heartedly, using the affectionate Draken term for his nephew. Saoirse simply sat contently eating her stew, naïve to the whole situation.
"It's funny," Keh-Teh commented will a light snicker of his own from the other side of the room, causing Hiccup to have to cover another laugh, earning a glare from his brother and an eye roll from Keh-Nah.
"Alastair, you're the kids' grandfather. You can step in at any time, you know!" Meara said, turning to address her longtime friend.
"Sorry, the only job of the grandparent is to spoil them and give them back. Punishment is on the parent," He responded nonchalantly, earning laughter from Aodhan and his uncles and an exasperated sound from Meara.
After dinner, Hiccup and Arman took the kids back home to get them ready for bed, while their dragon siblings immediately climbed up to their respective companion's rooms for the night.
"And then Miss Meara took us to the stream after we finished eating, and Aodhan fell in the water," Saoirse babbled, telling her father all about their day with the neighboring baby-sitter. Hiccup the whole time simply listening to the rapid speech being produced through the energy only a five year old can possess, while getting her dressed in her night clothes.
"I wouldn't have fallen in if you didn't trip me," Aodhan threw into the middle of his cousin's babbling.
"And then Aodhan pushed me into the mud-"
"Cause you made me fall in the stream-"
"-And then he chased me around trying to throw mud at me! "
"Cause you threw mud at me!"
"Ok, you two, that's enough. Saoirse, you shouldn't have tripped Aodhan," Hiccup lightly scolded.
"I didn't!-"
"Yes you did!"
"And Aodhan, you are ten years old, you should know better than to egg her on. Now come on, let's get you two to bed," He cut in before they could continue. In reality, he wasn't mad at them, and thought it was good that they had the relationship they did. Aodhan may get annoyed and mad at her sometimes, but he whole heartedly plays the part of the 'big brother' cousin, and for that Hiccup was proud of him.
"I did not-""Yes you did," the two continued to whisper at each other all the way to their rooms. Hiccup picked up his daughter and whirled her around for a moment before plopping her onto her bed, with her giggling all the way. Aodhan crawled into his own bed while Hiccup walked over the center of the room to an odd contraption, built by himself out of a mix of wood and metal. It wasn't too large, half the height of his body, sitting on a table, with a wooden frame, and had a horizontal metal cylinder in the middle of it with bumps littering its surface, that was connected to metal gears by a spring, wound and held back by an arm connected to a wooden lever. A sheet of metal with separated teeth rested lightly against the side of the cylinder. Hiccup pulled down on the lever, releasing the arm, ever so slowly allowing the spring to unwind, causing the gears to roll against each other and slowly turning the cylinder in the center. The bumps in the surface of the cylinder hit the teeth of the metal sheet, and a light calming sound echoed in the room, playing a soft song.
He quietly sang the words to the lullaby as the machine played its melody, his voice adding another melodic quality to the sound being played.
"Wandering child of the earth,
Do you know just how much you're worth?
You have walked this path since your birth
You were destined for more.
There are those who'll tell you you're wrong
They will try to silence your song
But right here is where you belong
So don't search anymore
You are the dawn of a new day that's waking
A masterpiece still in the making
The blue in an ocean of grey
You are right where you need to be
Poised to inspire and to succeed
You'll be back and you'll realize one day."
He walked over to Aodhan first, and ruffled his hair lightly, making him smile and pulled the covers up to his chin. Hiccup then rested his forehead against the boy's and held it there for a moment. An affectionate gesture he picked up the habit of doing from his surrogate mother. It was a greeting, farewell, and general wish of good between friends, or even strangers with the contact being brief, but in the familial sense, it means all these things, as well as "with you always", and the contact is held a little longer.
"In your eyes there is doubt
As you try to figure it out
But that's not what life is about
So have faith there's a way.
Though the world may try to define you
It can't take the light that's inside you
So don't you dare to try hide
Let your fears fade away."
He walked over to his daughter's bed and tucked her under the covers, repeating the familial gesture he'd done to Aodhan just prior while he sang the next verse.
"You are the dawn of a new day that's waking
A masterpiece still in the making
The blue in an ocean of grey
You are right where you need to be
Poised to inspire and to succeed
Soon you'll finally find your own way."
The last line being sang softly as he walked toward the door. He looked at both kids, both comfortably falling asleep to the last notes of the song being playing by the music producing contraption. He quietly closed the door and walked lightly, so as to not make too much noise, to his own room. As he entered the doorway, he noticed a distinct lack of dragon on the stone slab under the window. Briefly wondering where his dragon brother went off to, he was about to prepare himself for the night when said missing dragon flew up passed the window and landed on the roof, dipping his head down to poke it into the window upside down.
"Hey!"
"Hey, where'd you go?"
"Heard someone walkin' around outside, went to see who it was."
"And?"
"It was Alastair, said the chief wanted to see us."
"For what?"
"I dunno," the dragon replied with a light shrug, or at least a dragon's equivalent. Hiccup rolled his eyes and hummed at this, and walked back out of his room to see Arman waiting by the stairs. He stepped over the kids' room and poked his head in to check on them one more time before shutting the door and walking over to the stairs.
"Alright, let's go see what the chief wants. Wonder what's up…" He said as he walked down right behind his brother.
"I dunno," He said simply with a shrug, unknowingly mimicking the answer Hiccup got from Keh-Teh prior, prompting him to roll his eyes.
"Thank you, Arman. Your wise input is greatly appreciated," he said sarcastically as they reached the bottom floor and headed out toward the chief's hut.
Author's note:
Character Glossery:
Neukete/Keh-Teh: (Neh-OO-keh-TEH); Toothless
Estekena/Keh-Nah: (Ehs-the-KEH-nah); Arman's childhood dragon companion
Arman: (Are-man…kind of easy to pronounce that one); Hiccup's surrogate brother
Saoirse: (seer-SHA); Hiccup's daughter
Aodhan: (EYE-don); Hiccup's nephew
Meara: (MEER-ah); Neighbor/ babysitter/ family friend
Alastair: (AL-ehs-tair); Hiccup's father-in-law/Saoirse and Aodhan's grandfather.
If you don't know who Hiccup is, why are you here?
A couple small things, first being that I have recently reviewed this story, having been forced to take a break from it for medical reasons around like, chapter 4. On a whim and out of boredom, I decided to read the story from beginning to end to make sure it was flowing alright with the new chapters being written, and wound up making a few changes and corrections based on suggestions I had gotten after this chapter was originally posted. So changes have been made from the original upload.
Next thing, Hiccup's physical appearance (without the tattoos) is basically along the lines of HTTYD2... except he actually has both feet. And Toothless, or in this story Neukete (neh-OO- keh-teh), has both tailfins. Now I know it's going to bother people to not call Toothless by his name, but there is a reason for that. He is still called Toothless from time to time, but more as a nickname.
The song used here is called Wanderer's Lullaby, written and sung by Adriana Figueroa, I suggest looking her up on YouTube, her voice is absolutely fantastic, especially in this song. It's very beautiful, and I honestly thought that it fit Hiccup's character to have a song like this to sing to his kids. The song will also have further significance later in the story.
So Draken will be portrayed in bold text whenever it is spoken, regardless if it's being spoken by a human or a dragon. It will also always be written in English, simply because writing it out in full dialog is a royal pain in the neck, and I don't want to have to make you guys scroll to the bottom to read what something means, and then scroll back up to continue reading. Cause that's annoying. Now this rule will apply with a few exceptions, like using a single word here and there. Translations will always be posted at the end of the chapter.
There will, however, be a few scene relevant instances where it will actually be written out in full dialog, but you'll know why in later chapter, and as I said before, translations will always be at the end of the chapter.
If you have read this rambling note to this point, I genuinely appreciate it, and if you wouldn't mind, leave some constructive criticism if you have it. I do enjoy writing, and I do want it to be enjoyable for people to read, not just be a virtual copy of my brain's barfing…
Thank you much! ^.^
