How to Reclaim Your Honor
This is a story that I've been meaning to work on for a long time. Hopefully it doesn't suck too badly. If you've read "How to Survive Your Opposites" you'll recognize a certain someone.
Disclaimer: The only person I own is Slackjaw the Terrifying.
Chapter One: The Festival
The Isle of Berk was a desolate, hard, tough old island that snowed most of the year. The Hooligan Viking Tribe that lived there were just as strong and stubborn as the land. But they were very loyal to their Chieftain, Stoick the Vast. His son, Hiccup, however, was a different story.
Some people, like Snotlout, could easily say that Hiccup was a failure at everything. Others, like Astrid would say otherwise. A lot of them would say that he was bad at almost everything. But that is not where our story begins.
Most of the time it was misery on Berk, made a bit more livable ever since Vikings had first befriended dragons. But once every five years, the Vikings had a huge two-week festival celebrating something in which they ate and played Viking games. They even celebrated with the neighbor tribe, the Bog-Burglars, for the Great Festival of Something.
"Why is it called that?" Fishlegs asked when Gobber the Belch told them about it.
"I don't know," Gobber admitted in a bored tone, indicating that he couldn't care less. "It's a festival to celebrate something, but we forgot what it was, so now it's just the Festival of Something."
"How creative," Snotlout sneered sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Why don't we just call it the Festival of Eat-a-lot? That's basically all it is."
"Come on, it sounds like fun," Tuffnutt said uncertainly.
"It is fun," Gobber reassured him. "And there will be lots of prizes and honor and glory if win the games. Remember, you'll all be representing the entire tribe when the Bog-Burglars arrive so I want you all on your best Viking behavior when they get here."
All of the kids, Snotlout especially, perked up with excitement at the mention of honor and glory. Snotlout was determined to win all of these games so Astrid could see how much better he was than Hiccup. Hiccup, however, looked slightly horrified when Gobber mentioned their rival tribe.
"The Bog-Burglars are coming?" he asked nervously. Gobber sighed and turned to him.
"Yes, Hiccup," Gobber replied slowly. "They come every festival and it's not going to change this year."
Normally Hiccup wouldn't mind. He would actually be excited to see his old friend Camicazi, one of the very few people who accepted him. But he had finally gotten Astrid to like him. He didn't know how she would react to Camicazi. They were just friends, but Astrid was a bit on the jealous side. Hiccup learned that the hard way.
"Is there a problem?" Astrid asked, turning to him and cocking an eyebrow. Hiccup shivered.
"Uh, no, of course not," he muttered, not looking her in the eye. "I'm uh, really excited." Then he looked down at the ground and didn't say anything else. Astrid rolled her eyes and snapped back to attention.
"Now," Gobber continued, strolling up and down the line. "There will be many competitions that you'll be partaking in. There's the sword fighting competition, the dragon contests, and of course, my favorite, the food eating competition."
Astrid, Snotlout, and the twins all looked intrigued when Gobber mentioned the sword fighting competition. They all looked up at the mention of dragons.
"What about dragons?" Tuffnutt asked, stepping forward.
"Well, it used to be a competition to see who could kill the dragon," Gobber explained. "But we're trying something new this year, since we no longer do that sort of thing."
Just then, they heard a horn blow in the distance. Gobber smiled and turned to his students.
"It seems the Bog-Burglars have arrived," he said in an ominous voice. "Let's go down and greet them." The kids nodded and slowly started marching in single file towards the beach where several Viking ships were arriving on the scene.
The first one off the ship was a large woman called Big-Boobied Bertha, chief of the Bog-Burglar tribe. She was a large, imposing woman who held herself up with dignity. When she saw Stoick coming down the beach to greet her, she let out a tremendous grin.
"Ah, Stoick!" she called, spreading her arms wide open. "It's so good to see you again!"
"Same here," Stoick replied as she gave him a hearty slap on the back. "I trust you've been having weather than we have?"
As the two chiefs exchanged pleasantries, the two tribes started mingling together, looking for and greeting old friends. Hiccup barely had time to turn his head before he was tackled from the side by a small, skinny blonde girl. He was then trapped in her scrawny arms, barely able to breathe as she squeezed the life out of him.
"Hiccup!" she exclaimed happily. "It feels like we haven't seen each other since forever!"
"It's great to see you too, Camicazi," Hiccup gasped, unable to free himself.
"I heard you were the one who solved the dragon problem," Camicazi noted, refusing to release him. "And then you lost your leg! That is so awesome! I knew you'd amount to something someday!"
"Thanks, Camicazi," Hiccup replied, giving up on trying to escape from her grip. "Has the Bog-Burglars started training dragons too?"
"Yes actually. In fact we…"
She didn't get to finish that sentence because at that moment, Astrid came striding over to them. Hiccup's heart sank when he saw the look on her face. This wasn't how he wanted Astrid and Camicazi to meet. It was really kind of awkward, standing there in Camicazi's arms with Astrid glaring at him accusingly.
"Hiccup, who is this and why are you in her arms?" Astrid asked in the calmest voice she could muster. Hiccup tried to pull himself free but failed as Camicazi smiled pleasantly at Astrid.
"Um, Astrid, this is my good friend Camicazi," he introduced her awkwardly. "Camicazi, this is my, er, girlfriend, Astrid."
"Pleased to meet you," Camicazi greeted, letting go of Hiccup long enough to seize Astrid's hand and pump it up and down. "Hiccup's told me a lot about you! So you two are dating now? That's so neat! I thought it was cute how he said he always had this crush on you and…"
"So, Camicazi," Hiccup interrupted before she could embarrass him further. "You said your tribe is training dragons too?"
"That's right," she replied, nodding. "We don't have anything too big, like the Monstrous Nightmares, but we do have some awesome dragons, nonetheless."
"Oh really?" Astrid replied, cocking an eyebrow.
"Yeah," Camicazi replied with a huge smile. "Are you guys going to do the sword fighting competition? I know I am!"
"Of course we are," Astrid replied before Hiccup could speak, gripping his arm so he couldn't get away. "I'm planning on winning this thing too."
Camicazi giggled. "Sorry, but you'll have to beat me first," she told her. "Not likely."
Hiccup flinched at the look in Astrid's eyes as she gripped his arm tighter, trying to control her temper.
"Well, we'll be looking forward to a nice, pleasant fight, now won't we?" Hiccup said quickly before Astrid could speak. "Hey look! There's Fishlegs! Why don't you go say hi? I'm sure he'd be happy to see you again."
And as Camicazi managed to reply "Um, Ok," Hiccup quickly took her shoulders and nudged her in Fishlegs' direction. With a sigh, he turned back to Astrid, who was staring at him impatiently. He gulped.
"Ok, I know what you're thinking," Hiccup started, putting his hands up defensively. "But Camicazi and I are just friends. We met at the last festival and she was the only one who would talk to me! But we're nothing more than that. Trust me."
Astrid let out a long sigh, letting her shoulders relax. "Fine," she replied. "I believe you."
Hiccup barely had time to sigh with relief before Astrid took his arm again and started dragging him to meet the rest of the Bog Burglar tribe.
Back in the village, there was one man who was not with the rest of the tribe. He stood glaring down at the beach with hatred. And he was plotting. Plotting his revenge. And pretty soon, he would have it.
What do you think so far? Hate it? Love it? Did you barf? Tell me what you think! If you don't review, I can't write. So please read and review.