Hey guys, Taco here with my latest story, Hybrid! Now, I know most of you just want to get the story, go right ahead and skip my ramblings. If, however, you want to hear the tale how this story got conceived, then listen here.
Several months ago, I was browsing about this site trying to sate my appetite for Hicstrid fics when I stumbled about the story Hybrid. I'd would have passed it by, but it was early in the morning, and I was sure it was worth a laugh, as I was sure the the story would have been just ridiculous, so I took a look.
I was proven wrong.
Yeah, it was somewhat rough around the edges, but it was far better than I expected. It was well-written, it was fun to read, it was... unfortunately, incomplete. To make matters worse, it seems as though it has been abandoned, as the last update was years ago, and the author has yet to respond to any of the people who are begging to post more chapters. True, the author has every right to stop whatever story he has doing, it IS his story, but that still didn't make it any less disappointing.
I, however, decided to take another route. I took it upon myself to take my own original spin on the basic concept, and this story is the end result.
Anyhow, I hope you enjoy it!
This is Berk. It's twelve days North of hopeless, and a few degrees South of freezing to death. It's located solidly on the meridian of misery.
My village. In a word, sturdy. It's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new.
We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunset. The only problems are the pests. Most places have mice or mosquitos. We have...
A teenager with green eyes and brown hair opens a door and sees a large, spiny, winged beast outside his door. He is just barely able to slam the door shut as the monster breathes fire, covering the door in flames but leaving himself completely intact.
"Dragons."
The boy opens the door again and runs out as men and women exit their homes, weapons in hand.
Most people would leave. Not us. We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues.
The battle begins, and the boy is headed for the heart of it.
My name is Hiccup. Great name, I know. But it's not the worst. Parents believe a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls. As if our charming Viking demeanor wouldn't do that.
An explosion goes off, and Hiccup is knocked to the ground by a Viking whose beard is covered in embers. The man shouts out a war cry straight in Hiccup's face before changing his tone and shouting "mornin'" before running off. Hiccup manages to quickly get back up and, despite having other Vikings yelling at him to go back inside, does not stop running. What does finally stop him and saves him from being burned by a Nadder's fire is the hand of one particularly large Viking grabbing the back of his fur vest.
"Hiccup!? What is he doing out agai… What ARE you doing out!? Get inside!"
With that, the large Viking pushes Hiccup off before refocusing on the battle.
That's Stoick the Vast, chief of the tribe. They say when he was a baby, he popped a dragon's head clean off of its shoulders. Do I believe it?
Stoick spots a dragon making off with a sheep, and quickly responds by throwing a wooden cart at it. The sheep is dropped as the cart shatters against the reptile.
Yes, I do.
Stoick turns to ask one of his subordinates what dragons have been spotted, who quickly responds with, "Gronckles, Nadder's, Zipplebacks. Oh, and Hoark saw a Monstrous Nightmare."
A fireball hits a house behind Stoick, causing embers and flames to scatter. The subordinate raises his shield to protect his head, while Stoick simply flicks away a flaming piece of wood that landed on his metal shoulder-plate.
"Any Night Furies?"
"None so far."
"Good."
Meanwhile, Hiccup makes his way into a building filled with weapons as the other Vikings raise large torches to light up the sky. Once inside, a Viking, one who is missing a few limbs, greets him.
"Nice of you to join the party! I thought you'd be carried off."
Taking off his vest and replacing it with a smithing apron before getting to work, Hiccup snaps back with, "Who, me? Na, come on, I'm waaaay too muscular for their taste. They wouldn't know what to do with all this."
"Well, they need toothpicks, don't they?"
The meathead with attitude and interchangeable hands is Gobber. I've been his apprentice since I was little. Well, littler.
As Hiccup places several broken weapons on a pile of hot coals, a house in the distance is covered by Nightmare flames.
See? Old village, lots and lots of new houses.
Hiccup hears someone shout "fire," and sees a large barrel of water pulled just outside of forge. A group of teens, all about Hiccup's age, scramble to fill and carry off buckets of water.
That's Fishlegs, Snoutlout, the twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut…
As the other teens run off, one brunette Viking, clade in spikes and dull red clothes, tosses the water in her bucket at one of several burning buildings. As she turns away, a fireball hits the very same building and explodes into a wall of fire. The teen is just outside of the blast range, and walks off unscathed, and the entire sight leaves Hiccup breathless.
… and… Frieda… I admit I may have a small crush on her, but then, who wouldn't. It also doesn't hurt that she's the only Viking my age who is nice to me.
The other teenagers flock back to her, and they all rush off to get more water.
Oh their job is so much cooler.
Before he can continue to watch the other teens do their job, he is lifted into the air by Gobber's pliers.
"Aw, come on. Let me out, please. I need to make my mark!"
"Oh, you've made plenty of marks, all in the wrong places."
"Please, two minutes, I'll kill a dragon, my life will get infinitely better. I might even get a date!"
"You can't lift a hammer, you can't swing an axe…"
Gobber pauses long enough to hold up a bola before saying, "You can't even throw one of these!"
Just as he finishes, another Viking grabs the bola right out of his hand and throws it at a Gronkle, entangling it and sending it back to Earth. Hiccup proceeds to head towards what appears to be a small cart.
"Okay, fine, but this will throw it for me!"
He places his hand on the relatively large object, causing it to spring open and throw a bola. Gobber was just able to get out of the way, causing the bola to knock out another Viking.
"See? Now this right here is what I'm talking about!"
Hiccup stutters, just barely able to out the words, "Mild calibration issue," before being interrupted.
"Hiccup, if you ever want to get out there, fight dragons, you need to stop all… this."
"But you just pointed to all of me."
"Yes, that's it! Stop being all of you!"
"Oh…"
"Oh, yes…"
"You, sir, are playing a dangerous game, keeping this much raw Vikingness contained? There will be consequences!"
"I'll take my chances."
With that, Gobber grabbed a sword and gave it to Hiccup.
"Sword. Sharpen. Now."
Hiccup didn't protest, and proceeded towards the sharping wheel to do his job.
One day, I'll get out there, because killing a dragon is everything around here. A Nadder head is to get me at least noticed. Gronkles are tough, taking down one of those would definitely get me a girlfriend. A Zippleback? Exotic, two heads, twice the status.
Elsewhere in the village, on one of the catapult towers, Stoick was overlooking the operation of the catapult when another Viking told him that the dragons had found the sheep. Stoick simply gave orders to fire over the lower bank of the village.
And then there's the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those. They have this nasty habit of setting themselves on fire.
Stoick saw a Nightmare break through the walkway of the tower, covered in flames. He grabbed his hammer, ordered his fellow Vikings to reload, and proceeded to smash his hammer into the dragon's face. It took the blows, snapped it's jaws at the Viking chief, and flew off as a high-pitched whine raised out from the background noise.
But the ultimate prize is the dragon no one's ever seen. We call it the…
"Night Fury! Get down!
The catapult exploded in flames, forcing Stoick and the other Vikings to jump into the waters below.
A dark figure flew over the flames as the catapult crumbled. It looked back, keen blue eyes studying the damage it just caused.
My aim is getting sloppy; I almost missed the tower entirely. Still, they can't use it now…
Another whine precedes another explosion, this time hitting the catapult tower in the middle and causing it to fall apart.
Good, now it will take longer for the Vikings to repair it.
The dark figure turned its attention back to the battle that raged below it, looking for a suitable target.
My name is Astrid. I'm a dragon, partially. Technically, I'm part Night Fury and part…
Astrid flies past one of the giant torches, and though none of the people below can see it, for second, the light reveals her form.
…Viking, human, however you want to say it. Not like any of the Vikings below would think of me as one. They'd treat me the same as any other dragon, like a mindless, ruthless monster that deserves to have her head mounted on some wall. Not that most of the dragons treat or think of me that much better. Still, at least they don't try to kill me, so long that I do my part in these raids. Then, there's the only other Night Fury in the group, Toothless. He's probably the only dragon that I could consider my friend.
Astrid spots a catapult that is turning towards a large group of Gronkles, and begins to yaw towards it in a long arc, taking her time to get the best possible shot.
Like him, I don't take part in the close-up combat, nor do I grab any of the food. Instead, our job is to take out catapults and other buildings that might be a problem for the other dragons. Now, time for the next hit.
Hiccup, now at the edge of a cliff, sets up his bola-launcher and looks for something to fire at.
"Come on. Give me something to shoot at, give me something to shoot at."
For a moment, all he hears are distant cries of dragons already on the ground before the familiar high-pitched whine returns. Another tower explodes in flames, and for a second, Hiccup sees a silhouette. He quickly aims and pulls the trigger, the recoil throwing him off the launcher. He hears what sounds like a girl shrieking, but he pins it on his imagination.
Astrid, once free with wings spread wide, now found herself tangled in a bola. Time seemed to slow as she fell out of the sky, and she felt intense pain coming from her wing.
No, no, no! This can't be happening. This can't be happening! No one could have seen me! How could this be happening?!
Astrid struggled to get loose from the ropes, but she couldn't break them. All she could do was to brace herself for the impending crash landing. Time sped up, she broke through several trees, and she finally lost consciousness when she hit the ground.
Hiccup, now standing and having seen a silhouette land towards the trees on the other side of the island, felt overwhelming joy rush through him.
"I hit it? Yes, I hit it! Did anybody see that?"
He was answered by the sound of his launcher being crunched up by a Monstrous Nightmare.
"…Except for you."
Hiccup broke into a sprint, screaming as the dragon chased after him. He finally stopped behind one of the torches, and he felt an extreme heat emanate from behind him. The Nightmare went around the torch, but before it could do anything, Stoick jumped in the air and kicked the Nightmare in the head. The two giants faced each other, both ready to fight the other. The Nightmare attempted to breath fire, but all it could muster was a small amount of flame that failed to hit Stoick.
"You're all out."
Stoick proceeded to strike a series of blows on the Nightmare's head before it finally flew off.
Oh, and there's one more thing you need to know.
The torch that Hiccup hid behind buckled and fell over, with the flaming tip breaking off.
"Sorry, Dad."
The top of the torch crashed through the village, causing several Vikings to let go of some dragons that were captured in the nets.
"Okay, but I hit a Night Fury."
Stoick immediately grabbed Hiccup by the back of his vest and began to drag him towards their home.
"It's not like the last few times, Dad! I really, actually hit it! You guys were busy, and I had a very clear shot! It went down off Raven Point. Let's get a search party out there and…"
Stoick let go, turned around and thundered out the word, "Stop!"
"Just stop. Every time you step outside, disaster falls. Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed!"
"Between you and me, the village could do with a little less feeding, don't you think?"
"This isn't a joke, Hiccup! Why can't you follow the simplest orders?"
"I can't stop myself. I see a dragon and I have to just kill it, you know? It's who I am, Dad."
"You're many things, Hiccup. But a dragon killer is not one of them. Get back to the house."
Stoick turned his attention to Gobber, who came behind Hiccup.
"Make sure he gets there. I have his mess to clean up."
As Hiccup walked the path to his house, Tuffnut, Ruffnut, Fishlegs, and Snoutlout just laughed at him. Frieda, meanwhile, is simply silent as she feels sorry for the scrawny teen.
"Quite the performance."
"I've never seen anyone mess up that badly. That helped!"
"Thank you, thank you. I was trying."
Snoutlout's laughter was stopped when Gobber knocked him to the ground.
It only took a couple of minutes to get to the Haddock house, and as they took the final couple of steps to reach it, Hiccup spoke up.
"I really did hit one."
"Sure, Hiccup."
"He never listens…"
"It runs in the family."
"…And when he does, it's with this disappointed scowl, like someone skimped on meat in his sandwich. 'Excuse me, barmaid. I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered an extra-large boy with beefy arms, extra guts and glory on the side. This here, this is a talking fishbone.'"
"Now you're thinking about this all wrong. It's not so much what you look like, it's what's inside that he can't stand."
"…Thank you for summing that up."
"Look, the point is, stop trying so hard to be something you're not."
"I just want to be one of you guys."
With that, Hiccup went inside the house, only to run out the back door and towards Raven's Point.
Author's note: And there you have it, the first chapter of Hybrid. I hope you enjoyed it!
The image was made by my dear friend, DarKenn, who is also my editor, so a good portion of the credit should go to him. He did this while also working on a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan fiction involving dragons. If you're into MLP, then look up "The Immigrants" by DarKenn on FIMFiction.
Anyway, remember to leave a review. I'd like to know what you guys think of the story so far.