The First Dragon
Hi guys! Sorry it's been a while, writers block is a bugger and I've been trying to write 4 stories at the same time. I really hope you all enjoy this short prequeal.
You don't have to, but I would suggest that you read Rise of the Dragon so you understand who Aquarella is.
"Oof!" grunted 4-year-old Hiccup as he fell over the tree log he had been trying to climb over. "Ow," Hiccup rubbed his knee where he had scraped it but refused to cry. Vikings were supposed to be tough after all; he couldn't let his dad down. He pushed himself to his feet and continued to push into the woods. He had been stumbling through the forest for a long time; he hadn't been keeping track of time very well since he started out on his journey.
"I'm coming momma," Hiccup said as he crawled under a boulder. He still didn't understand why his father had refused to go looking for his mother when her ship went down into the water. He had begged and begged but his father had given him a very sad look and refused every single time, even Gobber had shaken his head when he had asked him to go looking for his mother. So Hiccup had decided to go looking for her on his own.
He was sliding down a muddy hill when he heard the growl. It frightened him; he pulled his knife out of his belt and looked around. He could not see anything in the undergrowth, but he could hear something moving through the forest. Leaves were rustling and he could hear twigs snapping, the sounds moving closer and closer to him. Hiccup turned and ran into the forest, not wanting whatever had growled to catch him. He could hear something chasing him through the undergrowth and ran as fast as his legs could go.
Something howled very close behind him, making Hiccup cry out and look behind him to see what was there. His foot got hooked on a root and he tumbled down a bank; losing his knife in the process. He rolled to a stop on a short grassy beach. Hiccup looked up the slope to see a face starting to emerge from the forest and he began to franticly look for his knife in the sand. A roar returned his attention to the top of the slope as a brown bear began to charge him. Hiccup scrambled backward, his hand landing on his knife; he grabbed it, and held it in front of him.
Hiccup could feel tears running down his face as he watched it come closer. He squeezed his eyes closed and put two hands on the knife as he held in in front of him. He heard another roar, but this time from behind him. Before he could open his eyes a wave of water hit him and knocked him onto his belly. When he opened his eyes he could see something standing over him, it had blue scales and was roaring at the bear.
"Dragon," Hiccup whispered as the dragon fired a blast of water at the bear, throwing it back. When the bear got up it have a half-hearted roar that the dragon returned tenfold. As the bear ran away the dragon moved away from Hiccup and turned around to face him. Hiccup found himself facing a very slender blue dragon, he had never seen this particular breed though, and it wasn't a blue Monstrous Nightmare.
It was a dark blue dragon, with lighter blue frills on its head, they also ran down its neck and then started up again on the top of its tail, it had a fin on the end of its tail and another frill on the back of its front legs, and its feet were webbed. It also had two bright blue wavy horns. And when it leaned down to look at him he noticed that its eyes were the same color as its horns. Hiccup flinched back and jumped to his feet, holding out his knife in front of him.
"Back! Or I get you!" Hiccup shouted with his little voice at the dragon moving toward him. The dragon stopped and if Hiccup didn't know any better he would have thought that the dragon looked astonished. He's confusion turned to shock when the dragon laughed! It scooped him up in its front legs and hugged him!
"You are soooo cuuuute!" The dragon squealed in a female voice. Hiccup was dumbfounded.
"Dragons can't talk." Hiccup informed the dragon holding him. The dragon held him away a bit, shifted him to one front leg and used the other to take away his knife.
"This is true of any dragon you'll find here," the dragoness confirmed as she put his knife back on his belt. "But I'm from very, very far away, and where I'm from almost all dragons talk."
"Are you going to eat me?" Hiccup asked.
"Eat you?!" the dragoness sounded incredulous. "Most decidedly not, I don't know about the dragons around here but where I'm from we do not eat younglings."
"Oh, are you going to burn down houses like other dragons?" Hiccup inquired.
"I'm not here to cause problems; I'm looking for something, or rather, someone." The dragoness replied.
"Who?" Hiccup wondered.
"He's only a little taller than you, with a purple cape and fancy clothes; he looks like…um…a red dragon that walks on two legs but with no wings or tail." She described to him. "Have you seen anything like that?"
"Uh-uh," Hiccup replied his eyes wide and bewildered by her description.
"Oh, well, I'll have to find that stinkin' dinosaur on my own then, but before that, what are you doing way out here all alone? Are you lost?" the dragoness asked.
"I'm looking for my mom." Hiccup replied as the dragoness put him down.
"Shouldn't someone be helping you with that?" the dragoness inquired as she lifted herself onto her back legs and began looking around to see if there was anyone else around.
"No, no one would come with me to find her." Hiccup replied. The dragoness lowered herself down and studied the little boy's expression.
"Why don't you tell me what happened to your mamma, little one, and I'll see if I can do something to help." The dragoness said to him.
"Really?" Hiccup exclaimed. He smiled brightly when she nodded. "She went out during the last dragon raid and then she didn't come home. Daddy let me see her boat in the morning, but it was stormy out and her boat got hit by lightning and it got fire and went down."
"Hmm," the dragoness hummed thoughtfully. "Do you know where the ship went down?"
"Behind the turn," Hiccup replied.
"Is that something you can see from your village?" the dragoness asked.
"Yeah, I can see it from here too." Hiccup pointed to a place farther down the island. The dragoness turned around to peer at where he was pointing.
"And that's where you're mother's ship went down?"
"The smoke stopped coming up there." Hiccup explained. The dragoness nodded and lowered her head toward Hiccup, making him back up quickly in alarm. "You said you would not eat me!"
"I'm not going to eat you; I'm going to put you on my back." The dragoness replied as she snagged the back of his shirt in her teeth. She lifted him easily and placed him on her back. "Scoot forward and hold onto my neck." Hiccup complied with her order when she let go of him.
"I've never ridden a dragon before! Are we going to fly?" Hiccup asked excitedly. The dragoness smiled at him warmly.
"I'm afraid not, little youngling. I'm not a very good flyer, I might drop you. We are going swimming." The dragoness informed him as she slid into the water.
"But I can't swim!" Hiccup exclaimed as the water brushed his feet.
"Don't worry, just stay on my back, you don't have to get in the water, I won't be going under anyway." The dragoness replied as she started to swim strongly toward the bend Hiccup had pointed out earlier.
"Why can't you fly very well?" Hiccup inquired.
"My wings aren't attached to my body properly and my heritage has a strong water dragon blood in it from my maternal grandmother's side of the family." The dragoness replied.
"What's maternal?" Hiccup asked.
"It means my mom's mom; my grandfather on my mother's side is an earth dragon, while all of the dragons in my grandmother's family tree were water dragons." The dragoness answered.
"What about your dad's side?" Hiccup wanted to know.
"My father is an electric dragon; his blood line is really mixed with all kinds of elements." The dragoness informed him.
"Oh, everyone in my family is a Viking!" Hiccup informed her proudly.
"Vikings? Aren't Vikings really big though? You look young but shouldn't you still be bigger?" the dragoness inquired.
"Yeah, I'm a hiccup," Hiccup said unhappily.
"I don't understand what that means." the dragoness told him.
"It means I'm a runt, I'm not going to be big like everyone else." Hiccup replied sullenly.
"Ah," the dragoness hummed thoughtfully.
"What do you call your runts?" Hiccup asked.
"Nothing, we do not judge by size." The dragoness told him. "There are other things to value, smarts, swiftness, skill. Not everything is about size and power."
"Not here," Hiccup told her.
"Hmm, maybe you'll change that someday, little one." The dragoness suggested.
"My name is Hiccup, not little one." Hiccup protested.
"Hello, Hiccup, my name is Aquarella." The dragoness introduced herself.
"Aquarayla," Hiccup tried to pronounce her name.
"Aqua-rella," Aquarella repeated for him.
"Aquarayla," Hiccup tried to say it the way she did, but he couldn't do it and made a sound of frustration.
"It's alright; just call me Aqua." Aquarella told him gently. "How old are you Hiccup?"
"I am 4 years old." Hiccup replied.
"What's your mother's name?" Aquarella asked.
"Valhallarama," Hiccup replied.
How can he pronounce that but not my name? Aquarella wondered to herself as she reached the bend in the land and swam around it.
"So can you guess where the ship went down here?" Aquarella asked.
"Umm," Hiccup nibbled on his finger as he looked around at the water and then the land to try to figure out where the boat would have been. Then he hesitantly pointed to a spot in the water. "Over there?" Aquarella laughed a little and started swimming toward the shore. "Hey, why aren't you looking for mom?" Hiccup demanded
"I am going to look for her, but to do so I have to swim under the water, so I have to put you down on land first ok?" Aquarella said to him.
"Oh, ok." Hiccup said with a slight sulk as Aquarella swam up to a boulder and let him climb onto it. He sat down and watched the water dragoness dip her head into the water, followed by her body, and lastly, her tail, which slapped the water as it disappeared beneath the waves. Hiccup pulled his legs up and wrapped his arms around his legs, then laid his chin on his legs as he waited for Aquarella to finish looking around under the water.
The sun had started it descent when Aquarella found him; it was getting close to the sea when Aquarella resurfaced. She looked very irritated as she swam toward Hiccup. Hiccup jumped up and almost fell into the water as his feet slipped on the mossy rock. He went down onto his hands and knees and held on tight as Aquarella sped up and offered him her head to balance on as he stood back up.,
"Did you find her boat?" Hiccup asked excitedly.
"I have no idea, you Vikings sink way too many boats; what did your mom's boat even look like? There are a lot of burned boats at the bottom of the sea." Aquarella grumbled.
"It was one of our old longships." Hiccup answered.
"Oh, brother," Aquarella sighed as she paused to think about her next move. She stretched up slowly, allowing Hiccup to shift his grip from her head to her neck, and looked around at the surrounding land. "Hmm, well I wonder if she got out of the water and started wandering toward home." Aquarella studied the area and found the most likely area for a wounded person to drag themselves onto land. She lowered herself down next to Hiccup after spotting a path that animals used. "Hop on; we're going to follow that partial path over there."
Hiccup clambered up onto her back and Aquarella swam over to the path and dragged herself out of the water. After walking several steps toward the forest Aquarella came to a halt and studied the ground.
"Is something wrong?" Hiccup asked.
"Hold on as tight as you can ok? My feet are sensitive and I will trip a lot, ok?" Aquarella informed him. Hiccup nodded and tightened his grip.
Aquarella had followed the path until it disappeared then she had Hiccup tell her where his home would be from where the path ended. As she walked that way the sun set and it had become dark, Aquarella wasn't sure that she was even going the right way anymore, and Hiccup couldn't tell either. She pushed through some trees and found an interesting area.
"Well what do we have here?" Aquarella murmured as she surveyed the small clearing. It was just big enough for her to curl up next to a tiny pond that was there as well. "Ha! It's a vision pool, I wasn't expecting to find one here." Aquarella looked at Hiccup who was sagging against her neck, barely awake. Aquarella got into some tall grass and pulled it out and onto a pile on the ground. "Come on, youngling, lay down and go to sleep."
"I'm not sleepy!" Hiccup protested and Aquarella picked him up and laid him down. "We didn't find mommy!" Hiccup curled up on his side and closed his eyes, out cold in an instant. Aquarella smiled as she curled up around him and then peered into the water. Aquarella watched the water as images floated across it briefly before sinking down into the water. After watching for a while she saw what she had been looking for.
"There you are! You little bugger." Aquarella growled as she studied the area where Ripto was taking shelter. As the image zoomed out she recognized the hillside from where she had been looking for Valhallarama's boat. "I'll be sending you back home soon." Aquarella looked down at Hiccup and smiled again as he sighed and tucked himself in closer to her. Then she looked back into the water and blew into it. The water rippled then a new image floated up.
Aquarella smiled warmly at the image, a boy riding a black dragon, laughing and riding the skies with deep comfort between the two of them. The image faded away and she turned her attention back to Hiccup. She put her head down to the boy's head and brushed his hair back with her nose.
"Don't let anyone tell you that a runt isn't worth anything little Viking. You'll change everything one day, don't you ever forget that." She whispered in the sleeping boy's ear. She jerked her head up when she heard voices yelling and crashing through the woods. She stood up and backed into the woods, away from the voices.
"Hiccup! Where are you son?" A loud male voice yelled. A big man missing an arm and a leg pushed through the bush.
"Hiccup!" The man barked. It wasn't the same voice she had heard earlier. "O're here Stoic!" A giant of a man came crashing into view from behind the first man.
"Hiccup!" Stoic the Vast roared as he barred down on his son. He scooped him up and Hiccup partly woke up.
"Daddy?" Hiccup mumbled as he rubbed his eyes.
"What are you doing out here?" Stoic demanded of his son.
"I was looking for mommy." Hiccup said in a small voice as he leaned his head on his father's shoulder. Stoic puffed up then let out a long breath, he hugged his son tight to himself. "Can't breathe, daddy," Hiccup protested as he pushed against his father's shoulder. Stoic loosened up his grip and Hiccup went back to sleep.
"How can I make you understand?" Stoic whispered. "She's not coming back." Aquarella lowered her head as the other man limped up to Stoic.
"He's too young, He'll understand later, Stoic." He told Stoic. Hiccup stirred again and blinked his eyes open.
"Where's Aqua? Don't hurt her, she's a good one." Hiccup mumbled sleepily.
"Aqua?" Stoic repeated as he and his friend looked around.
"She's the talking dragon daddy." Hiccup said as he drifted back to sleep. Stoic stared at his son in dismay.
"A talking dragon," he muttered in aggravation.
"He's been sleeping Stoic, nothing but a dream." The other man told him. "Come on, let's get him home. Time for bed for little hiccups," They walked away and as soon as they vanished and their voices faded away, Aquarella walked out of the brush where she was hiding and glanced briefly at the path they had taken.
"Don't forget what I said, Hiccup." She said to the wind as she walked the other way. In the days that would pass, Hiccup would insist that he'd seen a talking dragon, while his father said that it had only been a dream. His disappointment would soon quiet Hiccup's insistence and the incident would fade to a fleeting memory that Hiccup would eventually think it all a dream. But words would drift across his mind every now and then, a voice that he didn't quite remember.
"You'll change everything one day, don't you ever forget that."
I hope you enjoyed the read, please rate and review!