Umskipti Austrvegor Veðr
This is my second HTTYD fanfic, this one focusing more on the actual story. The name is Norse for "Change in the Wind" (I think). I've decided to try giving an alternate ending to the Nightmare Battle in the arena. No, Hiccup is not out of character, but he does something unexpected, barely changing from the movie - and yet, it changes the whole course of the story. He gets atop Toothless when his father runs at them. How does that change things? Read on to find out!
Stoic's raged hammer blow to the cage rang throughout the stadium. No! Hiccup cursed in his head. Thinking it had been tricked, the Nightmare lunged at the first thing it could - which just so happened to be Hiccup's arm. Thor must have given Hiccup some help that moment, because lightning reflexes tore his hand away from the snapping jaws of the dragon. The Nightmare roared in anger, chasing after its prey.
"Hiccup!" he heard Astrid yell. He briefly noticed her break open the gate and run into the arena. She hurtled a hammer from the broken weapon's pile at its head, momentarily knocking it senseless. Then regaining its composition, it went after the one who had attacked it - Astrid. Astrid ran. A gate flew open.
"This way! Hurry!" Stoic yelled at the open gate. Astrid flew into his beefy arms. Hiccup was not so lucky. The Monstrous Nightmare torched the gate walls in a liquid flame, rendering the Viking boy's current escape useless. Suddenly there was the all-too familiar sound of screeching thunder.
"Night Fury!" Gobber shouted. "Get Down!" The chain-link cage burst open in flame, dust filling the stadium. When the dust finally cleared, the Vikings of Berk were amazed to find a Night Fury furiously fighting off the Monstrous Nightmare from Hiccup. Some gasped. "Night Fury!" Gobber repeated in awe.
Finally frightened off, the Nightmare took one last scared look at Toothless, and scampered back into his den. Hiccup jumped up from his position on the stone ground to beside his large head. "All right buddy, go. Go!" he pushed his friend's massive head, refusing to move from it's position. Both of them saw the chief of the Vikings running towards them, vengeful axe in hand.
Hiccup wasn't thinking when he scrambled onto Toothless's back. "No, Dad, he won't hurt you!" he shouted as he got into the saddle. Stoic stopped in his tracks, taking notice of his son atop the beast. "Hiccup? What are you doing?" he asked, a hint of fear in his booming voice. Then he began to notice the riding gear - the saddle, the wing, and the pedal. No, it couldn't be true! It just couldn't! His mind refused to think properly about what he was seeing before him. He started laughing. "Ha-ha! Good job, Hiccup! Quite the excellent trap you've set up here!"
"...Trap?" He replied nervously
"Well, of course! You didn't think I would know it was a trap all along, would you? I know you've wanted to kill dragons all your life... so you caught a Night Fury, pretended to be it's friend so you could betray it here in this arena, with everyone watching!" Stoic kept the same creepily proud smile on his face the whole time he was making up excuses.
"Dad..." Hiccup began
"Here! You can do the honors!" He thrust the axe in his hand to Hiccup, who took it without question. Toothless growled, but quickly quieted down when Hiccup gave him a short scratch behind the ears. He struggled beneath the weight of it, needing to hold one hand on the blade and the other on the handle.
Hiccup eyed the axe for a long time. If he did this, he would be accepted in his tribe. But he would be a murderer. Worse yet, a murderer of his friend. No, he couldn't bring himself to do that. He was aware of Astrid standing beside him. "Do what you have to do." she whispered, barely audible to the two of them. But he heard it just the same. He looked at Astrid, then at the axe, and then finally, into his Father's piercing eyes.
"No." He threw the axe to the ground, clattering on the stone ground in front of Astrid. Both Astrid and Toothless sighed in relief. Well, Astrid sighed, Toothless more of like - purred softly.
Stoic could feel the fear rising. He had never known fear like this before, it was overwhelming. Hiccup felt the need to delve further into the subject.
"No, Dad. I will not kill mercilessly. I will not fuel your hatred towards them, and I will not be you pawn. And I will never, ever, in my darkest nightmares, kill my best friend." There it was, everything out on the table. Whispers and Murmurs were spreading across the arena like wildfire, whispers of betrayal and murmurs of why - why was he doing this? It took Stoic a few seconds to steady himself from this weighty blow to his pride.
"So. You've decided to throw your lot in with them. After they've killed hundreds of our people..."
"And we've killed thousands of them!" Hiccup shouted
"WHICH IS AS IT SHOULD BE!" Stoic roared "I've had it! If you refuse to be one of us, I will -"
"Will WHAT? I've wanted NOTHING my whole life than to be one you guys! You know that, Gobber knows that, everybody here knows that! Then I find Toothless, and I find out that my whole life, my idols, the one's I have been trying to be more like have been feeding a lie! A LIE!"
It was a shouting match, a battle of the wills. Eventually one of them would have to give, and Stoic wasn't backing down. While Hiccup continued his 'speech', Toothless padded over to beside Stoic. Hiccup was sitting straight up on his back, looking down at Stoic.
Hiccup looked up into the crowd, shouting to his people now. "I have seen the truth! About Dragons, about Vikings, about everything! Nothing is the way you think it is!" He looked back down to his father.
"I finally have something to believe in, to fight for. What do you say to that?"
"Hiccup... son... don't make me do this. Please, repent! Stop with these lies!" He pleaded
Hiccup shook his head. "You know I can't Dad. And you are the one lying to yourself." Hiccup caught Astrid's eye. In that split second of their gaze, they both knew what they had to do. It was in both of their expressions, for only a brief moment.
Stoic sighed. "Then you leave me no choice. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, you are hereby banished from the village of Berk until you prove yourself worthy of coming back. Suitably by killing a dragon."
"So be it." Hiccup said softly. With that, Toothless shot off into the sky, piercing through the open cage and into the vast ocean.
"So be it." Stoic repeated to himself sadly. Berk would never be the same again.
Ok, let me know how you like this first chapter! I'm not exactly sure where I want to go with it yet, but I have some ideas floating in my head. Nothing long or fancy – I hope. These stories have a way of writing themselves. And if my Norse is incorrect, somebody who does know it properly please let me know so I can change it! Thank you, and review!