Darkness. That's what I was in. Peaceful, warm, soft, safe darkness. I loved to sleep. Especially when there was no reason to get up, and winter's chill didn't bite me during the night. Nothing better than the warm comfort of your own bed to go to after a long day of work, and to wake up in after a blissful slumber. I loved my bed, it couldn't be any better. For a Viking at least. I pressed my face more into my pillow, barely conscious of the world around me. All that mattered was the warmth that surrounded me.
Sadly this darkness of comfort didn't last. I felt a shove on my back, lurching me a tad forward. I didn't think much of it, as I was used to my bed moving from the doors below me being slammed aggressively, so I decided to ignore it, pulling the warm blanket more on my shoulder. That same nudge happened again on my back, a little more aggressively. Strangely enough, there was no door slam to accompany the notion"..mm' five more minutes.." I mumbled. Maybe it was my dad, trying to wake me up. But then again, when was the last time my dad ever woke me up? There was a creak on the wooden floor, and I sighed contently thinking whoever it was went away. Then there was only the beautiful silence left in the air. It came back. Only, I was woken up this time to the ache of pain on my back and the surprise of falling to the floor from an intense shove.
"Ah! Ouch!" I shouted. There was a weird sound from behind me, sounding oddly like a laugh and a moan. I rubbed my sore head from where it hit the ground while sending a glare at the scaly animal behind me. "Well I hope you're happy with yourself". It made that weird laughing again and rubbed up against me. I just rolled my eyes, scratching the scales of my best friend. My Night Fury dragonic best friend. He purred like an overgrown kitten. "Useless reptile" I mumbled with a tired smile. I was surprised after almost a year of wake up calls that I wasn't used to this. Sometimes he would jump on the roof, shaking the whole house, other times he would lick my face until I woke up, leaving me soaked in dragon spit. Night Fury saliva is very sticky, so much so that it never washed out. Lucky me, right?
Yawning, I stood and stretched, wincing a little at my back. "Well you got me up. What do you say about some breakfast, hm?" The black dragon wagged his overly long tail with his tongue sticking out like and overgrown pup. I laughed and threw on my wool vest. It might be summer, but summer on Berk was as cold as ever. The house was empty, my dad and his Thunderdrum dragon out, already tending to the village. As per usual. I walked passed the fire pit and straight to the door. I drew open the door, it as heavy as ever, and it brought me back to the times where I would open this door, only to see a dragon ready to blast me to smithereens. Those days were long over.
I looked out into the open to see the water a sickly blue, and waves out into the distance. As far as days go, today wasn't looking too horrible. But it wasn't looking amazing either. Clouds hovered over the sky, casting dim light on the island and a chilly breeze swept through my clothing. Not a sunny and bright day, but there was enough light to see clearly. Flying today would be tricky with the wind. If it was this strong here, than up in the sky it would be brutal. Toothless walked up beside me, making a few grumbling noises. "Yeah, I know bud. Not the best day for flying, huh". My Night Fury chuffed and walked down the road, clearly more focused on food. 'Typical'.
I shut the heavy door and caught up to him, hopping onto the saddle, clicking my prosthetic in place. "Let's take a ride down to the docks and see what they've caught. Who knows, they might have some Icelandic cod for you". We shot up in the air not a second later. Toothless might be annoying sometimes, but if there's one thing that gets him moving, fish is definitely it. It only took about a minute's time to get to the docks, but we did a few tricks on Toothless' behalf. Actually no, just completely on Toothless' part. He really loves his fish. Looking around I could see that everyone was out and about, hulling lumber or doing other chores. If I looked closely to the East I could make out my dad in the distance at the farms.
We landed smoothly in front of the newest fishing vessel, and Mulch and Bucket were arguing again. No surprise there. The two were like an old married couple sometimes. "Oh Bucket, I told you before, these are the Salmon and these are the Cod! You put the Salmon in the Salmon baskets, and the Cod in the Cod baskets! Oh, hello there Hiccup. Come for your daily basket of fish?" Mulch asked. I nodded, still smiling at the argument. Sad what happened to Bucket. He took a hit from a Gronkle's tail, resulting in half of his brain being removed back when we were at war. It was a miracle that he survived. "Yeah, someone was too impatient to wait for me to wake up" I replied, emphasising the word someone. Toothless only gave me an innocent, wide eyed look. I rolled my eyes. "So anyways, what have you caught today?" "Well as it happens, we caught quite the number of cod today. If I'm correct, that's the beast's favorite right?".
"You have no idea. I'll take a basket if there's enough". I flicked him a golden coin to which he and Bucket got to work packing them up. "And, here you go, One basket of Icelandic cod". I thanked him and threw the basket on my back. Still as heavy as when I first started carrying them. Toothless was all over me the minute I did. I kept shoving him off as his patience was wearing thin again. "I know, I know. Let's get to the Great Hall first so you don't eat them all. I have to eat too, ya know". He threw me on his back and we were off. I chuckled at his enthusiasm. I looked down at the village with a smile. Seeing my work at making peace always brought a smile to my face.
The minute I sat down in the Hall, Toothless lost his patience and dug into the basket, eating all he could. I scratched his head while grabbing a bowl of leftover soup from dinner last night, a few pieces of stale bread to go with it, and some yak milk. I sometimes wish I was as enthusiastic about food as my dragon. Viking food was just tough and tasteless most of the time. I brought out my journal while nibbling on my food, finishing my drawing of me and the gang with our dragons. I wish I could add color to it, but that wasn't a luxury we had. Not many Vikings were artist, and those like me who were, rarely had any paint. There wasn't enough colorful flowers on Berk, and Paint was really expensive to buy off of traders.
The last time I saw any fresh paint was when Bucket painted the shield of me and my dad. It was a tradition among every generation of chiefs to have a shield painted with the Chief and their successor. I look up and across the half full Hall, looking at the shield that had me, the real me on it. The first time my shield was made, my dad had Bucket paint me like a real viking. Tall with large muscles. I hated it. I thought proving myself to him by finding the lost treasures of Hamish II, with the help of the gang would make him proud of the real me. It worked, except me and Toothless almost died from the cave collapsing. But I found a picture of Hamish II, showing that he was just as much of a Hiccup as I was. It sent a very important message to my dad, and the shield was changed to look more like me.
Of course my dad would always want the strong, big, scary type of son like Snotlout was now, and like he was before me. But after that incident I think my dad learned to love me just like I am, and not what he wanted me to be. It made me happy that both he and everyone else had started to accept me for me, and not for them. I must have zoned out for a while because a light nudge on my shoulder caused me to jump out of my thoughts. My dragon gave me a worried look. I laughed, wrapping my arms around his scaly head. "I'm ok bud. Just...happy, that's all". He nuzzled into me while I scratched behind his ear flaps.
I soaked in the moment until the sound of arguing broke the hug. I looked at the doors, and could see Ruffnut and Tuffnut at it again. They sat across from me. "Alright, then let's let this fine fellow decide!" Tuff said. "Suit yourself!" Ruff argued back, crossing her arms in a pout. "Alright Hiccup, do you think that liquid substances should be carried around in burned sand that makes a clear solid mold so people can see what's inside, or should we make custom bottles to suit each and every person who would pay a suitable amount?"
I could only give them a bewildered look, my mouth open, trying to come up with an answer. I couldn't, but I had never been more grateful for Snotlout to interrupt us then I had then. "Whoa, whoa, wait, you mean glass bottles? Ha, you idiots are so dumb, those bottles would break the minute a viking tries to grab one!" I huffed at the fact Snotlout of all people figured that out. He wasn't the brightest shield of the rack. One by one the whole gang arrived and ate their breakfast, talking and arguing about various things. I continued on drawing in my journal, listening in on their conversations, jumping in sometimes, and laughing others.
That was until Astrid noticed I was in my journal. "What are you working on Hiccup?" She asked. "Hm? Oh, I was just drawing a picture of all of us with our dragons. I thought It would be a good addition to add to The Book of Dragons". "Uh, why? I mean, everyone nowadays has a dragon to ride on. They don't need to see us" Tuff piped up. I knew he had a point, but I had my reasons. "I hate to admit it, but he's right Hiccup. It won't be any different than seeing others in the village" Fishlegs added. "I know that, but I was just thinking about how we never knew what Bork the Bold looked like and thought that maybe generations after us, people would want to know what we looked like too" I answered in a hopeful kind of way.
"Well, you're not wrong. But why not just make individual pictures of us? Wouldn't that be easier?" Astrid piped up. Mentally I felt really awkward as, I've already done individual pictures of them from both a far distance and from memory. Mainly Astrid though. "I..well...it's...I mean, drawing isn't as easy as it looks. Besides, I would need to have you guys in one place for a long period of time to get all of the details. It took me forever to make some of my drawings of Toothless because he wouldn't stay still" I spluttered out. Astrid raised an eyebrow. "B...Besides, I hardly doubt any of us have that amount of free time". I closed my book, ready to start the lesson for the day. "I don't know Hiccup, making drawings of us all would be a really important thing for future generations. I'm sure your dad wouldn't mind if we took the time off to do that". Fishlegs defended.
"...and that would mean a lot of work for me…" I mumbled, looking over at Toothless. I shook my head clear of any random thoughts "It doesn't matter right now. What does matter is our plan for today. So, what I had in mind was aerial maneuvers and escape tactics in any case we're being chased, or were captured. Anyone have any objections?" A series of cheers and whoops went around, clearly a liked lesson in their eyes. I took and internal breath that the topic of drawing was over. "Alright, so here's the plan. First one to the arena gets to be the first example of the day" I say. The challenge started a sub contest of its own. "Oh, last one there has to clean the stables!" Astrid shouted, grabbing her axe and racing out of the arena.
I laughed at the contest. They all ran to their dragons and took off. I chuckled and got up myself, beckoning Toothless to follow. The gang was already far off from the hall, making their way to the arena. Toothless ran up to me, looking very competitive himself. I laughed. "All right bud, I suppose they've gotten a good enough head start. Let's go!" I challenged, jumping on his back and zooming off, none the wiser that I forgot my journal in the hall, or that it fell under the table, and out of sight.
I smiled up at the sky, breeze whipping through my hair. We zoomed past the group in no time, me cheering and him roaring out in happiness. I smiled as my life felt complete, no longer the mess of disappointment it used to be. My dad no longer got mad at me, the villagers no longer hated me, and my friends no longer made fun of me. Well, they did, but it doesn't hurt like it used too. Now that I have my dragon with me, all feel right, like this is what the gods planned for me. I had to agree with them, I've never felt happier in my life. I leaned down to give my dragon a hug, suddenly feeling a great feeling of joy that I had him with me. He looked back at me, seemingly feeling the same. I loved my life. It, after 15 years of misery, was finally complete, and I wouldn't change a single thing about it.