"It was then that I realised it. The one reason why I remained, the one reason why I felt I needed to prove myself, was nothing but the hallow hope of a young boy seeking the love of a father. With no reason nor desire to remain, I egressed."
- Excerpt from The Quisling Account by Hiccup 'The Daemon' Haddock
-The Egression-
Time had slowed to a near standstill as the events in the arena came to a close.
No one inside nor outside that decrepit and poorly maintained arena moved, as all eyes, both human and non human, were focused solely on two figures. The black dragon, and the boy on its back. All eyes watched as the great black beast used its wings to climb upwards, towards the hole it made in the arena's cage, as the boy clung to its back, seated in a saddle.
With each extension of its wings and downward thrusts, the muscles and tendons could be seen working at their full capacity, with each flap bringing the two higher and higher up, and in turn, farther and farther out of reach of those below.
Those below, due to the events that had just preceded the black dragon's take off, had a mixture of emotions on display, with each face showing a different emotion and visible state of thought, bewilderment, and wonderment.
Out of all of the villagers of the island of Berk, seven faces were the ones that the boy airborne with the beast noticed primarily. Those being the five adolescents of his age group, as well as his father, and his blacksmithing mentor.
The five adolescents were not unlike the villagers surrounding the arena, as they all had different expression plainly and simply shown plastered on their faces.
The two twins, the ones that worshipped Loki, as well as the ones that caused as much if not more destruction on the island as the boy with his inventions, wore expressions of disbelief on both of their faces. To them, it was baffling that they were not the ones to have been given the most destructive force known to Viking kind, and instead, the hiccup was the one bestowed with, to them, a gift from their god of deceit and mischief.
The cousin, the ring leader of the ones that had made the boy's life horrendous for nearly ten winters, the one who gave him the title 'Useless', wore an expression of dismay. He saw the boy, his cousin, his own flesh and blood, becoming the champion of the Kill Ring. Proven worthy of the title Viking, he tried to become friendly with his cousin, only to have the boy in question be on edge nearly all times when he was near him. He had begun to think about how he had treated his own family, and wondered if he was a part of the reason, if not the reason, why his cousin had found solace in a dragon instead of his own kind.
The savant, the husky one, the lost friend, wore an expression of anxiety, as well as hints of awe. He knew that he had cut off ties with the boy, as he was all but ostracised, and his family and his family's peers pushed him to not be associated with the 'walking disaster'. Once the boy became 'the hope and heir' of the tribe after becoming the lead in Dragon Training, he wondered if he could have remained his friend throughout the entirety of their association, instead of ignoring him for many winters. Had he been his friend, instead of an acquaintance, he could have also learned more about dragons, like what the boy had apparently done.
The last of the group of adolescents was the self proclaimed, future shield maiden, and she wore an expression of anger mixed in with regret. She knew that the boy fancied her, and that when she let her family's famed anger and spite cloud her judgement and began to seek out the boy in a hostile and bellicose manner, leaving him with bruises by her hand each time, she further reinforced the fact that he was seemingly viewed as an outsider by most everyone.
She had been proven right, that the boy had been cheating in the ring, but her victory in her instincts being right… how high had been the cost?
The other two faces the boy primarily saw as he rose up into the air on the back of his one and only friend were two of the most pronounced emotional expressions he saw.
His mentor, the one-armed and one-legged amazing singer had an expression worn only by himself and no one else. Pride. The smithy knew what the boy had done, and what had just transpired, but he was more focused on the rigging encasing the black dragon that wrapped around his torso down to his tail. He saw the prosthetic fin, and marvelled at the ingenuity and dedication that it took to create such a contraption, and to give a creature back its flight no less! He knew the boy was gifted, but to see what was possibly the full extent of his abilities on display was something the blacksmith could not help but feel pride for.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, with a full array of emotions on display, was Stoick 'The Vast' Haddock, Terror of the Seas, Most High Ruler of the Hairy Hooligans of Berk, O Hear His Name and Tremble, Ugh, Ugh. His incredibly long, and borderline asinine full title, is not an accurate representation of him, for one should not make him angry, as he once ripped a Gronkle's head clean off with his bare hands. The level of anger when facing that dragon was equal to that now, as his own blood claimed that black dragon as a friend. He had let his anger take over, and had yelled one sentence at the boy, upon hearing he and that black dragon immediately took flight, just as he began to realise the ramifications of what he said.
"You're not a Viking. You're not my son."
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The boy and the dragon, after escaping through the narrow hole in the chained roof of the Kill Ring, proceeded to dive down the cliff, nearly clipping the edge of it as they quickly descended. As they neared the rocky bottom of the cliff face, where the ocean was lapping against, creating a film of ocean froth, the black dragon extended its wings, and used the momentum from the dive to quickly have them speed away from the boy's previous home.
They continued to glide on, wind whipping the boy's hair every which way as the speed that they flew distorted the ocean bellow them. Ocean water and froth flew up splashing off the dragon's scales as the boy became thoroughly soaked, his nearly neck long auburn hair becoming matted down to his scalp and neck from the ocean's spray.
The dragon could pull up, above the ocean and prevent the boy from being soaked, but he knew the boy needed to have something cold splashing against him, as he could feel the boy's shakes and hear his sobs as he was fully ostracised from his home.
Cast out by his own father.
Alone, with no one else, but the black dragon.
After a generous span of time, the boy being assaulted by the ocean spray began to cease his shaking and sobbing, slowly coming to terms with what happened, and what that meant for himself and the dragon. The dragon, feeling the boy begin to calm, pulled up away from the ocean as the boy had begun to realise that this meant he was no longer tied down to just one tribe. One island. He was no longer kept in the binds of duty to a tribe for sake of honour and being the heir. He was no longer at their mercy.
He was free. They were free.
He was no longer Hiccup 'The Useless' Haddock. He was now able to go about his own path. His own life. Make a name for himself that he saw fit.
Useless no more.
The boy's face changed from one of utter despair to one of almost pure, child-like glee as he thought about it, a chance to start over, with his friend at his side. He gave Toothless a small scratch on the base of his neck, carefully circumnavigating the small flesh wounds dotted about from the small volley of arrows fired at him and the claws from the Monstrous Nightmare.
The dragon gave a small warble of reassurance, to let Hiccup know that he was fine, and all the wounds he saw would heal quickly, as well as to comfort the boy by reassuring that they made the right decision. The both of them looked on towards the horizon, where an island was slowly coming into view.
"Hey, bud," Hiccup started, as the dragon tilted his head slightly to hear his rider speak against the wind passing, "did it look like Gobber was… proud… of me?"
The dragon took a moment to remember how Hiccup had described this 'Gobber', before his memory of a description, as well as the image of the blonde haired Viking missing limbs came to mind. Toothless gave what could only be described as a small chirp, letting Hiccup know that he believed the answer to the question was 'yes'.
"Heh, so I wasn't crazy... he says talking to a giant lizard."
Said lizard's ear plate comes up and lightly smacks him. Hiccup begins to laugh lightly at Toothless's irritation at being called a lizard.
"You think if we went back Gobber would give us some of his honey mead?"
Another smack.
Hiccup begins to laugh again, slowly being joined by Toothless. The two slowly regained themselves, and continued to glance around as the island on the horizon started to get closer.
"Welcome to our new life, huh bud? What do you want to do first?"
To answer, the dragon gain as much altitude as he could within a few short moments, before tucking in his wings, plunging back towards the ground like a black arrow. As they continued to descend, clouds wisped past them, leaving small imprints of their path through them, as Hiccup began to thoroughly dry out from the wind and let out a yell of pure and unadulterated joy.
Hiccup's life, as it had been, in all its unkind fifteen winters, was over, and a new life had only just begun.
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There he stood gazing upon the Kill Ring. The honour had not fallen to him, but instead, Astrid.
This was of his own design of course, for he saw what lie in the heart of The Nest. The people of Berk could not hope to take on that behemoth. It was with a heavy heart that Hiccup forsake the dragons in their cages, and did nothing to prevent the death of the Monstrous Nightmare, for if he were to have been chosen, he could not have done it.
As such, he stood by the sides of the domed cage, and watch as Astrid held her bloodied axe aloft, on foot pressed on the dead dragons throat, and gave out a victory cry. This was answered by the cheers and whoops of excitement of a member of the younger generation joining the ranks of the full blooded warriors. Everyone cheered for Astrid.
Including Hiccup.
He could only do what he can to sway the people away from The Nest, and if he were to have them listen to him, he would have to start to show he was also one of them.
"Cheering for the victor son? I can't say I've ever seen you excited for a dragon kill before."
Hiccup turned to see his father, all cheering forgotten about. "Yeah... hehe..." He nervously chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Well... good!" Exclaimed Stoick, giving Hiccup a small pat on the back. Well, small for Vikings at least, as Hiccup still stumbled a step or two from it. "It's about time my son began to do things as we all do! We must celebrate! Astrid slaying her first dragon, and my son starting to act as us!"
Stoick stepped up onto one of the chains enclosing the ring. "Come everyone! To the Great Hall!"
This was met with more cheers as the Berkians began to file onto the bridge and make there way to the hall. Hiccup waited until the majority of them were filtered through the bridge.
"Hiccup!"
He paused a moment, before turning around. Approaching him from the ramp was Astrid, slightly covered in dragon blood. Mustering up the best smile he could, he replied to her. "Hi... Astrid. What's up?"
"Nothing besides the obvious," she said with almost a laugh, "but I have a question I wanted to ask you."
"Oh?" Hiccup muttered, not sure which way this conversation would go. Worst case scenario, Hiccup would make a bee-line through the forest and into the cove. He always had a small bag packed for an emergency exit there. Best case though... well...
"What is it? Your question?"
"...why did you let me win?"
Hiccup's eyes largened slightly, as he thought he was very careful with not doing everything he could through dragon training. "Wh- what do you mean?"
"You were giving it your all when we first started," She said, narrowing her eyes at him ever so slightly, "...but you all but stopped showing up for the last moon. Why?"
Thinking as quickly as he could, he blurted out what came to his head. "You deserved the honour more than I ever did."
Both of them were frozen slightly, surprised at Hiccup's answer. After a few moments, Astrid was the first one to speak again.
"Well... " She started before mumbling the rest.
"What, sorry?"
"I said 'Thank you'." She stated. "...you didn't have to give up first for me."
Hiccup let out a small laugh. "As if you wouldn't have come after me if I kept it?"
"Oh well... hehe..." She chuckled, shifting her weight to one side and rubbing one of her arms. "Thank you, again. Your letting me kill the dragon... my family's honour has been restored."
Hiccup gave her a genuine smile as he answered and began to walk to the bridge. "It was nothing."
Only a few paces towards the bridge, she called out "Wait!", to which, he once again turned around to see her running up. "...may I accompany you to the hall?"
Hiccup, slightly reddening at the check bones, gave a cough before responding. "If you wish."
To that, she gave a small smile, and the both of them began to walk towards the Great Hall to join the celebrations.
Added the Kill ring of the other timeline to this, so we are introduced to both worlds at the same time.
Please review as harshly as you'd like.