Well this story has been on my mind for a week now but I've finally had enough time to write it out. I came up with the OC during the 'Lightening Strikes' episode and my mind kept thinking of a girl who thought Hiccup seemed a lot like Job from the Bible. After that, it's all just a large, outlined blur.
I was actually thinking about adding in my own character but just couldn't think of the storyline or who they should be. So when my imagination came up with Marice's character I instantly knew what I wanted to do. Now I may end up messing around with the time period and such but Marice is a Christian during the Renaissance period in Italy. For the record, I am no way trying to convert anyone or trying to disrespect anyone's beliefs. Rather, it's more like I'm trying to show that most Christians are actually tolerant of other beliefs if they are given the same tolerance. I hope I made that clear.
Now I know Snoggletog is just a HTTYD version Christmas, but I thought it would be neat for an outsider to experience their celebration while also adding some of their own traditions into it.
That's the back story for this chapter and as for the OC, my mind is already forming a story that will explain Marice. I'm not sure when I will have it published but it probably won't be until after I finish this story. I'm hoping to finish this by Christmas, December 25th, but if not then sometime the week or two after it if I have time.
Well thanks for reading this really long Author's Note and if there are any questions, feel free to ask.
Disclaimer: I do not own 'How to Train Your Dragon' or anything associated with it. This story is for pure entertainment only.
This winter on Berk is actually one of the warmer winters they've had in the past years. Piles of snow were seen along the village edge along with long icicles hanging from the roof rafters, until one of the dragons bumped into the house and knocked them off.
At this time of the year the village was once again preparing for their annual winter holiday, Snoggletog. Just like last year the villagers were setting up for it by decorating their houses, baking food, putting up shields on the tree, stuff like that. The only difference however was that the dragons didn't seem to be going to their island this year. No one really knew why but the Academy students, well more like Hiccup, Astrid, Fishlegs, and Marcie, came up with an idea that they only had babies every few years. It actually makes sense because almost all of last year's babies were still… babies, only five times bigger.
Watching over all these activities from the skies was Stoick sitting majestically atop Thornado. A huge grin was on his face as he watched Gobber trying to look serious wearing his antlers and bells.
"Isn't this great, Thornado?" Stoick asked, receiving a low rumble from the dragon. "This winter seems to be one of the tamer ones, my people are fed, the dragons are not destroying the village as much, and everything seems to be in peace."
Thornado's only answer was a louder rumble from his throat, seeming to agree with Stoick's statement. Giving his dragon a light pat he continued, "This is the first time you and some others are celebrating Snoggletog with us. Last year's celebration had been the best one so far, but I have a feeling this year's will be even better."
On the other side of the island the riders waited on top of their dragons along with Marice, who stood in front of them. The girl was around the same age as the others but was about Hiccup's size. Her usually hip length brown hair was tied back into a tight braid and her green eyes playfully gleamed against her slightly pale face. She wore clothing similar to what the women in the village wore but added on a furred vest with a hood attached. Around her neck laid a small wooden cross that had never been seen to have left her neck. Despite her small size her strength was about the same as Astrid's and had proven herself to be able to calculate any situation and use it to her advantage.
Pulling a loose strand of hair back Marice told the group, "Now the rules of this game are simple: ride your sleds, or dragons, down this hill dodging trees, rocks, and anything else that you would usually hit. You are not allowed to shoot at the other riders and if you fall off your dragon or get stuck, you're out of the game. First one to make it to the bottom," she pointed down to the bottom of the hill that was almost 15 miles down, "wins. Now any question?"
Fishlegs timidly raised his hand. "Yes, Legs?" "Um yes, how exactly are you planning on getting down?" "Excellent question," Marice answered, walking to the outside of the group to pull out what she called a sled.
The thing was made out of dark wood that was perfectly cut and held together by steel bars with sharpened Nadder spikes on the bottom. The front of it had the wood curved back to help her stay on. On the sides were two tightly rolled up materials with a thin metal pole in the middle of them.
Setting the sled down beside Fishlegs she said, "You guys may have dragons, but I know a thing or two about snow and gravity." "I thought you said you spent most of your time at sea," Snotlout commented, "and what's gravity? Is it better looking than me?" This earned him an eye roll from Hiccup and Astrid along with the dragons.
"I did, but my family and I did spend some time on land during seasons like this. Now who's ready to get their butts whooped?"
"Ha in your dreams," Tuffnut snickered while Ruffnut added, "Yeah. That little sled of yours is no match for our dragon." Their Zippleback lifted its heads up higher as if to prove it.
A wide smirk spread across Marice's face as she stood on top of her sled saying, "I may not have a dragon, but I got something that's close to it." The others looked on as she grabbed the strings on the rolls.
In almost the blink of any eye, the two pieces of cloths widened out as the poles quickly shot up into Marice's waiting hands. The cloth was a dark brown and seemed to be made out of a very light but durable looking material that stretched out about five feet from the sled. The girl had grabbed the poles at an angle so the cloth looked almost like dragon wings.
The whole group looked impressed at the contraction, except for Hiccup who crossed his arms and tried to look angry saying, "That sure does look a lot like the missing material I use for Toothless' tail, and I'm pretty sure I was experimenting with those rods."
"Well it was lying around in the shop," Marice answered, sliding one foot to the curved front while putting her weight on the other leg, "And I figured that nice, selfless Hiccup wouldn't mind if I 'borrowed' them for a while."
Toothless gave what sounded like a small laugh while Hiccup just said, "It doesn't really matter what you did to your sled, we're still going to win right bud?" "Think again, Hiccup," Astrid called out, "Stormfly and I are winning this one."
"If everyone is ready then," Marice said, looking to the side as a light blue Terrible Terror was quietly napping. She let out a low whistle and the Terror sat up. "Give the signal, Violet."
The small dragon stretched out its wings and flew in front of the group. For ten seconds it did a weird serious of circles, stared into each of the dragons' eyes, and puffed out its little chest in an effort to look tough. Though all it did was earn a small chuckle from the other dragons.
Finally it shot a small flame into the sky and quickly joined with Marice as the teens started down the hill.
It didn't take two minutes before Fishlegs quickly slid off course, where he and Meatlug collided with a tree. He muttered a small "I'm okay" while the others continued down.
Tuffnut and Ruffnut had the slight lead while Hiccup, Astrid, and Marice were close behind. Snotlout tried in vain to steer Hookfang around the others but the dragon just ignored his rider. Out of what seemed like spite, the Monstrous Nightmare bucked his rider off and dug its talons into the snow, stopping a few feet in front of his stunned and cold rider.
Marice allowed herself to look back for a second but was quickly called back to the front from Violet, who sat on her shoulder screeching at a tree they were quickly approaching. Smiling the girl maneuvered the right 'wing' to fold in and the sled easily missed the obstacle.
Hiccup and Toothless also had experienced the same thing but without any though, they also dodged it perfectly. Astrid had a little more difficulty as Stormfly's spikes caught some of the branches but they managed to shake it off and join with the other two.
Ruff and Tuff however were heading right toward a very thick tree and each wanted the other to go their way. The result was two dragon heads on either side of the tree while the twins were sent flying off.
Out of the three remaining teens, Marice was ahead of the other two by only a few meters. "Hiccup! She's going to win," Astrid called out. The boy's face grew serious for a second before it brightened back up. "I have an idea!"
The Nadder rider looked at him in slight confusion but let out an understanding smile as the two quickly came up on the sides of the sled. By the time Marice realized what was going on the other two had already positioned their dragons in front of her and let them spread out their wings.
Muttering a small curse under her breath the girl cried out, "That's cheating!" "We have no idea what you're talking about!" Hiccup answered her, earning a small laugh from Astrid. "You never said anything about blocking a rider you know."
Slightly huffing the girl tried plowing through but the riders kept their dragons far enough to be out of her reach but close enough to keep her behind them. Violet let out a frustrated growl but then noticed her friend's face let out a calculating smile.
Quickly Marice retracted the sled's 'wings' and ducked down as she slid under the dragons' wings. When she managed to make it out, she opened the wings back up and looked behind her to give the stunned riders a smug smile.
Before the two could recover Marice had already gained the lead and crossed the finish marker. Using her leg as a peg, Marice stopped the sled and did a slight turn just as Hiccup and Astrid crossed the line together.
When the two looked up at her they let out a small laugh as the three grouped up and watched the others begin to join them on their dragons. "Oh man!" Fishlegs exclaimed, tree branches sticking out of his clothes and helmet, "That was so cool Marice! The way you just quickly ducked under the two like that! That was awesome."
"Not bad for your first time sledding here," Ruffnut praised. Tuffnut added, "Yeah not bad. But just wait, we'll beat you next time."
"Please," Snotlout interrupted, leaning on Hookfang who was staring at the sky, "Hookfang and I could have easily overtaken you." "Then why did Hookfang decide to buck you off and stare at the sky?" Astrid teased, only receiving an open mouth from the dense Viking.
"Well I'll admit," Hiccup started, gently rubbing Toothless, "That was pretty good for someone without a dragon for dragon sledding." "Thanks," Marice said, looking at the others, "But I have a good black smith teacher who likes to leave his stuff around the shop."
Hiccup rolled his eyes while Fishlegs said, "Hey guys shouldn't we head back to get ready for Snoggletog?" "Oh yeah we almost forgot," Astrid added, jumping on Stormfly. The rest of the riders did likewise and Marice climbed up behind Toothless, adjusting two straps under the sled so she could wear it on her shoulders so her arms could wrap around Hiccup. Violet flew off her friend's shoulder and went near Toothless' head.
As the dragons took off the girl took in a quick breath and tried not to look down. Despite riding with the others for a few months now, the girl was still almost terrified of heights. "You know," she started off, earning the other's attention, "from what you have told me so far about Snoggletog, it sounds a lot like our winter holiday of Christmas."
"Christmas? Sounds boring," Ruffnut commented. "Oh it's anything but boring," Marice answered, gently tightening her arms. "It's my favorite time of the year. My family and I always take off from the trading business and go all out for the season, though we may go over board with everything."
"You guys can't be as bad as Gobber around this time," Hiccup interrupted, "Every year he practically buries the shop with decorations and only wears his sleigh bells and antler helmet." "If you think that's bad you should see our mom," Ruffnut added, "She goes on her annual baking spree but won't let anyone eat anything until it's time." "Yeah. One night she caught us trying to steal from the kitchen and the next thing we know, there's an axe stuck to the wall about an inch above our heads," Tuffnut finished.
"At least parents don't randomly start singing carols in the middle of the night," Astrid said, letting out a shiver, "and really off key, too."
Marice let out a low chuckle as she heard this and said, "Are you kidding me? That's one of my favorite things about Christmas. We would go out singing into the forest to chop down a tree then we would sing all the way back until we got home. Once we set up the tree, we spend the whole day adding decorations on it like pine cones, flowers, small trinkets, and candles. Then we would decorate the whole house in boughs of holly, ivy, wood carvings, angels, even a small nativity scene right above our fireplace. Our mom would then go into the kitchen for hours and won't let us in until the room is all most flooded with sweets. Finally we spend the night in front of the tree and each of us takes turns lighting the candles one by one and light the top one together. All the while we would sing, tell stories, and just enjoy the time being together."
"Wow it sounds like you guys really enjoy spending the holidays together," Fishlegs responded. "Yeah," Marice said, letting her face drop into a sad smile, "we really do."
Noticing how sad the girl was getting, Hiccup asked, "So you mentioned a nativity. What exactly is that?" "Well the whole point of Christmas is to getting ready for our savior to be born among men. The Nativity is just a barn scene with animals and a manger that Mary and Joseph go to because they could not go to an inn. When Jesus was born his mother placed him in a manger and all over the land the people noticed a bright star pointing them towards the baby. It's quite humbling actually to think that the man who was sent to save us was born in a simple barn."
"Born in a barn? Are you serious?" Snotlout said, flexing one of his muscles, "If it were me I would choose to be born right on top of the mountain where people could see how awesome I am. Then before they leave, they have to sing songs about me and bow down in front of me and a statue of me as they head back down."
Just the thought of what Snotlout said sent shivers down everyone's spine and Astrid began to feel her stomach clench. Even Marice wrapped her arms around herself, trying to get that image out of her head. "You know, Hiccup," she said, "I think I found something that's worse than my fear of heights."
Before the boy could say anything she took a quick glance below. They were passing over a really big hill that seemed small compared to the large land surrounding it. Letting out a squeal of fright the girl quickly latched herself back onto Hiccup saying, "Never mind, heights is worse."
The sudden movement startled Hiccup but before he could recover, his leg slid out of the latch controlling Toothless' tail. With no one controlling it, the dragon's tail folded back up and Toothless let out a small roar as he began to fall. Caught off guard the two riders ended up flying out of the saddle and began their terrifying descent towards the ground.
Noticing what had happened, Astrid quickly flew Stormfly down hoping to catch them before they crashed. Hiccup was disoriented for a while but quickly got his baring straight when Toothless accidently smacked his arm with his tail. Without wasting another second, he grabbed onto Toothless' saddle and fitted his prosthetic onto the latch. He opened up the dragon's tail and he joined up with Astrid and Violet to reach Marice, who seemed more stunned than terrified.
After she was knocked off, the girl didn't know what to do for a few seconds but once her senses came back, she tried to slow down her descent by opening up the 'wings' on her sled. Unfortunately gravity was pulling her down so fast that the material ended up breaking off from the sled. Hoping to minimize any damage, she turned so that her back was facing the earth. She saw Hiccup rejoining with Toothless and the pair along with Astrid and Violet tried coming down to help her.
Before they could reach her however, she felt her back collide with something made of wood as she fell through someone's roof. Luckily she landed onto the resident's bed, which was made of really soft sheep's wool. Stars danced across her vision for a minute as the owner looked toward her and began shouting.
For a minute she couldn't tell who it was but as her vision and hearing returned to normal, another shiver made its way down her spine. She had just crashed into Mildew's house.
If you have read this far, thank you for giving my story a chance. Constructive criticism is appreciated and flames with be ignored. Feel free to leave a suggestion or your thoughts about this story. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up in a couple of days, unless the world ends tomorrow xD