It didn't take the village very long to notice they had a stranger in their midst. The figure in blue painted armour didn't seem willing to talk much (or at all) and when asked why they were here with the village, the stranger simply shrugged.

Distracted as they are by the presence of a stranger, nobody noticed anybody else enter the room, so it came as a bit of a surprise when there was a sound of a door shutting, and everyone turned to see large platters of food placed on the platform Xzisa had been standing on.

Some villagers were hesitant to touch the food. Others had no such qualms; most of the village had been woken up by the dragon raid, and had consequently missed dagmal. Besides, there was an amazing assortment of food; roast mutton and fish, fresh bread with butter, various kinds of soups, exotic vegetables and even unrecognised foreign dishes with rare spices.

Somehow Hiccup ended up sitting on the ground near the other teens, holding a plate of food and a cup of some kind of fruit drink (he didn't recognise the fruit), listening to them chat.

"Shadow puppets, maybe?" Astrid said, picking at some mutton. The conversation had turned to speculation about Xzisa's answer to Fishlegs' earlier question./p

"Mmm, maybe," Fishlegs said, warily watching the twins pour a strong smelling liquid onto their food. The table had had a group of foods with warning labels, and the twins had grabbed some of anything that had such a label.

(Snotlout had eaten some spiced meat from that part of the table and had to down two cups of water to cool his mouth down.)

"The music part is what's tripping me up," Fishlegs continued in a vain effort to distract himself from the disaster waiting to happen. "It might've just meant the story was told in song, but if that were the case she could have just said musical storytelling with pictures…"/p

"She might have just been being cryptic," Astrid replied. That might have been true, but if that were the case why give an explanation at all?/p

"I say it's magic," Snotlout said with his mouth full of mutton, spitting pieces everywhere. Everyone shifted further away from him, and he took the hint and swallowed. "She clearly had magic, so she could probably make this 'movie' thing with it, right?"

"I suppose," said Fishlegs with a shrug. "I don't know how seiðr works, so-"

"AH!" Everyone's head whipped round to look at Tuffnut, who was batting at his tongue. "It feels like a dragon barfed in my mouth!"

"It can't be that hot," Ruffnut denied, stealing a piece of something off of Tuffnut's plate and trying it. A few moments later, her eyes widened. "Or maybe it is. Ow!"

"I love it!" Tuffnut decided. Hiccup shook his head in bemusement.

It was several hours before anything really happened. In that time, most Vikings had eaten something from the food table, a few had gotten into fights (the sparring ring was put to good use), and Snotlout had taken a dare from the twins to eat a red-orange vegetable from the warning-label plates. He was still suffering from the effects, though a large mug of chilled milk had ended the worst of it.

Someone had found a room with blankets at some point, and a few people had decided to catch up on missed sleep.

Then, lines of orange lit up on the floor, startling a few people. They streamed from each room towards the door at the end of the room, which had previously been locked but was now wide open.

Remembering Xzisa's earlier words, Vikings started filing through the door, Stoick in the lead. Hiccup heard confused murmuring coming from inside the room. At least he assumed it was a room.

Trying to delay whatever was coming up, Hiccup waited until as many people had gone through the door as he could before starting to follow, managing to lag among the last people to go through.

He noticed a sign on the door, and paused, letting the few people behind him go in while he read the note.

"Tip: The seats further back will give a better view of the screen."

Hiccup blinked slowly, then followed the other Vikings through the doors, into a dark room with many tiered chairs all facing a white wall. He supposed that was the screen?

Hiccup shook his head slightly, then started scaling the stairs. Most of the villagers were sitting in the front; apparently not many people had read the note. The armoured stranger was sitting at the very top row, in the corner, and his dad and Gobber were sitting a row below. Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Astrid were sitting a few rows below that.

Hiccup hesitated, then made his way to the topmost row, and seated himself behind his father, just a bit off to the side. He turned and waved at the armoured stranger, who stared for a moment before waving back and turning away.

The lights dimmed, startling a few people, and an image of a night sky with a bright moon appeared on the screen, accompanied by music.

The moon hung there for a moment as the music played, and Hiccup noticed a shadow momentarily block out some of the stars. Then, as the horns were replaced by a drumbeat, the sky rippled and transitioned into a moving view of the sea, approaching Berk.

Many people marvelled, then a few nearly jumped out of their seats when a voice rang out.

"This is Berk."

Hiccup noticed his dad's jaw drop, then realised that the voice was his.

"It's twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death. It's located solidly on the meridian of misery."

Hiccup stared ahead, baffled as to why it was his voice narrating this. Several other Vikings shared the same thoughts, though many didn't really care, distracted as they were by the image changing to sweep over Berk from a height./p

Stoick smiled at the sight, the sight of the village from this view unfamiliar but welcome. Hiccup's ongoing narration was interesting too, even if his description of the village was laced with sarcasm. At least until

"The only problems are the pests."

Everyone scowled at the sight of a sheep being carried off by a dragon. "Pest" was accurate, damn beasts.

The Vikings watched bitterly as the shot changed to a group of them trying to chase off a Nightmare, which turned its head towards the screen and started to spew fire that was just in time blocked by the on-screen Hiccup closing a door on it. The narration synced up with the on-screen Hiccup for a moment, confirming to the few who weren't sure that it was in fact the village runt who was narrating this.

"Most people would leave. Not us. We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues"

Some of the villagers took this in good humour. Some didn't. Hiccup stifled a laugh at the look on his dad's face; he clearly wanted to object but he knew better than anyone how stubborn the hooligans could be, having had to break up many fights brought on by said stubbornness.

A few Vikings, including Astrid and Fishlegs, watched with interest as Hiccup deftly wove his way through the ongoing battle. During raids it was harder to pay attention to such a thing, having to have focus elsewhere, but Hiccup was surprisingly agile.

While most of the village laughed at Hiccup's snarky explanation of their naming habits, especially his words being punctuated by an overenthusiastic Viking, Stoick frowned and looked over his shoulder at his son.

"Do you not like your name?"

The blue-armoured figure on Hiccup's row tried to discretely turn their head to look at him.

Hiccup made a face, and shrugged. "Sorry, dad, I just- it's kind of hard not to feel a little bitter about being called the runt of the litter, you know?"

Stoick absorbed that, and opened his mouth to reply, but was pre-emptively cut off when his own voice came from the screen, looking up just in time to see the view pan into a closer view of his flame-lit figure.

"That's Stoick the Vast, chief of the tribe. They say that when he was a baby he popped a dragon's head clean off of its shoulders."

Stoick snorted at the reminder of the rumour. Not totally baseless, rather exaggerated of course... Although it filled him with a warm amusement to know Hiccup believed it./p

"Oh, this is this morning," Hiccup realised. Really the bit where Snorre yelled in his face should have tipped him off, that didn't happen very often… although the fact that he couldn't say it hadn't happened before then was a little worrisome.

Hearing this, a few Vikings started paying closer attention to the screen, as their chief was given a briefing of the situation. They hadn't realised it was the raid from that morning, with the view following Hiccup, and some of them were eager to know how the boy had managed to take down a brazier, not having been at the scene at the time.

Stoick sighed in annoyance when his on-screen doppelganger was told no Night Furies had shown up yet. That hadn't lasted nearly long enough for his liking.

Hiccup, on the other hand, was feeling very odd as he watched himself run into the forge from an outside perspective, and the following exchange with Gobber. He winced a little at the rest of the village's laughter when his past-self posed on the screen.

"The meathead with attitude and interchangeable hands is Gobber."

"Oi!"

Hiccup stifled a laugh.

On the screen, the focus changed to Stoick giving battle plans to a company of Vikings, which then ran past a set of houses as a Nightmare spat liquid fire on them. Hiccup's voice snarkily commented on the houses being destroyed.

A Viking called for the fire brigade, and the village teens got to see themselves on the screen for the first time as Hiccup introduced them one-by-one, ending with a dramatic view of Astrid walking away from an explosion in slow-motion while Hiccup practically swoons. (A few Vikings chuckled at the love-struck expression on Hiccup's face, while Hiccup himself slouched in embarrassment.)

"Oh, their job is so much cooler…"

"I dunno, I think your job is cool," Fishlegs said. "Manning the smithy is very important especially during raids, and I don't know the first thing about making a sword so it's not like anyone can do it, like with fire control."

"I'm not allowed to forge large weapons yet," Hiccup pointed out. "I've not got the arm strength to hold the right sized billets yet."

"Maybe, but you shouldn't sell yourself short Hiccup, you and Gobber are the only blacksmiths in the village!" Fishlegs insisted, ignoring the exchange happening on the screen. "That's a very important role! And-"

"Will you two just shut up!" Snotlout groaned. "Nobody can hear anything over your yapping!"

Fishlegs winced and stopped talking, and Hiccup shifted slightly, turning his attention back to the screen in time to see a viking grab a bola right out of Gobber's hand and throw it at a Gronckle.

"No, but this will throw it for me."

On-screen Hiccup patted an odd contraption, which promptly unfolded and hit an unsuspecting viking in the head with a bola weight.

"Oh man, I want one of those!" Tuffnut said excitedly. "Hiccup!"

"No," Hiccup said flatly.

"Spoilsport," Ruffnut huffed, turning her attention back to the screen.

"If you want to get out there, fight dragons, you need to stop all… this," Gobber on screen said, gesturing to Hiccup.

"He just pointed to all of him," Hiccup heard Fishlegs murmur, and he tried to stifle a laugh as his on-screen self echoed the sentiment.

Stoick rubbed his temple.

"You're playing a dangerous game, keeping this much… Raw vikingness contained! There will be consequences!"

Nobody in the room bothered restraining their laughter at this. The only consequences of not letting Hiccup do what he wants is less of a mess.

"Joke's on them," Hiccup mumbled to himself.

"One day I'll get out there. Because killing a dragon is everything around here."

"It's like he's talking to someone from outside of the archipelago," Fishlegs said, thinking out loud. The people who heard him absorbed that for a moment, ignoring the movie as Hiccup began narrating a guide to the dragons in the raid, the music becoming ominous to accompany it. Each description was fairly brief, and accompanied with a view of the species in question wreaking havoc, stealing fish or blowing up houses.

"And then, there's the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those. They have this… Nasty habit of setting themselves on fire."

"Nasty habit. Well, that's certainly one way of puttin' it," Gobber said, scratching under his helmet and watching the Chief go at the Nightmare with a hammer.

A familiar, shiver-inducing whistling sound filled the room, and in the back, in a hidden alcove behind the final row of seats, a practically invisible black shape shifted. Eyes that you could barely tell were green from the faint light of the screen started paying much closer attention.

Hiccup watched tensely with the rest of the village while the whistle grew, the scene flicking back to him in the forge just long enough for everyone to see he'd noticed it, before changing back to a different view of the catapult just in time for a clear view of the violet-tinted Night Fury blast.

Hiccup felt his stomach churn at the sight of it, remembering how his head could have been the target of that mere hours ago. Seeing his dad have to jump off the flaming catapult before a second blast didn't help.

"No one has ever killed a Night Fury. That's why I'm gonna be the first."

A few rows in front of Hiccup, Snotlout snickered loudly. "Sure, and I bet next you're gonna go after a Skrill."

Hiccup frowned, but didn't reply, instead choosing to watch (again) Gobber telling him to stay put while he charged into battle. Which didn't last long.

Stoick turned to give Gobber a glare at the sight of his son barrelling out of the smithy with his ridiculous contraption. Gobber had the sense to look sheepish.

Some villagers (Mildew) wondered why the 'movie' was focusing on Hiccup so much. They knew what would happen. Hiccup would try out his contraption, fail, get chased by a dragon and have to be saved, and destroy a brazier.

The screen briefly showed Stoick and his group netting some Nadders, before it changed back to Hiccup, who reached a clear area near a cliff and set up his contraption, which looked a little bit like a pair of crossbows on a wheelbarrow. The music quietened to a single, soft strain, setting the mood.

"Come on, gimmie something to shoot at, gimmie something to shoot at…" the on-screen Hiccup said. Real-Hiccup felt his chest tighten. It was supposed to be his moment of glory, but knowing how it turned out… Dad was going to kill him.

The room watched with anticipation as on-screen-Hiccup searched for a target. Among the teens, Astrid raised an eyebrow when the Night Fury was heard – Hiccup had said… but no, he couldn't have.

Hiccup aimed, the Night Fury blasted another tower, and Hiccup fired his contraption, launching a bola. Snotlout and a few other Vikings barked out a short laugh at the sight of the scrawny viking being outright thrown backwards by the machine, only for everyone to be knocked speechless by the snapping sound of a bola hitting true, and a haunting screech.

In the hidden alcove, a dark shape flinched and drooped. So that was how the human fledgling that had been crowing over him earlier had gotten him.

"Odin's beard, he actually did it!" said a viking in the front row. There wasn't much time to mull that fact over, however.

"…Except for you."

"I'll never understand how he keeps up his quips under pressure like that…" Hiccup heard Fishlegs mumble a few rows forward, as his on-screen self was pursued by the Nightmare.

"Plenty of practice, Fishlegs," Hiccup replied back, watching himself desperately dodge the bursts of viscous fire then hide behind a pole. He spared a glance towards his dad, whose shoulders were hunched with tension. He'd clearly dropped whatever he'd planned to say to Hiccup about the Night Fury as soon as he saw the Nightmare.

On screen, the nightmare leans around the pole to attack Hiccup, only for Stoick to beat it back just In time. The hooligans cheered triumphantly, then even moreso when the dragon realised it was out of fire.

Then, when the dragon had been beaten off, Stoick turned around to see the torchpole finally burn though, collapsing on its own weight. This was the point where other Vikings had shown up, so past this point, everybody knew what happened; it was vaguely annoying to once again watch the torch bowl release the captured nadders, which promptly used the net to steal their sheep. At least Hiccup looked appropriately guilty.

"…Okay but I hit a Night Fury."

Stoick sighed. "You did, and I didn't even listen."

"It's okay, dad," Hiccup replied. "It's not like it matters anymore.."

Stoick frowned in thought, mostly ignoring the screen, having already lived this. Knowing Hiccup… "You went looking for it yourself, I suppose?"

"…Yes," Hiccup said, nodding tensely (though his dad wouldn't see it). "As it turns out, you were right on the whole 'not a dragon killer' thing."

Stoick turned in his seat at that, jostling Gobber, who was watching the exchange boredly. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean…" Hiccup tried to figure out how to explain what would surely be a colossal disappointment, then sighed. "The thing will probably show it. Just… Please don't be too mad."

That didn't inspire much confidence. "How bad was it?"

"Well… I don't have a dead dragon, but I'm alive and uninjured..."

Stoick took a calming breath, elected to wait and see if the movie would show what had happened, and turned back to the screen.

a/n: okay I know it took a while but there's three thousand words of this so I think I'm justified in taking that long...