Disclaimer: I don't own How to Train Your Dragon; it is the sole property of both Dreamworks and… yes, thanks to one review, Cressida Cowell. Original Characters, whether human or Dragon, are of my own design.
How to Train Your Dragon: the Novelization
Chapter 2: Kill or Release the Night Fury; Father and Son's Deal
Berk Council Hall
While Hiccup ran through the forests of Berk, searching for the Night Fury, Stoick the Vast was leading a meeting, discussing to the other adult Vikings about what they had to do about these dragons. And begrudgingly to the other Vikings in disgust, Unfer was attending the council along with them. Currently, it was about the situation on what to do with the Dragon Problem. And usually, that plan was to destroy them completely, as Stoick made it very evident with every word coming out of his mouth.
"Either we finish them or they finish us!" Stoick calmly yelled out to the other Vikings, his voice echoing throughout the stone building. "It's the only way we'll be rid of them," He plunged his knife into a map of the surrounding oceans, right where the dragons' nest was thought to be. "One more search before the ice sets in. If we find the nest and destroy it, the dragons will have to leave, they'll find another home."
However, one of the warriors was uncertain, as he stated a firm reminder. "But those ships never come back."
"We're Vikings, it's an occupational hazard," Stoick stated, tossing away all fear. "Now who's with me?!" He looked at the room full of Vikings, no one seemed to agree with him at this point. Either they thought the plan wouldn't work, or they were just too afraid. "Alright," he said, sighing at the quiet, "Those who wish to stay… will simply have to have the honor of looking out after my son, Hiccup."
It was only until Stoick had uttered his son's name, did the room burst with agreements and battle-cries.
"I'm with you Stoick!" yelled Spitelout, Stoick's second in command; he was also his brother and the son of Snotlout, making Hiccup his uncle, and Snotlout his cousin.
"That's more like it." the chief replied, very satisfied with both the response and to himself.
The room began to empty as the Vikings left, leaving just Stoick, Unfer, who was slowly but calmly making his way out, and Gobber. "Alright, I'll go pack my undies," Gobber stated with a smile on his face, as he stood up getting ready to leave the room. He then switched his prosthetic hand with a large wooden mug.
"No, I need you to stay and train some new recruits." Stoick walked over to Gobber, who sat down again. Stoick then looked to Unfer's retreating form as he called out, "You too, Unfer."
Unfer stopped showing a face of defeat and anger in his eyes as they narrowed, but he turned around to face the two other Vikings calmly, and replied, "My chief, I didn't realize you wanted me to stay as acting chief."
"No, I just want you hear, so you won't screw up the mission," Stoick said dead-on, earning a scowl of disappointment from the thin and devious looking Viking.
"Oh perfect, and while I'm busy, Hiccup can cover the store," Gobber said sarcastically, taking a swig from his mug, even as his fake tooth fell into the mug, "Molten steel, razor sharp blades, lots of time to himself. What could possibly go wrong?"
"As much as I hate to admit, Gobber is correct, my chief," Unfer stated. "Your son is much more dangerous than any dragon we've ever seen."
Feeling lost, Stoick sighed as he turned to his best friend and asked, "What am I gonna do with 'im Gobber?"
Gobber thought about it for a moment, and calmly shrugged, "Put 'im in training with the others," Answered Gobber.
"I think he's serious," Unfer stated to the Belch.
"So am I."
"He'd be killed before you let the first dragon out of it's cage," Stoick protested. "He's not strong enough for this kind of…"
"Oh ya don't know that," Gobber defended.
"I do know that," Stoick insisted.
"No ya don't"
"No actually I do."
"No ya don't!"
As the two friends continued to bicker, Unfer thought about it to himself. Hiccup wasn't in reality the strongest of the Viking teens, and not the most durable. In fact, the boy could easily be snapped like a twig if it was done in reality. This earned a thought of scheming into his head, as well as a devious smirk upon his face.
"Listen, you know what he's like. From the time he could crawl he's been, different," Stoick sighed in frustration, and turned to look away from Gobber and Unfer, "He doesn't listen; he has the attention span of a sparrow. I take 'im fishin' and he goes hunting for, for trolls."
"Trolls do exist!" interrupted Gobber "They steal yer socks. But only the left ones. Why they do it, I'm still mullin' it over. I mean, what's with that?"
"When I was a boy," Stoick started.
"Oh, here we go." muttered Gobber to himself, as he took another swig from his mug.
"Not this story again," Unfer groaned looking down, closed his eyes, and rubbed his temples. "This is worse than that song he came up with."
"When I was a boy," Stoick started again, ignoring the groans from the two Vikings, ",my father told me to bang my head against a rock, and I did it. I thought it was crazy, but I didn't question him, and you know what happened?"
"You got a headache?" Said Gobber, unamused, while trying to fish out his fake tooth which had fallen into his mug.
"You, um… developed a concussion? A fatal brain tumor?" Unfer asked, not making it sound like he was hoping for such a thing to happen. "Perhaps a small… blood clot that's been taking its time to kill you in your sleep? Or simply to turn you into a drooling vegetable?"
"That rock split in two," Stoick said, ignoring Gobber, as well as ignoring the death wishes Unfer had been hoping on to him. "It taught me what a Viking could do, you two. He could crush mountains, level forests, tame seas! Even as a boy I knew what was, what I had to become. Hiccup is not that boy."
"You can't stop him Stoick, you can only prepare him," Gobber started as he began to finish, "I know it seems hopeless but the truth is you won't always be around to protect 'im. He's gonna get out there again. He's probably out there now."
Stoick looked to his friend, and then turned away in thought, lost in it was more like it. However, Unfer himself was lost in thought about it as well as he walked out of the council hall, thinking of the possibilities while Stoick was away
Later On
The Crack of Dawn
Deep in the Forests of Berk
Through the thick and darkened forests, the young Viking in talk back at the council was fervently searching all over for his game. Hiccup had made his way throughout the islands, keeping track of where he had been in his pocket book. Putting X's on a map of where he had looked for the dragon, and so far, it was without any luck. Frustrated, he scribbled out his map and put it away in his vest.
"Oh, the Gods hate me. Everybody else does," he said to himself, "Some people lose their knife or their mug." he then groaned in frustration as he hit a tree branch out of his way, "No, not me! I manage to lose an entire dragon!!!" and then to make matters worse for himself, that very same branch he swatted away, came back and smacked him hard in the face.
"Ow!" Hiccup said as he rubbed the sore spot he was smacked in.
He groaned as he glared up at the tree, and realized something as his anger subside. The tree had been snapped in half; almost as if something large and heavy plowed right through it at an angle. Then he realized that must have been the case, for underneath it, a deep trail was cut into the ground, like something had crash-landed there.
Hiccup crawled down the path; hoping that it might have been the Night Fury's body. It ended just as it met a small hill going down. He peered over the edge, just to immediately disappear back behind it. Slowly looking over again, he saw a black motionless figure lying on the ground, tangled in ropes of his own bolo cannon.
The beast was definitely dragon in design and function. The beast's wingspan must have been fourteen to sixteen feet, and the dragon itself was large and sleek, adding to its tail's length as well. Its scaly body was completely colored black; its design was something similar to perhaps a newt, or possibly a dog due to the legs design. Hiccup also took notice that aside from the main large wings, there was a second small set of wings behind the main ones, and the tail had sort of wing-like tips at the end… or at least one wing-like tip. Aside from that, Hiccup also took notice that it had a short neck and, unlike other dragons, it had no nose horn. It even had two floppy like ears, along with two floppy flesh parts in the back of its head that resembled horns of such, and underneath the bigger ones were a pair of mid and small earlike flaps. From the top of its skull to the mid part of his tail, there were small scale fringes. And, for a moment, Hiccup thought that he had seen one of the eyes open, to reveal them to be a catlike green.
He made a claw-like fist with his glove, which caused the sword to once again shoot out. With his weapon out and about, he slowly and cautiously made his way down the hill, hiding behind a rock before walking up to the unmoving creature.
"Oh-oh wow. I did it," Hiccup smiled at this accomplishment, walking now close to six inches of the body of the fallen Night Fury. "Ohh, I did I!!! This fixes everything! Yes!" He then placed his foot on the dragon's belly, feeling extremely proud as he spoke out in a deep mighty voice, "I have brought down this mighty beast!"
But his victory was short lived, for as he realized too soon, the dragon stirred underneath him, and began to breath heavily.
He looked over to the dragons head and gulped as his face went pale and his eyes bulged out of his skull. It wasn't his imagination when he thought he saw his eyes open; one large green eye stared at Hiccup. Hiccup jumped back, nearly falling over on his butt, had he not regained his balance. It seemed that the Night Fury had not made any attempts to free itself, or any attempt to attacking him.
The dragon made low rumbling noises, and Hiccup held his glove blade out, positioning himself in front of it. "Alright, I'm… I'm gonna kill you, Dragon," he said uncertainly, not sure if he was gonna make good on his threat, "I mean it… I'm gonna cut out your heart and take it to my father. I'm a Viking," he whispered, holding his glove blade up, attempting to thrust the blade deep into the dragon's chest. But then, he finally shouted in a more determined voice, "I am a Viking!"
It was when he did this, he took notice that the Night Fury looked up at him, and noticed that its eyes were full of fear. 'I… I can do this,' he thought to himself, his right hand which wore his gadget gauntlet was starting to shake with uncertainty, 'No! no, I can't flake out on this. I can do this!!!'
Hiccup took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and held the blade in place, almost scratching the surface of the dragon's underbelly. He held his arm with his left hand, steadying it in order to stop shaking as he readied to plunge it deep into the heart. He opened his right eye and looked at the black beast. It looked so frightened, and as Hiccup closed his eyes once again and prepared to strike, the dragon's head lolled back and it's eyes shut, almost accepting its fate.
Hiccup let out a huge groaning sigh, as he brought down the glove mounted sword… away from the dragon's belly. Hiccup just sighed as he looked at the Night Fury, no longer able to kill the helpless dragon. He looked at the ropes that bounded it together, and said to himself, with regret dripping from his voice and his face, "I did this."
The Night Fury's eyes were close tightly, awaiting its fate. Until it heard a snapping sound as its eyes shot open. The dragon looked to see what was going on and was slightly shocked. Hiccup had retracted the blade enough to make it dagger sized, and began to cut the ropes that held its claws, teeth, and wings contained.
As he did this, the Night Fury's mind was buzzing all over with questions. It was prepared to die, and now this young Viking was sparing its life. this was very unexpected. Why did this human spare it?
"Okay," Hiccup said to the dragon, almost as if he knew it could understand him, "Just one more and you're free."
However, it wasn't gonna be that easy for Hiccup, not until the last rope was cut. Once the dragon was free, it lunged right at him. The Night Fury restrained him against the rock the young lad snuck up, with its claws right at his neck. The dragon stared at Hiccup with its large, vibrant catlike green eyes, filled with anger. Hiccup struggled under the dragon's hold, failing to free himself he looked at the dragon.
The dragon opened its mouth, revealing rows of sharp white teeth. Hiccup gulped, knowing full well that this would be the part, where the Night Fury would probably either burn him into cinders, or simply give him a slow death by biting the flesh off of his face. However, none of that happened at all, for at the last second, it loosened its grip on Hiccup and let out a ferocious roar. Once it was satisfied with itself, it took off into the forest. It attempted to fly away, however, for some odd reason, it hit rock cliffs and trees, until it fell somewhere deep in the forest.
Breathing heavily, Hiccup shot out the sword blade from his glove, using it as a cane to help himself stand up. However, the situation that he had put himself in, caused all the strength in him to simply drain into the ground. He made it not even three steps before his knees became wobbly, and his legs gave out underneath him. He then lost all his strength, physically and mentally, until finally, he fainted, and everything went black for him.
A Little Later
When he had finally woken up, he had realized it was almost dark. He thought all that had just happened was a nasty dream, and that maybe he had just fallen asleep. Walking around the forest until dawn could do that to a young teenager of sixteen. But as he climbed the hill and saw the path that tore up the ground, he suddenly realized that everything that had just happened… was real.
Not wanting to stick around until the Night Fury would attack him in revenge, he ran out of there, and kept running, unaware of his surroundings, and didn't care much about that. All he did was just traveled in a straight path, in his mind he was reliving what had just happened over and over again.
However, as he ran off, he was unaware of a shadowed figure hiding amongst the forest trees. A figure in a cloak and hood, who seemed to have been standing there, almost too long to tell.
Back in the Village
Haddock Household
When he arrived at the village he realized that he couldn't kill dragons. 'But why?' He thought 'Why didn't… No. why couldn't I kill that dragon when I had the chance? Why...?' He then scratched the back of his head, even deeper thoughts were nagging at the back of his head even more, 'And why didn't it kill me? I thought it would have taken the liberty to just bite my head off. So why didn't it?' His mind trailed off and he reached his home. He didn't want to confront his father so he planned on sneaking upstairs to his bedroom without Stoick noticing.
He opened the large wooden door, as quietly as he could. As he snuck in as quietly as he could, he saw his father, sitting down in his deer and moose skinned recline chair. He just sat there, poking at the hearth in quiet thought. This was just what Hiccup needed, and he started to run up the stairs.
"Hiccup," Stoick calmly called to his son, easily noticing his return.
Hiccup stopped in his tracks at that moment. His face filled with regret and dread at this point. "Dad! Uh..." He nervously started as he did his best to hide it, "I have to talk to you. Dad."
"I need to speak with you too, Son." Stoick walked towards the stairs.
Both father and son took a deep breath, and at the same time, said what was on their minds. "I decided I don't want to fight dragons/I think you're ready to fight dragons."
However, when they said their opinions choices, it was together. This made it impossible to understand each other. "What?" They both asked in harmonic unison.
"Uh, you go first," Stoick said.
"No, you go first," Hiccup shook his head as he argued, crawling further down the stairs.
"Alright," Stoick replied, his son noticing that he seemed nervous about something. Until finally, he said it, "You got your wish. Dragon Training; you start in the morning."
Hiccup looked pretty startled by this, but now seemed to dread it a bit. At first, he would have been excited to do such a thing. But after the events with the Night Fury… he just wanst sure. He sighed as he tried to force a grin on his face, but all that came out was rambling, "Oh man, I should have gone first," he whispered to himself, and spoke aloud to his dad, "Uh , are you sure that's a good idea, Dad? 'Cause I was thinking, ya' know, 'we have a surplus of dragon fighting Vikings. But do we have enough bread making Vikings? Or small home repair Vikings?"
"You'll need this," Stoick said, handing his son a large ax. Or, well it was large to Hiccup, as he nearly stumbled over the weight, while holding it.
"I appreciate the ax, Dad. But I've already got a weapon," Hiccup defended as he tried to point to his glove, "But the truth is, I… I just… don't wanna fight dragons."
Stoick was a bit silent for a moment, until finally, he laughed a little, "Haha! c'mon, yes, you do," he then walked towards the fire.
Hiccup sighed as he tried to make it sound clear to his dad, "Rephrase: Dad, I can't kill dragons."
"But you will kill dragons," Stoick insisted.
"No, I'm really very extra sure that I won't," Hiccup continued to defend his choice.
"It's time Hiccup," Stoick was getting more serious, ignoring his son's choice.
"Can you not hear me?!" Yelled Hiccup, until he saw his father calmly turn to his direction.
"This, is serious, Son," Stoick stated as he tried to explain, "When you carry this ax, you're not just carrying your own strength, you carry all of us with you. Which means you walk like us, you talk like us, and you think like us." he hten gestured at Hiccup, doing the same thing that Gobber had done once before, "No more of this."
"You just gestured to all of me," said Hiccup, annoyed.
"Deal?" asked Stoick
"This conversation is feeling very one-sided," Hiccup argued, not liking how this was going.
"Deal?!" Stoick asked again, raising his voice to emphasize his point across.
Hiccup was silent for a moment, until finally he sighed in defeat and setting the ax down, "Deal."
"Good." Stoick said as he picked up a pack, and headed for the door. "Train hard. I'll be back. Probably."
"And I'll be here. Maybe." Hiccup said, watching his father leave the house, wondering if he would ever come back and what he was going to do about the deal he just made with him.
But Hiccup put all those thoughts aside as he just walked on upstairs to his room.
Hiccup's Room
It was the first door in the hallway upstairs as he turned the knob, and opened the door. As soon as he got in there, he looked around his room.
It was a simple design for his room; his bed was in the middle next to the left side of his room. His desk was on the right side with a sketchbook with many designs in it, as well as tools strewn about it. At the end of the room was a circular window, big enough for a person to get out with no need to squeeze through. There were a few bear skinned lounge chairs in the corner to where the window was, along with a few books about Dragons, fighting, atop an antler table next to one of the chairs. The walls were covered in posters about great Vikings and their victories, and a few maps of the world's greatest locations to where dragons were located.
Hiccup walked over to his desk and sat down at the chair, and turned to where he was sketchbook was. Immediately, he pulled out a pencil of sorts, and leaned over his desk and started to draw.
After a few minutes, Hiccup had drawn a black and white picture of the Night Fury; very accurately and with much detail to it. He then posted it next to the one of Astrid. He leaned in on his chair as he looked at the picture of the Night Fury he had released. He looked at the picture, both with fascination, and a little depressed. He figured that even though he told himself that he would see a dragon like that again, he knew that it was easier said than done.
He then looked at the picture of the dragon, and said to it hopefully, "I hope I can see you again."
Next Chapter: First Day of Dragon Training; No One Wants You
