Hi there again Lads and Lasses thought I'd update update earlier before I head of for work. This chapter is might be a bore fest for some but hopefully not, like I said before I'll update these as fast as I can so hope you enjoy and happy reading.
Normal POV
Hiccup awoke early the next morning, still a bit drowsy not being an early morning person, hair a complete mess (well...messier) and...on the floor, he'll never understand how he ends up there every morning, maybe his sleep-walk self hates the bed and finds the floor more comfy, it would also not be the first time he sleep-walked, he once woke up to the sound of mooing in his own bedroom, a yak, how in the nine realms did he get that upstairs, still a mystery for him today. But today of mystery solving will have to wait for another time for he just remembered what he was going to do today which put a smile on his face and felt more awake the more he thought about it. He got up, made his bed, straighten out his clothes and his hair (well get it to standard messy instead of bed head messy) and headed towards his desk, picking up the drawing he did last night of the axe he would be making, noting the amount of materials needed to make it. Looking through his draws, he finds one of the materials, a sack of gold, looking at them closely he remembered the day he got them from trader Johann explaining why they had a square hole in the middle was because he got them from a man who got it from a friend who went to somewhere called the land of the rising sun. Hiccup never understood but was so facinated by the coins that he traded a good amount of stuff for them. Putting the bag of gold coins into his pocket, he grabs the drawing and heads out of his room determined that whatever he had in store for this gold will be well worth it.
He slowly sneaks downstairs so as not to wake his dad who was asleep at the table….again. Always the same after a raid, goes round telling no, no wrong word...yelling at the others on fixing the houses before a quick drink of mead at the hall before staggering back home only to fall alseep in his chair. Lucky enough for Hiccup being so small and…..well hiccupy he was invisible to everyone around him, well almost everyone. As he slowly sneaks past the table, heading to the front door and gently opens it " and where do you think ye going at this time of the morning?" Hiccup freezes, eye's wide open 'damn, how the hell does he do that?' he thinks as he turns around to see his father sat at the table wide awake, big beefy arms folded across his barreled chest 'and he says the village needs feeding?' he thinks, Hiccup gives a toothy smile "err morning dad, how was the rebuild, not to much damage I hope, say have you lost weight?" Hiccup says nervously "alright Hiccup enough with the boot licking, answer my question, where are you going at the time of the morning?" Stoick says still holding a stern look at his son like he always does when Hiccup tries to avoid the question. Hiccup, after realising he's wasting daylight which he could use for his axe-making-so-astrid-will-look-at-me mission sighs in defeat "I'm heading to the forge early to make an axe" "oh and who is this axe for may I ask? a certain blond shield maiden perhaps?" Stoick ask with a sly smile on his face. Hiccup was taken back 'how did he know' he thinks to himself "n-no, maybe" again sighing in defeat, he's not having a winning day so far "yes, h-how did you know?" Stoick standing up walking to his son and patting him hard on the shoulders final says "well you know Gobber, a couple of pints of mead and he'll reveal anything" laughing at that thought "aye Hiccup, you better get going if you're gonna make that axe, but be warned Hiccup..." he says giving him a stern look "don't do anything stupid or hiccupy for once, deal?" 'again with the gesturing?' Hiccup thinks 'it must be a some sort of sport the invented' "well thanks for the vote of confidence dad" Hiccup sarcastically says, Stoick, was not amused "I mean it Hiccup if I have to put up with one more villager today telling me you set their sheep on fire...again, you're grounded, deal?" Hiccup looks at his dad with a confused look "how am I going to burn a sheep? I'll be in the forge all day unless someone decides they want their sheep sharpening for the next raid, I don't think that'll even happen..." "deal?!" Stoick says starting to get mad, which Hiccup senses, well not much 'sense' but once he see's his dad turn into a tomato with a beard then he knows he's getting mad, finally sighing (again) in defeat he replies "deal dad", eventually Stoicks face returns to normal and pats his hands on Hiccups shoulders again before saying "good, now off you go and remember what I said", Hiccup smiles and heads out the door quickly before his dad decides to change his mind.
At the Forge Hiccups POV
"What a morning, never thought my dad would let me go" I say to no one in particular, it often happens I end up talking to myself, but sometime it gets me into trouble, like once when Snotlout and his crew, namely the twins Fishlegs and Astrid caught me talking to myself "hey usless, why you talking to yourself? is it because no one wants to talk to a fishbone like you?" Snotlout says while the twins sniggered behind him at what he said "no, it's just sometimes it's nice to have an intelligent conversation once in a while" I reply back while looking at Snotlout, which for some reason was the first time I heard Astrid laugh, wow even when she laughs, it's beautiful. This earned me a severe beating from Snotlout for saying that, god's I couldn't walk straight after he kicked my arse, I think he might of left his boot up there. As I enter the forge It's quiet, guessing dad was right about Gobber being really drunk, ah well not the first time i've set up the forge by myself, it's good practise. After getting the logs for the fire and setting it alight I unfold the designs from their different stages, from the wood of the handle to the final details of the axe when finished, it'll take some time to make, but the one thing I favor the most is patience, right first things first the metal for the head, now I even though i'm using gold for part of the axe, it won't be the main metal, too soft a metal for battling with, so the traditional method would be iron. I search around the shop for some iron ingots I'm sure Gobber keeps for blacksmithing, hmm lets see...
Hammer hand?...no
Bent sword?...no but you're going back on the pile
Empty mug?...no
Gobbers...what!...eww his spare underpants, i'd rather burn them
I really need to talk to Gobber about keeping the shop clean.
Eventually after so long looking around (and nearly having nightmares in the process) I finally find the ingots i'm looking for, I pick up a handful, ok ok two ingots at a time, what? I'm a fishbone. Anyway after loading up the forge with the ingots to melt in one of the basins, I put the gold coins I brought from home on the side of the table till I'm ready to smelt them too. Looking round for the right cast won't be too difficult as its too big to be scattered about, I find the one I'm looking for, a double headed axe head, the type I know Astrid trained with and favors the most, I drag the stone cast to where the iron is smelting nicely, turning into a molten orange pool, still need to give it a bit of time for it to be fully molten before it's ready, which means more heat, so at i walk to the pump I pull as hard as i can until the fire in the forge roars with a fierce glow, the sweat pouring of from just doing that, just remembering to put my leather apron on, don't want to set myself on fire. Eventually after so much heat has hit the stone basin of iron ingots, they have perfectly melted into the right amount of molten metal I need for the cast, slowly and gently I pour the molten liquid into the mould allowing it to fully take all the available space forming the axe head, carefully making sure its has evened out perfectly I then set to work on the gold coins, sticking them into a fresh basin and setting them near the forge too, allowing them to melt as wait for the axe head to cool off, making sure I follow the plans to the letter (sort of speak). After the head cools off to pick up with tongs but sill hot enough to still be worked, I place it on top of the nearby anvil, reaches out for a hammer with my left hand, a little stunned that it feels easier picking the heavy hammer up with my left hand than with my right "hmm, I wonder that's why I fell arse over head last night, the hammer was in my right hand at the time" I say to myself, I really got to get someone to talk to otherwise people will think I've gone nuts 'too late' the little voice inside the back of my head said. "ok focus Hiccup, lets get this right for once" I lift the hammer up for the first strike and down onto the metal axe head.
Time goes by and after so much hammering and realigning of the head, making sure both ends are of equal weight and size, I get out my little hammer and chisels and start tapping into the metal of the head causing small gaps and dents into it making patterns, a small line going vertically down each end of the blade on each side, not too far out where it could cause problems chopping but enough so it'll leave a nice detail when its down (well I may not know art but I know what I like), carefully examining the the axe head from all sides using the tongs to make sure the detailing is all even, I smile in approval and place the head back down, now for the next stage, the runes, I best hurry before it cools down too much. I picked my words carefully for this:
Hildr's BattleSister: May You Loved One's Find Protection While Your Enemies Find Peace Upon The Blade Of Your Blade.
Happy with that I turn the blade over and etch the next lot of words into the head:
To The Mighty Gods Odin, Thor, Freyja, Vör & Magni Please Bless This Axe With Your Divine Powers To Protect The Maiden Who Shouts Your Name In Battle Until The Day She Joins The Ranks Of Valhalla.
Phew that took a lot to do, good thing I can chisel small writing or I'd need a lot more gold for it. speaking of gold, I'd best go check on it. Walking over to the basin where i left the gold coins to smelt down I notice that to my joy they have fully melted into a yellow molten liquid, perfect. Now for the hardest part of the whole operation, adding the gold liquid into the detailing I just did.
Several Long Minutes Later
There the last one's done and a good thing too, it's starting to get dark, wow I've been in here all day, and yet no Gobber, usually he would be in to give me pointers on how not to use a short sword as a butter knife (I'm not going to ask how he found that one out). I cool the axe head in a bucket of water, remove it and look at the axe head at all sides again, I gotta say even for me I'm quite impressed with my handy work on this, but it's not over yet, still the handle to make for this, now thanks to my Hiccup flair I've designed the axe head with a two small holes on each side near the bottom of the head which pins can go through it so the handle can be replaced as the wielder gets older and needs extra length, as for the handle, there was one more thing I also got from Johann, some reddish wood from one of other exotic places he travels too (he does travel a lot) I think he called it ma-hog-aninny? or something like that, anyway I want this axe to be special and so I get to the back of my work room where I left it, (yeah I'm really going to explain to my dad why i got a log in my hands and bringing home like it was a pet) and since I'm here anyway I might as well carry on finishing off the axe before falling asleep.
Several Splintered Fingers Later
Well that was painful, looking at the bandaged fingers of mine, but I turn away when I look at the reshaped log, I smile at the long axe handle I created, some oils treatment , and some leather grips for this and it'll be perfect. "yawn...wow I'd best take a bit of a rest before finishing off, good thing there's a bed he...zzzzzzzz"
Normal POV
Before Hiccup could finish his sentence, he fell asleep where he sat, not knowing there was a certain blacksmith who had been watching the whole thing, Hiccup must of been too busy to notice him as he hobbled into the shop, looked at the new axe head Hiccup made with a shock "how in all the nine realms did he make that?" Gobber said silently to himself, he's made some good weapons in his time, but not like this, and in one day at that. "tha boy's got skill an tha Astrid betta kno how lucky she is". He walks over to Hiccups sleeping form picks him up 'good thing he's light as a feather' Gobber thinks to himself as he places Hiccup in the bed.
