Riding Thunder


Chapter Two - Hopelessness and Discovery


'Oh forget that! What do you do, Hiccup?

The dragon before him thrashed in his cage, roaring violently before catching sight of Hiccup.

'Oh, no, please no, I'm dead,' thought Hiccup as he saw the dragon's eyes boring into his soul. And then the dragon lifted his gaze, instead choosing to look at the water that its feet were submerged in.

It took Hiccup a few moments to notice a particularly large set of footprints embedded into the ground near the cage. Skrill prints.

Skrill prints?

"Wait, you were trapped by something?" Hiccup asked, thinking out loud.

The dragon turned to him and opened his mouth. Hiccup closed his eyes, momentarily forgetting that the Skrill's feet were submerged underwater, preventing it from releasing its famous - but dangerous - blast of lighting, the power of Thor himself. It was no surprise that most elders called the Skrills, 'Thor Wings'.

When Hiccup opened his eyes, the Skrill was still there, mouth still open, but instead of the blazing white stream of Thor, it was producing some sort of dark fog. Hiccup leaned down to touch it, getting himself momentarily tazed in the action.

He looked up, catching a glimpse of the Skrill's albeit ferocious, worried eyes. They told the whole story.

It was scared.

It was REALLY obvious. How could Hiccup have mis-

Wait.

A Skrill? Scared?

'No, Hiccup! That's just your conscious mind telling you that! Dragons are bloodthirsty, killing animals!' thought the side of his mind that wanted to impress his father. But the smiling, happy, loving side of him overpowered his desire to kill the animal. Instead, he decided to set the Skrill free, even if he died in the act.

What did he have to lose anyway?

The whole village hated him, he was always the one... different. The disliked one.

Except for one thing.

Gobber.

Hiccup didn't want to leave Gobber, but the hates of the village quickly clouded that idea, and his mind was set.

He would set that Skrill free.

Hiccup sighed, thinking of the master blacksmith.

He was like a second dad. And he was indefinitely better than the first.

Hiccup jumped down from the rock ledge before crawling down, under the mini-storm, towards the cage which trapped the Skrill. He second-guessed his commitment for a moment, before pushing on without another thought.

He neared the cage, before slipping on some gloves which he had forgot to put back at the forge. And he opened the cage.

Reluctantly, the Skrill stepped out of its used-to-be prison, and it sent lightning bolts in Hiccup's general direction involuntarily. Hiccup shifted up to dodge the blasts, a part of his leggings singed from the bolts.

The dragon suddenly took in the Viking standing before it. And it roared.

But it didn't kill him.

Instead, it was nosing at its injured right wing, which probably had been sliced by a razor netting trap set by Gobber.

Hiccup sighed.

He'd have to fix that.


"You got your wish, dragon training in the morning."

Why didn't I go first?

"Dad, I can't kill dragons."

"But you will kill dragons." Hiccup sighed. He hadn't meant it that way. He put one hand on his head, before continuing to vainly argue with Dad.. once again.

"Dad! Rephrase! I won't kill dragons! There. I don't want to be a Viking," Hiccup blurted out, before mentally sighing. That was too much in one sweep.

Stoick raised his eyebrows, staring straight at Hiccup with accusing eyes. "So, you want to be a burden? Why would you trade being a Viking for that?"

Hiccup groaned, realizing that he had basically rejected his father. His father, the Chief. "No, Dad, I don't mean it like-"

"Get out of my house."

"Wait, what? Dad, you can't just-"

"Get out of my house!" Stoick yelled violently. Hiccup just stood there, stunned. "I'll force you out of my house, then," Stoick growled, eyeing Hiccup with dangerously menacing eyes.

"But this is our house-"

"But you're not my son."

"WHAT?!"

"You're not my son!" Stoick shouted, before opening the door - ignoring Hiccup's pleads, and hurling him into the water of the ocean below. After a moment, Stoick came back to his senses, realizing he had basically given Hiccup death.

"Wait, Hiccup!" Stoick yelled in vain, desperately hoping that Hiccup wasn't really dead. But it was too late for that.

It was WAY too late for that.


Before Hiccup realized he was flying through the air, shouting and screaming to his doom, he was already shouting and screaming to his doom.

Good thing he wasn't flying through the air to his doom, though. The water was fairly cold tonight, but was easily tolerable. Hiccup splashed, then surfaced, spitting out water, still stunned that his own Chief - heck, his own father - had tried to kill him.

He swam silently to the tunnel which led to the cove, quietly hoping the Skrill wouldn't attack him as he surfaced.

Deep breath.

'I just hope I don't run into a Thunderdrum,' thought Hiccup as he began to go under, heading for the tunnel.

Two Minutes Later

Oh, no, please no. Don't die now, don't die now..

Hiccup surfaced once again, shivering because of the chilly air that the winter brought to Berk.

And he spotted him.

The Skrill, laying still. He was making those electrified storm cloud things hovering around as well. And, despite knowing the danger, Hiccup just had to touch them.

Nothing happened as Hiccup slid his hand right through the grayish-black cloud.

'What?' thought Hiccup as he repeated the action again and again.

But it refused to cause a spark.

And it was because he was wet.

Hiccup, knowing this new information, slid through the cloud, impossibly undetected by the Skrill.

The Skrill was sleeping, subconsciously producing the swirling cloud, which funneled into the water like a whirlpool-vortex crossover.

"Interesting," Hiccup thought out loud, inadvertently waking up the Skrill from its state of deep slumber. The dragon stood up, then started virtually screaming at the Viking near him. Its eyes were not friendly, but they weren't hostile either. Suddenly, it whipped around, alert.

From the nearby brush, a twelve jawed Snaptrapper revealed itself, one of Berk's rarest dragons. The only other two 'Berkian Dragons' that were even rarer than the stealthy Snaptrapper were the elusive Skrill, and the seldom-seen Night Fury.

The opposing dragon suddenly lobbed a deadly blast of acid at the Skrill. The targeted beast just sidestepped before producing the mist from its mouth.

Hiccup was watching from the sidelines, stunned at the Skrill's use of its ability instead of the death-wish stream of lightning. The cloudy gas slowly crept up to the confused Snaptrapper.

It made direct contact a few moments later, the Snaptrapper was abruptly tazed and pacified before it flew away, its leg covered in steam.

The Skrill turned its focus back onto the small Viking hiding behind the boulder near the back of the cove. It started stepping towards Hiccup, stopping directly in front of him.

'Well, I have nothing to lose.. except maybe my life and apprenticeship,' thought Hiccup, before cursing himself under his breath for being sarcastic in the face of imminent death.

But.. he really did have nothing to lose.

Hiccup stuck his hand out at the Skrill, face turned away. Hiccup thought he'd need a prosthetic arm soon.

( Except that he wouldn't need a prosthetic arm, but a prosthetic something-else later. )

The Skrill took Hiccup by surprise, pushing his snout into Hiccup's outstretched palm.

There was a side effect, however. Hiccup didn't get electrified, but he wasn't wet.

"Oh my gods, this is amazing!" Hiccup whispered to himself, as loud as he dared. He instinctively put his hand to his hair, instead feeling a spiky.. thing.

Then he realized the Skrill was grinning a little.

He had made his hair stand on end.

"Oh, you little-"


Hiccup couldn't understand.

Stoick didn't really disown him, right? It was just that pure madman power built up inside of him, generated through the stresses of the day. Right?

But he had enough gut to throw his own son, and the Heir of the Hairy Hooligans, off. A. Cliff.

So.. did he really hate Hiccup, or was that pure madman power?

Oh, how Hiccup wished it was the second one.

Growl.

"Wait.. Who's tha- oh."

Hiccup turned around, staring into the eyes of the Skrill's curious yet worried eyes. At first, Hiccup thought it was worried of what would happen to itself as they neared the village. Then he realized that the dragon was feeling worried for him.

The ultimate hiccup of the world.

The Screw - Up.

The Scrawny.

The Disowned. Well, maybe not that one, but you get the point.

Hiccup had been given hundreds of nicknames, as if the twins, Snotlout, and Astrid all had purchased an inventory of nicknames to throw at him every day. Maybe not Astrid, though.

But she was probably doing it behind his back anyway.

And impossibly, the dragon was worried for him. The heartless, selfless, destructive beings that stole food every single raid.

And it was doing what his tribe wouldn't - scratch that, COULDN'T do. Except for Fishlegs, but he was less of an outcast as he was.

So Hiccup made a decision that would change his life.

He decided to stay with the Skrill, in the wild. And assist the dragons in raiding Berk.

Because, frankly, the dragons seemed they had shown more empathy in the past hour, than all the Vikings combined in the last fifteen years.

Oh, well. They hated him anyway.

Hiccup rushed off into the woods, into the opposite direction they had been heading. The agile Skrill caught up from behind and quickly overtook Hiccup.

Then they both fell down and laughed.


Laughter of a certain someone was heard.

Laughter of a certain someone who was not here anymore.

Stoick sighed deeply.

It sounded like Hiccup so much.. the person who evaded fighting suddenly.

Yet, in the irony of it all.. he was dead. Blood on his father's hands.

'Why do the gods tease me with memories?' Stoick mentally complained. 'It's not like I ever liked him anyway.

But..

Deep in his heart..

Love for Hiccup could be found.


A/N: So yeah, shorter chapter, but I hope you like it! Sorry for those plot twists! Heh. I did say that I would get the movie, and twist it around! Get it? Get it? Nevermind, I'm Sans the Skeleton. If any of you got that joke, virtual cookies for you! I need a Beta Reader, but that is not my main priority at the moment.

But if you want to, I'll let you write an Epilogue.

NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH! ( Did any of you get that joke? )

Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD, I only own my OC's, this particular Skrill, my Plot, and this FanFiction. All rights are reserved to DreamWorks and Cressida Cowell.

If there's any typos, just PM me, I'll fix them.

Until next time,

- Dilo.