Deleted Script Scene #3
Ghost Foot
The morning was cool, damp, and foggy; the low hanging clouds blocking the view of the sunrise as the sun rose up from the horizon. Berk's people were quite active for the time of day, fishermen getting up early to go out and get some fish; as the saying goes, the early bird catches the worm.
The boatsmen had to be on alert, however, as Berserker ships and/or Outcast ships could be lurking nearby. They didn't expect much from the Outcast, what with Alvin's apparent death and all, but Dagur posed just as much—perhaps even more—of a threat. Now that he had control over the Outcasts and the Berserkers, he wasn't a force to be reckoned with…
…Unless you were Hiccup.
The people of Berk believed a great deal in their young Dragon Trainer, seeing how he had bested Alvin the Treacherous more than once and now Dagur the Deranged, he was shaping up to be more of a Viking then they could ever dream of. But the dangers still lurked and as time passed, they become more prevalent and persistent towards the incapacitation of Hiccup.
Speaking of the young trainer, it was about this time of day when his rare dragon and best friend would forcefully, but playfully; wake him up to go on their morning flight around Berk. It was the third most favorite thing in Toothless' life; flying with Hiccup during the night time hours was the second, and his number one favorite thing was Hiccup himself.
Toothless' nose kept bumping against Hiccup's back, the boy being nudged towards the edge of the bed before he woke up just at the rim.
"Five more minutes." He mumbled tiredly, bringing the blankets up over his head. Toothless pranced on over to the other side of his bed and nudged him again the other way. He received another moan from his young Viking friend before the covers were replaced back down at the end of the bed. Hiccup glared at Toothless, his eyes half open, but Toothless just gave him a lopsided grin. Hiccup smiled and sighed, leaning forward and swinging his legs around to land on the floor beside his bed.
A sudden spark of pain erupted from his leg, causing him to hiss and look down at it. But what shocked him was the fact that the pain wasn't coming from his right leg, it was emitting from his left—just above the ankle. Hiccup furrowed his eyebrows and brought his hand down to his prosthetic right where the spot of pain was. He grasped it, but the pain was still there and beginning to pulsate. He bit his lip and then took off his prosthetic.
Toothless came up to his face and licked his cheek, his eyes innocently moving between Hiccup and his prosthetic.
Hiccup's hand brushed over the area where he felt the pain, feeling nothing but air and feeling nothing but pain. Then, suddenly, the pain went away.
Toothless cooed at him, sensing a bit of anxiety coming off of his young friend.
"Its okay bud, I'm alright—I think." He answered Toothless' silent question. Hiccup wiggled his leg a bit before replacing his prosthetic. He stood up and tested it, walking over to the steps before stopping and glancing back down at his leg. Without any more weird sensations, he proceeded down stairs and out the door with Toothless in tow.
TIME SKIP TO THAT EVENING
Hiccup smiled at one of the jokes his father told to the other Vikings. It was supper time and all of Berk was gathering in the Great Hall to eat. They didn't always do this, most of the time with celebrations and other times just for the heck of it. Hiccup always like to calls these in particular communions.
It was about this time after getting food and eating some of it that he would then move from the round table my his dad to the table just south were his friends sat. Once his father would start talking to the other adults at the table, he would give Astrid a glance. Then once his father started up with his jokes and stories, he'd say his goodbye and leave. Nothing personal and his father didn't mind; the reason he had to sit at the table with him was partially because he was the heir and partially because of the occasion. But since this was a communion, it didn't matter.
By this time, Hiccup had already given Astrid the glance and was about to excuse himself from the table when his leg started to act up again. His face contorted a little from the pain and he lay his left hand on his prosthetic, moving the thing around to see if it would help. The act ended with failure and Hiccup accidently let out a soft hiss and pain breath. Tensing up, he looked around a bit to see if anyone heard it.
Toothless did as the Night Fury came up beside him from where he was eating his fish in a basket. He sniffed Hiccup's arm and moved his big eyes to look up at Hiccups'. Hiccup glanced at him before patting his head and looking away, his eyes receding down on his left leg again.
"Dad, may I be excused?" he asked, wincing a little before his father replied.
Stoick finished his joke and laughed, glanced at Hiccup for a second or two before replying.
"Sure son, go over and sit with your friends." He said heartily, with a big smile on his face. Though he wasn't really paying attention to Hiccup's pain filled 'thank you'.
Hiccup got up and left the table, but his destination was not to sit with his friends, but leave the Great Hall entirely. He left his plate of food on the table and tried his best not to limp away. He stopped to glance at Astrid and his friends, the group of teens looking at him curious as to why he wasn't coming over. He jerked his head over to the door with a wince on his face before leaving the Hall with Toothless. The teens looked at each other before leaving the table and joining him and Toothless outside.
Hiccup sat on the top step right outside of the Great Hall doors, his legs crossed inward so that he was sitting Indian style with his prosthetic off. His back was hunch over as a couple of tears began to fall from his eyes. Toothless was sitting to his right, nudging his head with his own as the dragon cooed at his rider.
As soon as his friends saw him, they rushed over and Astrid knelt down to his left.
"Hiccup, what's wrong?" she asked, concerned as she saw a few tears fall down his cheek.
"It hurts…" he said with a hiss. He didn't care if they saw him crying, the pain was just too much. And he didn't know why, there was nothing there!
"What hurts, what happened?" Astrid pried for information.
"My leg… it hurts… and I don't know why." He replied. Fishlegs moved in front of Hiccup, standing on the steps while the twins and Snotlout moved beside Astrid. Astrid touched his right leg with both hands and looked up at him to see if that's where it hurt. Hiccup shook his head.
"Not that leg." He said.
"Is it your stump that hurts?" she asked.
"It's the part missing that hurts." Hiccup informed, lowering his gaze as to not see their expressions for such insanity.
Astrid blinked her eyes and removed her hands from his right leg, utterly confused.
"Wait, what?" Snotlout asked. Hiccup lifted up his prosthetic.
"You know the part of my leg that this is supposed to replace? That's the part that hurts." He explained.
"But, Hiccup," Astrid began slowly, "There's nothing there."
"That's impossible, how could you feel pain for a limp that's not even there?" Fishlegs questioned, the situation boggling him.
"I—"Hiccup was about to say something before he cut himself off and clutched his leg, hard. He winced and hissed, moaning a little as the pain got sharper. His knuckles began to get white as his grip increased.
"Please make it stop." He begged with a quivering voice. The teens looked at each other, none of them really knowing what to do.
"Co—come one, let's get you to Gothi's. She'll know what to do." Astrid suggested, lifting his arm up over her shoulder and standing him up as she did. Hiccup allowed his left leg to fall down to his straightened length, the action bringing more pain.
The pain shot straight up his limb, feeling like it caught fire right were his stump was. He screamed from the sensation and nearly fell if it wasn't for Astrid keeping him up.
His scream was loud and the people in the Great Hall heard it, especially Stoick. He knew who it belonged to and immediately stopped laughing.
"Hiccup?" he questioned, looking to his right and seeing his food, noting that Hiccup didn't take it with him like he always did. Gobber and the others at the table looked around, a few murmurs going throughout the crowd as people tried to pinpoint who screamed.
Stoick glanced at the table Hiccup and his friends sat at, but didn't see any of them. Someone from the crowd shouted a message saying that he heard it coming from outside and Stoick sat up, running down a few steps and over to the door with Gobber following and a couple other Vikings.
The doors to the Great Hall burst open and Stoick walked through to the outside.
"Hiccup!" he breathed with concern as he saw his son lying down on the ground, his head in Astrid's lap. His eyes were closed and closed tight, body shaking and his face streaming with tears as he moaned from the pain he was experiencing.
Stoick and Gobber ran over to him, Stoick kneeling down to his son's side.
"What's wrong, what happened?!" Stoick ordered.
"Hiccup's leg hurts, but we don't know how it's possible, it just hurting him." Astrid informed, her voice in a hurry to answer his question.
Stoick looked down at Hiccup's right leg and Astrid noticed.
"The other one sir, the part that got amputated." She stated. Stoick looked up at her like she was crazy, but then looked back down at Hiccup and knew she wasn't lying… and neither was his son.
Author's Note:
I'm probably going to have a second part to this script scene as there is more to it than just this. It's probably not going to be as long though, so just a heads up.
This scene was something that came to me back when I was in high school in Psychology class. We were discussing how sometimes amputees would experience severe pain on their amputated limbs except it'd be the part that wasn't there anymore. It's called Phantom Limb. I really didn't have any place to put such a scenario in any of my stories and didn't feel like making this into a one-shot so it gets placed here in my deleted script scenes.
